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CAMFED Zambia awarded 2024 UNESCO Prize for Girls' and Women's Education
Today, at a ceremony to be live streamed from UNESCO headquarters in Paris, celebrating International Day of the Girl and honoring girls’ vision for the future of education, UNESCO will recognize CAMFED Zambia as one of its two Girls’ and Women’s Education Prize laureates.
Since 2016, the UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education has been rewarding outstanding and innovative projects advancing girls’ and women’s education. The Prize forms part of UNESCO’s commitment to gender equality and nurturing future female leaders through education. CAMFED will be celebrating alongside Promoting Equality in African Schools (PEAS) Uganda, the other 2024 laureate.
We are thrilled that CAMFED Zambia has been awarded the UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education. Winning this Prize means so much to our team and the entire CAMFED community - to the girls we serve, the young women leaders they become, and every parent, teacher, traditional leader and local official who is playing their part. It recognizes - on the global stage - a model that places girls' rights, hopes and aspirations at the heart of everything we do. And it recognizes the role of partnerships - including with education Ministries - because it takes all of us to transform the structures that hold girls back.Namenda Malupande, National Director, CAMFED Zambia
Supporting girls’ vision for a more equitable future
Since 2001 CAMFED Zambia, led by our National Director Namenda Malupande (pictured below, on the right, with Barbara Chilangwa, Executive Advisor, Government Relations), has provided economic support for 617,875 girls and young women in rural areas to thrive in secondary school and gain the skills they need to transition into further education, work and positions of leadership in their communities and beyond.
CAMFED Zambia honored for its holistic support model for girls
The UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education recognizes CAMFED’s innovative, 3-level model, which focuses on:
- Girls – Providing individualized financial and material support for girls to thrive in school, and building a nurturing social support network around them.
- Young women – Supporting young women graduates to transition to work and positions of leadership through the CAMFED Association — a sisterhood of 30,000 educated young women in Zambia (and 280,000 across Africa), who in turn help to support the next generation of girls to go to school.
- Whole Generations – Partnering with government and policy-makers to integrate these support structures into national school systems to better serve the needs of all children. This includes the recent introduction of youth-led climate education sessions, launched in partnership with Ministries of Education in Zambia and Zimbabwe
Investing in girls' and women's education is an investment in every single girl's right to determine who she will become, and what she will do in her life. For the world, it's an investment in our entire future. It has been proven time and again to advance health, gender equality, social justice, economic development, and even our ability to tackle climate change.Namenda Malupande, National Director, CAMFED Zambia
Join the Award Ceremony Online (6:30 PM to 8 PM CAT/CET | 12:30 PM EST | 5:30 PM BST)
This evening in Paris, Namenda Malupande’s friend and colleague, Fiona Mavhingha, Executive Director, CAMFED Association Development, will accept the Prize and deliver remarks on Namenda’s behalf. The event will be attended by girls, past laureates, education experts, and global leaders, including H.E. Ms Judith Mulenga, Zambia’s Ambassador to France and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO.
Congratulatory remarks will be delivered by Ms Audrey Azoulay, Director-General, UNESCO, represented by Ms Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO, and by Professor Peng Liyuan, First Lady of the People’s Republic of China, UNESCO Special Envoy for the Advancement of Girls’ and Women’s Education, delivered by H.E. Mr Chen Jie, Vice Minister of Education and Chairperson of the National Commission for UNESCO, the People’s Republic of China. [See the full agenda here]
Watch the UNESCO webcast at 6:30 PM CAT/CET