UNITED NATIONS GIRLS EDUCATION INITIATIVE

The Campaign for Female Education (Camfed) is dedicated to fighting poverty and AIDS in rural communities in Africa by educating girls. Camfed began in 1993 by supporting 32 girls in rural Zimbabwe, and by 2005 this number had grown to 250,000 children in some of the poorest regions of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana and Tanzania.

Camfed's vital work to improve educational opportunities for girls in some of the world's poorest countries has received international recognition with an invitation to co-chair the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI) in 2006. The joint role with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) gives Camfed a unique position to transform girls' educational opportunities in the poorest areas of the world. As Lucy Lake, Camfed's Director of International Programmes and member of UNGEI's Global Advisory Committee explains below, this platform for Cafed will allow the voice of young African women to inform the highest levels of policy and debate. It is their firsthand experience of poverty and exclusion that Camfed will ensure is brought centre stage.

"Camfed works in Africa, and the lessons and findings of our programmes resonate around the globe. It is ground-breaking for an NGO which workson the frontline to be given the recognition and respect to work on an international body in this way. We are showing how the problem of girls' exclusion from education can be tackled and are bringing new momentum to the cause." 

"The biggest priority for our chairship is to ensure that the resources committed internationally in the name of girls' education are used to give this generation of girls the chance to go to school."

For more information about Camfed's work, visit www.camfed.org.