Since 1993, CAMFED (Campaign for Female Education) has provided holistic support to well over two million girls and women attending government secondary schools in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, and Ghana. Every step of the way, former CAMFED CEO and Executive Advisor Lucy Lake has been there — championing the right of every girl to access quality education.

Now, Lucy is continuing her commitment to shaping the future of education as Director of Global Engagement here at the Yidan Prize Foundation. In turn, her fellow laureate Angeline (Angie) Murimirwa has stepped into the role of CAMFED’s CEO after previously serving as the Executive Director, Africa.

We recently sat down with Lucy to discuss how CAMFED’s story intersects with her own, what most excites her about her new role, and what she sees as the biggest challenges facing the next generation of changemakers.

CAMFED’s beginnings

Lucy’s journey with CAMFED began 30 years ago in 1994, shortly after the organization was founded. While working as a teacher at a rural secondary school in Zimbabwe, she saw firsthand the challenges that children — especially girls — faced while trying to get an education.

“While there was near parity at the point of joining school, by the time students had gotten to the end of secondary school, there were six boys for every girl,” she explains about the inequities she witnessed.

“Girls’ education is fundamental. It’s a starting point for systems change and social justice.”

Lucy herself is no stranger to the effects of systemic gender inequality on individual lives. Early in her career, she was the victim of a serious crime of gender violence. After it was dismissed by the country’s legal system — in which there were no women in positions of authority — she realized that the problem ran much deeper than a single ruling.

For her, this was a visceral reminder of the importance of girls’ education. “I came to appreciate that, unless girls were in school… those systems would never truly be able to account for the needs of girls,” she shares.    
Many people pointed to culture as the problem. Instead, Lucy and her colleagues at CAMFED believed that the primary factor was poverty and set out to prove it.   

And prove it they did. “When we offered support to families for their daughters to be in school,” Lucy says, “not one family turned down that offer of support.”

New horizons

After working with Angie closely for many years, Lucy passed her the baton before stepping aside from CAMFED herself.

And just as Angie’s leadership role is the natural progression of CAMFED, Lucy sees her new role at the Yidan Prize Foundation as an organic extension of her values.

“My role has always been to open the door for others to walk through and take on those positions of leadership.”

The notion of creating a better world through education may be ambitious, but Lucy believes it’s possible.

“I think the way in which the Yidan Prize Foundation has chosen to pursue this — by creating that bridge between research and practice, and building community…very much resonates with how I’ve worked in CAMFED,” she affirms.

Lucy also prioritizes the foundation’s closely-held values of diversity and equity. As just one example, she points to laureate Shai Reshef’s University of the People, which extends higher ed opportunities to refugees, women in Afghanistan, and people living in remote areas.

On the importance of diversity in not only identity and geographic location but also in ideas, Lucy asserts: “The diversity [at the foundation] is an engine for the creativity and challenge that will enable new ways of thinking in education.”

Building community, shaping the future

Education is a window into the problems facing our world. But it’s also our greatest chance to solve them.

Pointing to complex issues like climate change and the advent of AI technologies, Lucy proclaims: “Education really gives us the best opportunity to explore how we can solve for and mitigate the impact of these challenges.”

To seize that opportunity, she argues, we need to harness the power of our unique growing global community of changemakers. Through this synergetic community, research can turn into tomorrow’s best practices, and education practice can inform future research.

What’s more, community serves as an antidote to confusion. By coming together to spotlight the best new ideas in education, we can cut through the chaos and face obstacles with confidence.

“These challenges can feel overwhelming and daunting,” Lucy admits, adding that we’re stronger when we’re united. “The Yidan Prize Foundation creates the space for us to explore the bigger picture — together.”

 The 2024 Yidan Prize laureates will be announced on 26 September. Lucy looks forward to the news, calling for everyone to come together to celebrate and support changemakers in education.