Manchester Programme

Monday 13 April
0900-1010: Plenary Session
0900-1010 Plenary Session
Exchange Hall
(1600 audience)
COTTON’S
PHOTO
Plenary session by Ann Cotton
Ann Cotton is Founder and President of Camfed, an international non-profit
organisation tackling poverty and inequality in sub-Saharan Africa by supporting girls
to go to school and succeed, and empowering young women to step up as leaders of
change. The organisation’s unique approach is to not only support girls and young
women through school, but also on to new lives as entrepreneurs and community
leaders. To complete the “virtuous cycle”, graduating students become Cama
alumnae, many of whom return to school to train and mentor new generations of
students. More than 3 million children have already benefited from Camfed’s
programmes in a network of 5,085 partner schools across Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana,
Tanzania and Malawi. In 2014 Camfed was recognized by the OECD for best practice in
taking development innovation to scale, and Ann Cotton received the WISE Prize for
Education.
MONDAY
The justice and imperative of girls’ secondary school education – a model of
action
In the theatre of international development, girls' education has moved from the
wings to centre stage in the last 25 years. Ann Cotton will chart this change and both
the philosophical underpinnings and utilitarian arguments that have propelled it.
Camfed's work is driven by the right to education of every child, and the delivery of
that right. Its work has demonstrated that girls' exclusion from education is rooted in
family poverty and the enforced decisions as to which child should go to school. Ann
will explore the arguments that variously place culture, traditional mores and poverty
at the root of girls' educational exclusion. The address will describe how Camfed has
worked with rural communities in five African countries - Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania,
Zambia and Zimbabwe - where family poverty is endemic. The Camfed Model works in
a full partnership with Ministries of Education, traditional and faith-based leaders,
head teachers and teachers, parents and children. This inclusion is a fundamental
principle of the Model and one that shows evidence-based results in delivering
sustainable systemic change. Ann Cotton will illuminate the systems and processes
that have been built to ensure transparency and accountability first and foremost to
the child, Camfed's primary client. Ann will describe the different forms of capital that
Camfed recognises respects and extends - capital that includes knowledge, social and
institutional capital. The address will conclude with the analysis of Cama, the
alumnae organisation of Camfed secondary school graduates that is more than
25,000-strong, explaining the depth of empathy and analysis members bring to the
stage as we work to establish and build health and education systems that serve the
needs of everyone.
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