UNITED NATIONS GIRLS EDUCATION INITIATIVE

January 2006, from www.camfed.org -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.

UNGEI is a partnership of organisations that includes United Nations agencies UNESCO and UNICEF and major donors to education including the UK, Sweden, Norway and the USA. As Lucy Lake, CAMFED’s Director of International Programmes and member of UNGEI’s Global Advisory Committee explains below, this platform for CAMFED 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 and DFID 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 works on 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.”