CAMFED launches vision for 2030

NewsPublished on: Oct 25 2023

At an event with high-profile CAMFED champions and supporters, CAMFED - celebrating 3 decades of impact - shared its audacious vision to support millions more girls to thrive in school and become game changers in their communities and beyond

Image (from left): Jan Farrarons, Founder of Dojo; the Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP, Minister of State (Development & Africa) in the United Kingdom; Lucy Lake, CAMFED Executive Advisor; Angeline Murimirwa, CAMFED CEO; Sir Christopher Hohn KCMG, founder of The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation; and Forget Shareka, CAMFED Association member and climate-smart agriculture expert. Photo: Chris Loades/CAMFED

In the lead-up to Day of the Girl, CAMFED announced the launch of its Vision for 2030 at a special event hosted by Dojo in London, UK.

Our ambitious plan is to help meet the global Sustainable Development Goals by supporting millions more girls in rural Africa to access and complete secondary school, graduate into secure livelihoods and leadership, and in turn mentor and support the next generation through school, in a model set to transform education systems across Africa.

For an individual girl, education changes everything. It’s her right, and it unlocks her power to determine who she will become and what she will do with her life. For the world, girls’ education can change our future trajectory. It has been proven time and again to advance health, gender equality, social justice, economic development, and even our ability to tackle climate change

Angeline (Angie) Murimirwa, CEO of CAMFED

Changing the odds for the most marginalized girls

CAMFED’s CEO, Angeline (Angie) Murimirwa, travelled from Zimbabwe to speak at an event launching CAMFED’s vision for 2030, hosted by Jan Farrarons and Dojo in London on October 5th. Those gathered underscored the urgency of collective action – including government-led scaling of promising solutions – to ensure that the most marginalized girls can thrive in the classroom and in life.

“The odds are stacked against girls in my region – 95% of the most disadvantaged never make it through secondary school. That’s because they face a complex web of barriers that extend beyond the school gates,” explained Murimirwa, before detailing the 3-level model CAMFED has built over the past three decades (focusing on girls, young women, and systems transformation), which she has described as “the story of communities joining forces in a model that sees girls’ education as the route to agency and leadership.”

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Addressing guests alongside our CEO at the evening event were the Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP, Minister of State (Development & Africa) in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO); Sir Christopher Hohn KCMG, Founder of The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation; Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, Chair of the Board of CAMFED International; and Lucy Lake, CAMFED’s Executive Chair and Adviser.

The Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP, a longstanding supporter of CAMFED’s work — which benefited from more than a decade of UK aid funding — underlined the close alignment between CAMFED’s aims and the UK government’s International Women and Girls Strategy.

“It’s clear that girls’ education is the best way to eliminate poverty. CAMFED’s success over the last 30 years is proof of that and the journey of Angie Murimirwa to CEO exemplifies it. The UK and CAMFED take pride in the achievements of our longstanding partnership, which has helped support more than 6.4 million children go to school and ensured marginalized girls can become the next generation of influential and respected leaders.

Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP, Minister of State for Development and Africa

A sisterhood of a quarter of a million leaders across Africa

That leadership is evident in the 254,000 young women of the CAMFED Association — the unique pan-African peer support network co-founded by Angie Murimirwa, set to grow to 540,000 by 2030. A sisterhood of committed girls’ education leaders with first-hand experience of the barriers to girls’ education, members power CAMFED’s ‘flywheel of change’: Each leader, on average, supports another three girls to go to school with her own resources.

In her remarks, Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen spoke about the uniqueness of CAMFED’s model, particularly in terms of its governance, accountability and power dynamics.

CAMFED is truly unique – truly, truly unique in the sector. Our sector, the development sector, the charity sector, the girls' education and health sector, is rife with people feeling that they're entitled to control information and money flows and accountability. But we know that the second you put that power into the hands of those that we serve, into the hands of those that can identify the most vulnerable, into the hands of those that actually make the change happen, that is when the real magic occurs.

Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, Board Chair, CAMFED International

Proximate leaders deploying their expertise in support of marginalized young people

As role models, mentors, teachers, doctors, entrepreneurs, climate leaders and policy makers, CAMFED Association members deploy their know-how in service to CAMFED’s programs, volunteering as ‘Guides,’ providing social support to girls in school, and skills and enterprise support to young women beyond school. Crucially, they lend their expertise to CAMFED’s partnerships with government Ministries, which aim to transform entire education systems to serve the needs of the most marginalized — with youth leadership at the core.

Valued partners joining our movement

Sir Christopher Hohn KCMG, founder of The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, one of CAMFED’s philanthropy partners, spoke of his visit to Zimbabwe, which left a deep impression on him and changed his perspective on girls’ education:

I've learned that one of the most critical things CAMFED does is what some people call empowerment. I actually think the real thing is soul connection. By giving these girls hope and inspiration and opportunity they become soul connected, and then anything is possible for them. How do I know it? The joy! Joy is a quality of the soul, and everyone in these programs has joy and laughter and ambition, and energy and desire; it's just incredible!

Sir Christopher Hohn KCMG

Cost-effectively raising learning outcomes for all children

The assembled guests included high-profile CAMFED champions and supporters, researchers and philanthropists — among them Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho CBE, and Professor Pauline Rose OBE, Director of the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre at the University of Cambridge. The REAL Centre’s research has shown that CAMFED’s grassroots-led model, which addresses girls’ needs holistically and supports young women beyond the classroom, is highly cost-effective and raises learning outcomes for all children.

The leaders embodying the impact of girls’ education

Never alone

Angie was one of the first young women supported through school by CAMFED in Zimbabwe. Now, at the pinnacle of the organisation’s leadership, Angie is far from alone. With nearly 30% of staff made up of former clients, CAMFED’s North Star remains its accountability to every single girl — seeing the world through her eyes, and holistically addressing her needs by building a community support network around her – in school, and beyond.

At London’s event, the impact of three decades of service to girls and young women in rural Africa wasn’t just embodied by Angie. The CAMFED Association’s Executive Adviser, Fiona Mavhinga, nurse Veronica Sibanda from Zimbabwe, Business expert Fatimata Ali from Ghana, and climate-smart agriculture expert Forget Shareka from Zimbabwe joined her to represent their sisters across Africa.

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Girls’ education and climate action

In conversations with guests, Forget Shareka — who represented CAMFED at COP26 in Glasgow – described how girls’ education is dependent on – and the foundation for – climate action, as exemplified by CAMFED’s award-winning Climate-smart Agriculture Guides, who support disenfranchised farmers to thrive, and are teaming up with Education Ministries and Learner Guides to bring climate education into rural classrooms.

Building a global community

CAMFED’s model has been widely recognized. In 2021, it was awarded the Hilton Humanitarian Prize, and in 2020, Angie Murimirwa and Lucy Lake were awarded the Yidan Prize for Education Development.

The holistic nature of CAMFED’s model, and its community and Ministry partnerships — now working toward government-led integration of youth-led solutions into national school systems — have inspired philanthropists and funding collaboratives from across the globe to get behind our African movement, and this moment served as a call to action for many more to join us, so we can achieve the audacious goals set out below.

As Angie Murimirwa says in her TED Talk, “Education is the silver bullet – but only if we do it right.”

CAMFED's vision for 2030 in numbers

Supporting girls to learn, thrive and succeed in school

3X
From now until 2030 we aim to TRIPLE the number of girls we reach with comprehensive support at secondary level compared to our first 30 years
8M
Over the decade to 2030, we aim to reach 8 million girls with comprehensive financial, social and learning support to thrive in secondary school (5 million between 2024 and 2030)
More about our model
146K
Between 2024 and the end of the decade we aim for 146,000 Learner Guides to take up roles in government schools, accompanying vulnerable children on their learning journeys
More about Learner Guides
10M
By 2030 we project that an additional 10 million students will benefit from peer mentors (Learner Guides) through government adoption of the model, with millions more benefitting in the years to come.
More about our systems transformation journey

CAMFED's vision for 2030 in numbers

Supporting young women to transition to work and positions of leadership

540K
From now until 2030 we aim to DOUBLE the number of members in our CAMFED Association, resulting in a network of over half a million girls' education leaders
More about the CAMFED Association
48K
Between 2024 and the end of the decade we aim to train more than 48,000 Transition, Business and Agriculture Guides, supporting young women into sustainable livelihoods
More about our Guide programs
160K
Between 2024 and the end of the decade we aim to support more than 160,000 new women-led businesses
More about our Enterprise Development programs

The Multiplier Effect of educating a girl through CAMFED

Hear from young women graduates transforming their communities

StoryZambia

Naomi

2023

CAMFED stepped in with the necessary financial and social support to allow me to complete my education. Soon after graduating into the CAMFED Association, I began training to become a Learner Guide. As a Learner Guide, I acted as a ‘big sister’ and a relatable role model, who could protect children, particularly girls, in my community from being pushed out of school by their circumstances. Through the program, I gained access to financial training and an interest-free loan to start a home furnishing business. With the profits I am able to sustain my family and support five children in my community.

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Josephine

2023

Through CAMFED and the CAMFED Association I have accessed many types of business, finance, and skills training. Going into business has changed my life. I am able to provide for myself and my children with my business profits. I can pay for all their school-going needs, and I also finance the education of three vulnerable children, two boys and one girl. In addition to this, I have reached more than 50 children in my community with material support including uniforms and exercise books. As Vice Chairperson of Kibaha Rural District, I represent the welfare of women and children, and oversee economic development.

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StoryMalawi

Esmie

2022

With CAMFED supporting me, I had everything I needed to do well in education. I was the first girl at our school to pass the national end-of-school examinations. After graduating, I joined the CAMFED Association and now work with CAMFED supporting other young women as ‘Guides’. I have personally supported five children outside of my family through school: two boys and three girls. I also conduct study circles and literacy sessions for both children and parents. In my community I have built a strong bond with Senior Chief Sultan Chowe and we work together to ensure girls can go to school.

Hear from Esmie