CAMFED Skoll Awardee Profile

Organization Overview

Key Info

Social Entrepreneur Ann Cotton

Year Awarded 2005

Issue Area Addressed Economic Opportunity, Education, Environmental Sustainability

Sub Issue Area Addressed Early Childhood to Primary Education, Livelihoods, Post-Secondary Education, Secondary Education, Women's and Girls' Education, Youth Job Skills

Countries Served Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Website http://www.camfed.org

Twitter handle @CAMFED

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/camfed

Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/camfedinternati onal About the Organization

CAMFED is an international non-profit organization that tackles poverty and inequality by supporting girls to go to school and succeed, and empowering young women to step up as leaders of change. CAMFED invests in girls and women in the poorest rural communities in sub- Saharan Africa, where girls face acute disadvantage, and where their empowerment is now transforming communities. Since 1993, CAMFED’s innovative education programs in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, and Malawi have directly supported over 3.3 million students to attend primary and secondary school, and over 5.7 million children have benefited from improved learning environments. CAMFED believes that every child is entitled to a quality education in a safe environment and a life as an independent young adult. CAMFED directly supports girls because typically they are the first to drop out of school, and the first to be failed by the system, which places them at the perils of early marriage, early pregnancy, and HIV/AIDS. As an activist organization, CAMFED devises robust, sustainable, and transparent programs accountable first and foremost to the girl, designed to meet her needs at school and beyond, while also working to deliver systemic change.

Impact

In 2018, CAMFED, in collaboration with the CAMA Network and community members, supported over 1.16 million girls to remain in primary and secondary school. A rigorous, large-scale comparative evaluation of their programs in Tanzania and Zimbabwe from 2013-2017 demonstrated that students made significantly more progress in both learning outcomes and retention compared to their counterparts in comparison schools. In recognition that CAMFED demonstrates what works, backed by strong evidence, CAMFED has been invited to sit on several national Coordination Groups in the countries where it is active, to help plan for Global Partnership for Education investments. In Ghana, the Ministry of Education has committed to working with CAMFED to roll-out the content of its Teacher Mentor training nationwide, so that every secondary school in Ghana has a trained Guidance and Counselling Coordinator (Teacher Mentor).

Path to Scale

Demonstration and Policy Reform Complement replication of direct service programs with policy engagement aimed at integrating its educational model into national education systems in developing countries

Social Entrepreneur Educator Ann Cotton traveled to Zimbabwe in 1991 to study the problems that keep girls out of school. She learned that the conventional wisdom was wrong: poverty, not culture, was the true barrier. Families with limited resources for school fees and other costs chose to invest in boys, who had a better chance to get jobs. She started Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) in 1993, raising money through bake sales to pay school fees for 32 girls. CAMFED developed a model to address both cultural and financial barriers, going beyond scholarships to weave a network of support around each child and support her education as far as she wants to go. The governance model engages families and communities to support groups of girls, who also support each other in a virtuous cycle of educational achievement, female leadership, and commitment to girls' education. CAMFED has an alumnae network set to grow to more than 130,000 by 2019, and has provided material support such as uniforms, books, and fees to nearly 250,000 girls in some 5,400 schools in five countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Equilibrium Overview

Current Equilibrium

In the current equilibrium, access to education is out of reach for the majority of girls in Sub- Saharan Africa. More than 95% of government education funding goes to teacher salaries, leaving almost no money for school infrastructure improvements, let alone teaching materials. As a result, the cost of such materials is passed along to the families who cannot afford the school fees and other school-related expenses (uniforms, shoes, transport costs, food, books, stationary, etc.). Those girls that are able to attend school are presented with under-resourced schools and teachers that are ill-equipped to support girls’ matriculation and support them to pass the national exams. Of those young women that do graduate, many face pressure from their families to begin contributing to the family income as soon as they complete school, often while they wait for their exam results and before they can apply for tertiary education or formal employment. Many migrate to urban centers in search of work, but lack social connections or support in those new settings, as well as the specific vocational skills or experience required for gainful employment, and end up at high risk of exploitation. Often, the only work available is low- paid, informal employment such as domestic work or petty trading, requiring them to work long hours under insecure and intermittent working conditions. There are often pressures to engage in transactional sex with prospective and actual employers, posing risks of pregnancy and HIV infection.

New Equilibrium

In the new equilibrium, each community has locally managed and funded support systems in place for the poorest girls in Africa. Community stakeholders from different government ministries, teachers, invested parents, and the girls themselves work together to reduce the barriers that prevent girls from finishing secondary school and to help girls who graduate access a variety of pathways for secure livelihoods. Past graduates mentor and support the incoming generation of girls and serve as role models in the local community, thus creating reinforcing network effects. Girls are taught critical life skills that will enable them to be successful post- graduation, including financial literacy for budding entrepreneurs and interview skills for employment opportunities. As a result, women have a bigger presence in the economic and social development of Sub-Saharan African countries at the local, national, and international level.

Innovation

CAMFED believes that educating girls is the best investment the world can make to alleviate poverty and create a safer world. CAMFED creates the ultimate cycle of girls’ education. It enables a critical mass of marginalized girls to transition into, progress through, and succeed at secondary school, and creates the bridge for them to move on from school to a secure and fulfilling livelihood. From this position, educated young women lead initiatives to support girls’ education within their communities, and join forces with district and national authorities to drive change at scale. CAMFED provides financial support for girls in rural areas to attend secondary school through a number of different grant programs, including the bursary program, the step-up fund, and the safety net fund. The bursary program and the step-up fund both provide individual financial support for girls attending school, covering school and exam fees, as well as the cost of stationary, uniforms, shoes, etc., while the safety net fund is a small grant to a school based committee to help benefit the school overall. CAMFED’s innovation, however, lies in how they deliver these services: Community-driven Governance and Accountability: Many organizations channel funding for scholarships and educational opportunity to needy African girls. CAMFED's model is distinctive in that it is designed to ensure accountability to each child by ensuring those closest to her are vesting in her protection, education and success. The selection of girls, disbursement of funds and community priorities are decided and managed by the community with full transparency and accountability via the Community Development Committees (CDCs). CAMFED does not work in a district without strong support from local government and key stakeholders; this is built into the CDCs from the beginning. By bringing together, connecting and empowering the numerous community actors in a girls’ life-- parents, teachers, health workers, traditional and faith-based leaders, police, local ministries and community role models—CAMFED weaves a network of support around each child the organization serves.CAMA Network and Movement: CAMFED graduates are given the opportunity to join CAMA, a movement that was started by and is managed by CAMFED graduates. Over 120,000 women are now part of this network which helps girls transitioning from secondary school by building the life skills, knowledge, networks, and confidence to pursue different livelihoods pathways.Cost Effectiveness: CAMFED has a lean organization structure with a small head office for coordination and alignment, small national offices, and typically only one CAMFED staff person in each district who acts as the secretariat for the CDC. The majority of CAMFED’s programs are run by volunteers, including all CDC members, CAMA members, and CAMA Learner Guides, though some, such as CAMA Core Trainers, are supported by small allowances.Experimentation and Learning: Due to the strong feedback channels through the Community Development Committees and CAMA alumnae network, different CAMFED national offices are encouraged to experiment to improve program delivery. For example, early on, CAMFED realized that food insecurity in the rural areas was a significant contributor to high drop-out rates. To address this, CAMFED worked with the community (particularly mothers) to sustainably address food insecurity at the local school level. The result is Mother Support Groups and Father Support Groups that consist of women and men in the community who grow food on campus, cook meals for students a few times per week, and generate income from crafts to support these activities. CAMFED’s role is capacity building for the mothers and providing small seed grants. This micro-innovation has since been replicated in all the countries where CAMFED operates. The specific stages of CAMFED’s program model are listed here: 1. To support girls to transition to, progress through and succeed at secondary school, CAMFED: Provides financial and material support tailored to the individual girl’s needs such as: payment of school and exam fees, boarding expenses and materials, transportation expenses, uniforms, shoes, hygiene supplies, stationery, academic supplies (school bag, calculator, math sets).Supports community engagement to raise local resources for girls and boys to go to school.Provides psycho-social support and counselling, life skills training, linkage to community resources by trained volunteer Teacher Mentors and CAMA Learner Guides.Improved learning opportunities through Study Circles and clubs, and learning resources (such as study guides and textbooks).Develops new pedagogical approaches to lift up learning outcomes, for example through its My Better World student-centered, active learning life skills curriculumBuilds local institutional capacity, including school leadership, to scale and sustain outputs 2. To support young women’s transition to a secure and fulfilling livelihood, CAMFED: Supports the governance of the CAMA alumnae network and the leadership development of its members and create the conditions for young women to step forward as advocates and activists for the younger generation of girls.Invites young women whom they have supported to join the CAMA alumnae network.Provides a six-month transition program led by CAMA Transition Guides covering wellbeing, leadership, financial literacy, core business skills, sexual reproductive health, career paths, and plowing back, or alternative programs covering financial literacy and entrepreneurship.Provides scholarships for further education, including tertiary education in colleges and universities.Provides structured volunteer programs that enable young women to build skills for employment, access to an internationally recognized vocational BTEC qualification and access to interest-free loans to grow businesses 3. To create institutional change that will further facilitate women and girls' access to an education and sustainable livelihoods, CAMFED: Engages with government to demonstrate results and take-up of effective program elements across districts/schools.Advocates with Ministries to substantially invest in the quality of education provision in rural schoolsUses its position with Ministries of Education and research results to advocate for lowering the cost of education at secondary and higher education levels, as well as targeted financial assistance for the most marginalized young people to access post-primary education.

Ambition for Change

A generation of girls completing school, developing aspirations to be lawyers, doctors, business owners, and participating in the development of the social fabric of their communities, so they can make sure that the next generation is not born to poverty.