CAMFED and Salesforce: How Technology Helps to Deliver Change at Scale

CAMFED Regional Director Angeline Murimirwa speaks about tackling the obstacles to education at a landmark event at Brookings in Washington, DC. (Photographer: Paul Morigi)

During a recent panel on girls’ education with First Lady Michelle Obama at the Center for Universal Education at Brookings, Angeline Murimirwa, CAMFED Regional Executive Director in Africa, encapsulated CAMFED’s program in one statement: “There was a time when I benefitted from CAMFED’s agenda of girls’ education. Now I’m setting the agenda of how CAMFED can assist millions of girls in Africa.”

Angeline was one of the first 400 young women who completed secondary school with CAMFED’s support, and, together with her peers, set up the CAMA graduate network which today is driving change across communities in five countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and well beyond.

CAMFED’s model places accountability to girls and young women – as our clients – at its core, mobilizing an entire social infrastructure around girls to secure their right to education. The deep involvement of communities, who take ownership of CAMFED’s programs, has allowed us to significantly scale our impact. Since 1993, CAMFED has directly supported over 1.2 million vulnerable girls from a background of rural poverty through school and into a life of independence. In 2014 CAMFED was recognized by the OECD for taking development innovation to scale. Our Salesforce database is key to delivering at pace, and has grown into a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Information Management System (IMS), which provides the backbone for all the program, financial, fundraising, communications and HR information required to successfully support a community-led girls’ education and women’s empowerment agenda.