CAMFED promotes systemic change aimed at addressing the exclusion of girls and women from the opportunities offered by education. It does so through the leadership of the CAMFED Association (CAMA) –an organization created in 1998 by the first 400 beneficiaries of the Campaign for Female Education— in partnership with rural communities, employing four different approaches: equity and social justice (education as a fundamental human right that should not be denied to girls and women), economic development (reinvestment in disadvantaged communities), young women’s leadership (changing socio-cultural norms, protection and empowerment of marginalized girls), and action against climate change (transition towards climate-friendly practices and reduction of future carbon emissions).
However, the main characteristic that makes CAMFED stand out from other organizations of the same type is the implementation of a model that not only provides marginalized girls access to education, but also supports them in the transition to adult life and fosters new business opportunities for job creation and income growth in rural areas.
Thanks to its network of more than 178, 000 leaders educated with CAMFED support, the number of CAMFED beneficiaries continues to grow, as each past recipient of a scholarship mentors and financially supports an average of three more girls to stay in school. In his article “Choose a Gift That Changes Lives”, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof described this dynamic as “a perpetual motion machine... a virtuous cycle that grows over time”.
CAMFED’s programs, led by CAMFED Association members, include the Learner Guide Program and the Transition Guide Program, whose goals are to deliver life and learning skills in school, and support graduates into independent livelihoods beyond school, including in climate-smart agriculture.
Thus young women farmers are helping to provide nutritious school meals, protect biodiversity and incorporate Indigenous and innovative technologies to reduce pollution. CAMFED has recently declared its commitment to provide primary and secondary education to another five million girls, enable a safe path to vocational training and employment for 280,000 women, and support female entrepreneurs in the creation of another 150,000 jobs by the years 2021-2025.
Recognitions:
Awarded the Yidan Prize for Education Development (2020), the Nicholas Kristof Holiday Impact Prize (2020), and OECD Recognition for Taking Development Innovation to Scale (2014), among other recognitions, CAMFED’s approach to supporting young women climate leaders was distinguished with the 2019 United Nations Global Climate Action Award at COP25 in Madrid (Spain).
Minutes of the Jury
In the course of its online meeting, the Jury for the 2021 Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation, composed of Pedro Alonso Fernández, Maite Arango García-Urtiaga, Eugenia Bieto Caubet, Francisco de Paula Bisbal Pons, Andrés Conde Solé, Miguel Delibes de Castro, Beatriz Domínguez-Gil González, Enrique Fernández-Miranda y Lozana, Duke of Fernández-Miranda, Luis García Montero, Cristina Garmendia Mendizábal, Daniel López Acuña, Íñigo J. Losada Rodríguez, Sophie Muller, Sami Naïr, Juan Carlos del Olmo Castillejos, Ana Pastor Julián, Luis Sánchez-Merlo Ruiz, chaired by Gustavo Suárez Pertierra and with Gloria Fernández-Lomana García acting as secretary, has decided to confer the 2021 Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation on CAMFED, Campaign for Female Education.
The international non-governmental organization CAMFED has contributed for more than two decades to social transformation aimed at remedying the exclusion and facilitating the access of millions of girls to education, as well as the empowerment of young women in sub-Saharan Africa. 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.
The Jury has also taken into account the methodology employed by CAMFED, taking into account environmental sustainability criteria.
16th June 2021
Credits
© Fundación Princesa de Asturias
Images:
- © Eliza Powell
- © Cynthia R. Matonhodze
- © Joseph Assah Mills
- © Jon Pilch