CAMFED: The Power of Pay-it-Forward Scaling

CAMFED, or Campaign for Female Education, began in 1993 by supporting 32 children in two schools; as of 2021, it had helped more than a million girls in sub-Saharan Africa “to access school, succeed, and become leaders of change in their communities.” Girls in the program attended secondary school in 6,853 government partner schools across 161 districts in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, and Malawi. Girls were identified on the basis of need, with the selection process operating at the community level based on a clear set of contextually adapted criteria. At its core, the model aimed to see the world from the perspective of each individual girl and the hurdles she faced as she sought to become educated and to put her education to good use. This case explores CAMFED’s model and its unique approach to scaling through an extensive alumnae network, CAMA.