The research will build on the collaboration between the REAL Centre and CAMFED to date, including in the area of cost-effectiveness analysis. Based on analysis of CAMFED’s data, the REAL Centre was able to show that a focus on the education needs of the most marginalized children actually produced an uplift in the outcomes of all children: for every $100 spent per girl, per year, the program resulted in learning gains equivalent to an additional two years of education for all girls and boys at those schools.
Further highlights from the Equitable Future conference

From left to right: Alicia Herbert OBE, Fiona Mavhinga and Professor Pauline Rose participating in a panel discussion on ‘Inclusive education in the context of disruption’. Photo: Chris Loades/Yidan Prize Foundation
The Equitable Future conference — co-hosted by the Yidan Prize Foundation, the University of Cambridge (the REAL Centre at the Faculty of Education, and the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College) and CAMFED — brought together policymakers, educationalists, business leaders, foundation heads, leading academics, students and activists, with lively participation in person and online. The Hon. Julia Gillard AC, 27th Prime Minister of Australia and former Chair of the Global Partnership for Education, and Princess Laurentien, UNESCO Special Envoy on Literacy for Development, and Board Director, Yidan Prize Foundation, delivered keynote addresses.
Major themes of the event included the vulnerability of girls to exclusion from education in times of economic, climate and health crises, and the critical role of data in education development, building new bridges between the worlds of research and practice, and strengthening the evidence base for concerted global investment in education systems.

The Hon. Julia Gillard AC giving her keynote address ahead of a conversation about girls’ education globally with CAMFED Co-Executives Angeline Murimirwa and Lucy Lake. Photo: Chris Loades/Yidan Prize Foundation
Julia Gillard strongly emphasized the importance of data to bring attention to the scale of the problem. She underscored the need to examine closely the continuing ‘white savior’ narratives and power dynamics in international development, a theme picked up by Alicia Herbert OBE, Director of the Education, Gender and Equality Directorate at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, who expanded on deepening inequalities and the call to action by the Black Lives Matter movement. Both highlighted the need to recognize and respect the expertise inherent in communities, citing CAMFED’s model of grassroots leadership by young women once at the margins of society. In his summary remarks, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Board Director, Yidan Prize Foundation, called for objective data, partnerships and action. He said, “CAMFED has shown us how to build the networks to push for the education of girls. We’ve woken up to the consequences of inequalities in education globally.”
A celebration of the 2020 Yidan Prize Laureates
One of [the REAL Centre and CAMFED’s] great achievements has been to provide a sense of direction: principles and models that improve our chances of fulfilling that goal [of supporting the most marginalized children through education].
Stephen Toope OC, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge
I cannot underscore enough the power of CAMFED’s model of women’s leadership — the power of a sisterhood of 178,000 change leaders, supporting each other, contributing to more equitable policies, and addressing the structural inequalities that are keeping girls and young women from reaching their full potential.
Julia Gillard