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CAMFED IMPACT REPORT
CHAPTER FIVE
The Way Forward
Camfed’s vision is of an Africa where poverty is no longer
a barrier to education; where businesses run by women
are affecting economies; where women hold positions
of power and influence; and where their health achieves
parity with the developed world. Girls’ education offers
the best opportunity to achieve this vision.
In the past 20 years, there has been a fundamental change
in the way girls’ education is perceived in the field of
international development. This change has taken girls’
education from the margin to the center: as well as being
regarded as a moral and equity consideration for females
themselves, the education of girls and young women is now
recognized as an imperative for the economic and social
advancement of societies as a whole. The critical mass of
organizations, corporations and institutions arguing for
the investment in girls’ education includes new allies in the
media and corporate worlds, now aligned with foundations,
academic institutions, think tanks, multi-lateral agencies and
government departments.
momentum now needs to build so that this generation of
girls secures the opportunity to drive the change of which
only they are capable. Camfed’s goals, set out in the Executive
Summary, are reiterated below.
Camfed will fulfill the child’s right to education and
protection expanding access to education to the most
vulnerable children, especially rural girls, within its five
current operational countries, and in new countries of
operation. To do this Camfed will continue to collaborate
with governments, multilateral agencies, and other policy
making institutions, to secure a higher standard of child
protection in education for all children.
As a mature program with a strong presence in Africa and
sound evidence of impact, Camfed seeks to expand this
alliance of partners to embrace a growing range of disciplines
and sectors who wish to invest in the potential of girls
and young women to lead the way to healthier and more
prosperous futures.
This report has set out Camfed’s impact and, in doing so,
has built the case for investment in girls’ education. The
The lesson of experience, as demonstrated in the Camfed
studies, is that there is no shortcut to the process that
starts with getting girls into school and keeping them
there. This requires Safety Net funding at primary school,
capacity-building funding within the local infrastructure
to make schools more girl-friendly, and significant fullscholarship
funding at secondary level, where drop-out
rates for girls are highest.
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