Awards and Prizes

In August 2024, CAMFED’s CEO Angeline (Angie) Murimirwa was named as one of the finalists for the prestigious Africa Education Medal. Established by T4 Education and HP, the Africa Education Medal was founded in 2022. One of three Education Medals, it recognizes extraordinary leaders who transform education globally, celebrating their dedication, creativity, and impactful contributions to the field.

On July 3, 2024, CAMFED was awarded the Best Supporter Experience of the Year Award at the UK National Fundraising Awards. The Award recognizes the innovation and success of our School Days Program, through which CAMFED has built a community of nearly 1,000 champions committed to putting vulnerable girls in rural Africa through school. 

CAMFED’s Agriculture Guide Program has been recognized in the first round of the iF Social Impact Prize 2024. The jury statement praises the Program for equipping young women “to lead agricultural change towards climate resilience in severe adverse conditions yet at a consistent scale, in leadership by action, provision of education and community growth by innovations.” The Prize is awarded by iF Design — known for outstanding design and social engagement — to projects that contribute to improving society and realizing one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

CAMFED has been awarded the 2023 Al-Sumait Prize for African Development. The Board of Trustees of the prestigious Al-Sumait Prize — chaired by Kuwait’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdulah Ali Al-Yaha — selected CAMFED for its “outstanding contribution to advancing education across the African continent.” Established in 2013, the Al-Sumait Prize honors the lifelong commitment of Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Sumait to improving health, education, and food security in Africa. This exceptional value prize is awarded by Kuwait’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and managed by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS).

In November 2023, New York Times columnist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof honoured CAMFED with his Holiday Impact Prize for the second time since the initiative’s launch in 2019. CAMFED was previously featured as the 2020 Grand Prize Winner and was welcomed back as part of a special readers’ favorite edition in 2023. For the first time ever, Holiday Impact Prize winners were also included in the The New York Times Communities Fund, with CAMFED featured as one of the charities for the 2023 appeal. “As CAMFED empowers girls, these young women, in turn, become the architects of change in their nations. Girls’ education stands as one of the most high-impact investments we can make today,” Kristof wrote.

Every year, The Audacious Project – which is housed at TED – selects and nurtures a group of timely solutions and brings together an inspiring group of supporters to help launch them. In 2023, CAMFED became part of this group of Audacious changemakers bringing bold solutions to the world. The recognition was announced on April 17, 2023 at TED2023 in Vancouver, Canada, where our CEO, Angeline Murimirwa, delivered her latest TED Talk entitled School is just the start. Here’s how to help girls succeed for life. It invites us to see the world through the eyes of a girl in rural Africa, and experience the difference that the support of a sisterhood – and a leadership model designed to transform systems from within – can make.

On August 4, 2021, CAMFED was awarded the 2021 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, the world’s largest annual humanitarian award presented to a nonprofit in recognition of extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering. Peter Laugharn, President and CEO, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, said, “The Jury’s selection of CAMFED as the recipient of the 2021 Hilton Humanitarian Prize speaks first and foremost to its community led approach and to the power of investing in girls. CAMFED has revolutionized how girls’ education is delivered, tapping into local expertise in a way that is sustainable and scalable. Further, the pandemic has had a catastrophic effect on families and girls, with estimates that 11 million girls may not return to school as a result of the crisis. The time for the global community to learn from this model is now.”

The Fundación Princesa de Asturias (Princess of Asturias Foundation), a private non-profit organization with Her Royal Highness Leonor de Borbón y Ortiz, Princess of Asturias, as the Honorary President, which celebrates scientific, social and humanitarian achievements across the globe, honored CAMFED with the prestigious Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation. The jury lauded CAMFED’s contribution to social transformation over more than two decades, addressing girls’ exclusion from education, and nurturing a generation of young women leaders in sub-Saharan Africa, stating, “Based on a model of continuous support from childhood through to adulthood and on a network of solidarity and intergenerational help, its work has promoted a systemic change built on the pillars of equity and social justice which is committed to the leadership of the women.” 

Three CAMFED Association members – Kate Wodenya Amenyikor, Jennifer De-Graft Ninson and Angelina Anita Ama Annobil – have been recognized for their activism in promoting quality, equitable education at the Humanitarian Awards Ghana. At the awards ceremony, which took place on Saturday, October 3, 2020 in Accra, Kate won the award for ‘Best Humanitarian’ in the Child Education category. Jennifer and Angelina won certificates of recognition in the SDG 4 Advocate of the Year and Child Education categories respectively.

In September 2020, the Yidan Prize Foundation, a global philanthropic educational foundation inspiring future progress and change in education, named Angeline Murimirwa, CAMFED’s Executive Director – Africa, and Lucy Lake, CAMFED’s Chief Executive Officer, as 2020 laureates of the Yidan Prize for Education Development, the world’s largest prize in education. Our Co-executives accepted the award on behalf of CAMFED, as the first team to be granted the Yidan Prize since its inception in 2017. The Prize represents a profound endorsement of CAMFED’s community-led model for girls’ education, and comes at a critical time as CAMFED and its partners tackle the impact of the current crisis, which has left millions of girls vulnerable.

In September 2019, CAMFED was recognized with the UN Global Climate Action Award for young women’s grassroots leadership on climate action. Recipients of this UN Award represent some of the most practical, scalable and replicable examples of what people, businesses, governments and industries are doing to tackle climate change. Members of the CAMFED Association of women leaders educated with CAMFED support are encouraging wide adoption of practical and affordable techniques for climate-smart agriculture, helping to build communities’ resilience in the face of climate change.

In May 2019, the CAMFED Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show won a coveted Gold Medal and the BBC / RHS People’s Choice Award in the ‘Space to Grow’ category. The Zimbabwean Garden, the brainchild of garden designer Jilayne Rickards, who gave her time for free, featured a classroom setting and some of the latest climate-smart crops and tools used by our alumnae agri-preneurs. Living on at the Eden Project, the Garden kicked off our campaign to launch thousands more female-led climate-smart businesses.

CAMFED has been named as the winner of the Kate Gross Prize for Social Enterprise at the Business Weekly Awards. The ceremony took place on 21 March 2018 at Queens’ College, Cambridge, to celebrate leaders in business innovation. Catherine Boyce, Director of Enterprise Development at CAMFED, attended on the evening to accept the award.

On September 14, 2017, CAMFED’s Regional Executive Director Angeline Murimirwa – one of the first girls CAMFED supported to go to school and founding member of our CAMA alumnae network – was presented with the 2017 Diamond Ball Honors Award. The award recognizes her past, present and future support of young leaders, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement. The Diamond Ball is the annual gala held by the Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF), founded by award-winning performer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Rihanna.

CAMFED Tanzania’s Learner Guide Program was named as one of the six winning projects of the 2017 WISE Awards, which recognize high-impact projects from around the globe for their innovative solutions to 21st century education challenges. Winning projects had to be scalable and replicable, demonstrating a transformative impact on individuals, communities, and society.

In 2017, CAMFED Executive Director Angeline Murimirwa was recognized as one of the 100 most influential and inspirational women around the world, for leading CAMFED’s programs across sub-Saharan Africa, unlocking the potential of hundreds of thousands of young women.

On International Youth Day, the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) announced that CAMFED alumna Alice Saisha from Zambia was chosen as its Global Advisory Committee Youth Representative. Alice will be sharing the experience and expertise of the young women leaders in CAMFED’s pan-African CAMA alumnae network to inform global education policy.

CAMFED has been recognized as the winner in the Best Customer Experience category in FinancialForce’s fourth annual 360 Customer Excellence Awards. CAMFED was selected for the impact that its internal technology and process transformation has had on clients (girls in rural Africa) and donors.

In October 2015, Ann Cotton’s work to educate young women in Africa was honored with the Ahimsa Award at the UK House of Commons. The award celebrates compassion and non-violence in the spirit of Jain philosophy, which was followed by Mahatma Gandhi.

In October 2014, CAMFED was recognized as a model of best practice in taking innovation to scale by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

CAMFED Association chairperson and entrepreneur Ruka Yaro of Ghana was selected as one of 500 individuals selected out of 50,000 qualified candidates for a Washington Fellowship under President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative.

Abigail Kaindu, a member of the CAMFED Association of women leaders educated with CAMFED support, was appointed as one of 10 youth advocates from across the globe to the United Nations Secretary General’s Youth Advocacy Panel, which forms part of a new Education First initiative to get all children into school.

CAMFED alumna Penelope Machipi received the $25,000 award for making a difference in her community in Samfya, Zambia.

CAMFED Founder and President Ann Cotton was named a Global Social Entrepreneur by the Geneva-based Schwab Foundation.

Chief Executive Officer (then Deputy Executive Director and Director of Programmes) Lucy Lake was nominated as one of the top “35 business women under the age of 35” by the magazine Management Today.

Founder and President Ann Cotton was awarded an honorary doctorate in law from the University of Cambridge.

CAMFED Executive Director – Africa (then CAMFED Zimbabwe Executive Director )Angeline Murimirwa (nee Mugwendere) was awarded the Prize for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life by the Women’s World Summit Foundation.

CAMFED Founder Ann Cotton was awarded the Skoll Foundation Award for Social Entrepreneurship.

CAMFED Founder Ann Cotton won a Beacon Prize, awarded in the UK to those who have made a significant contribution to charity.

CAMFED Founder Ann Cotton was named the UK Social Entrepreneur of the Year.

CAMFED was voted International Aid & Development Charity of the Year at the annual Charity Awards, organised by Charity Finance.