Lance Croffoot-Suede and Diana Good
Camfed Governance:
Accounting to the Girl
One of the major challenges in international development is to deliver aid effec-
aktiv: how does a non-governmental organization promote and support service
provision in impoverished communities in a lasting and effective way?
This paper explores one NGO’s—Camfed’s—model for governance in the
delivery of girls’ education. Camfed has developed a governance model to deliver
girls’ education in impoverished rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa. To
Datum, it has supported 1,065,710 children in five countries and is rapidly expand-
ing its reach (figures in this paper are accurate as of January 2010).
The Camfed model specifically sets out to help those girls who are most vul-
nerable and powerless, and ensures that this help is permanently effective by
encouraging systemic (that is, long term and sustainable) change in these girls’
communities.
This paper examines the governance structures that Camfed has erected to
meet this challenge. In our view, Camfed’s governance model works for two prin-
cipal reasons. Erste, it requires Camfed to render account to the girls it supports—
much as good governance for corporations and financial institutions, and their
regulators, requires those entities to account to their shareholders, investors, oder
consumers. In der Tat, Camfed maintains that it owes the children on whose behalf it
acts a duty of care equivalent to that which lawyers and other professionals owe
their clients.
Zweite, Camfed’s governance model requires Camfed to establish good gover-
nance in rural communities through the implementation of various social assis-
tance programs. Camfed’s programs take root in a community, bringing about
Lance Croffoot-Suede is a litigation partner at the global law firm Linklaters LLP.
Croffoot-Suede manages Linklaters’ pro bono and community investment program in
the New York office. He also serves, pro bono, as a court-appointed counsel to indigent
criminal defendants in the federal court in Manhattan.
Diana Good is a former litigation partner at Linklaters LLP, where she worked for 20
Jahre. She has a part-time judicial appointment and also works in the not-for-profit
sector as the chair of the Mary Ward Settlement.
The full report from which this paper is derived was released at the Skoll World Forum
2010 and is available for download at
http://www.linklaters.com/pdfs/Camfed/2896_CamfedReport.pdf.
© 2010 Linklaters LLP
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Lance Croffoot-Suede and Diana Good
long term and sustainable change only when the community comes together, für
Beispiel, to identify equitably and transparently the children who are to benefit
from Camfed’s support. Mit anderen Worten, Camfed’s education and associated social
assistance programs succeed
because Camfed gives commu-
nities the power and responsi-
bility to run the programs. Es ist
this opportunity which enables
communities to become capa-
ble, over the long term, of better
supporting their children and
themselves through the practice
of good governance.
Camfed’s governance model—
which appears to us to be
scalable and replicable in
various contexts—could serve
as a model for the
international development
sector whenever the sector is
devising programs to diminish
poverty and disempowerment
around the globe.
Given Camfed’s achieve-
it is conceivable that
gen,
Camfed’s governance model—
which appears to us to be scala-
ble and replicable in various
contexts—could serve as a
model for the international
development sector whenever
the sector is devising programs
to diminish poverty and disem-
powerment around the globe.
This paper, like the full report from which it is derived, is not intended as an
audit or due diligence exercise, but as a thought piece in which we analyze gover-
nance issues present in the international aid sector through the lens of girls’ edu-
cation. We at Linklaters (a global law firm based in London) work regularly with
corporate and financial institutions on governance issues. We consider, interpret,
and apply standards for governance issued by the institutions and by the regulato-
ry organisations that oversee them, and represent clients when good governance is
put into question by their own actions, their regulators, governments, or courts.
This project presented interesting challenges for us as it involved working in a new
sector, and in countries and communities facing special logistical and governance
issues.
Camfed
OVERVIEW
Camfed (an acronym for the Campaign for Female Education) is an international
organisation dedicated to eradicating poverty in rural Africa through the educa-
tion of girls and the empowerment of young women. In the words of Camfed’s
vision statement, “Camfed’s vision is a world in which every child is educated, Profi-
tected, respected and valued, and grows up to turn the tide of poverty.” Camfed’s
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Camfed Governance: Accounting to the Girl
prime constituencies are the girls of impoverished rural families in sub-Saharan
Africa. Camfed currently operates its programs in Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania,
Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Girls and young women in rural Africa form one of the most disadvantaged
social groups in the world today. Due to chronic exclusion from education and
from the opportunities that education creates, and due to their position of acute
vulnerability, girls in rural Africa are unable to challenge the status quo. It is well
recognized that the education of girls is key to achieving systemic change for this
group and their societies: the statistics show that countries with higher levels of
education of girls benefit from faster economic growth, a significant reduction in
improved education of the succeeding generations, and greater
HIV/AIDS,
democracy and political participation.1
Since its inception in 1993, Camfed has challenged the notion that cultural
resistance is at the heart of girls’ exclusion from education in rural Africa. Stattdessen,
Camfed maintains that the main barrier to girls’ education is chronic poverty,
which simultaneously prevents impoverished girls in rural communities from con-
tinuing their education and forces them into situations of extreme vulnerability,
including early marriage or prostitution, with all the attendant risks of HIV/AIDS.
Camfed recognizes that in any community most parents want the best for their
Kinder, but that in a context of poverty, exclusion, and marginalization, Eltern
often lack the financial means, confidence and political leverage to secure equality
and quality in education for their children, especially girls. To begin to counteract
Das, Camfed offers, in partnership with both the Ministry of Education and local
communities, Schulen, and parents, a package of financial and social support that
provides girls with all they need to access education in a safe and secure environ-
ment. This package of support is provided through long term social assistance pro-
grams that follow girls through the critical transitions from primary to secondary
education and from secondary education into young adulthood. Local people are
given responsibility to run the programs, and in time the programs become a
movement owned by the communities themselves.
What began in Zimbabwe in 1993 as an educational program supporting 32
girls in two schools has become a movement that has supported 1,065,710 Kinder
across 3,148 schools in rural districts in Zimbabwe, Ghana (seit 1998), Zambia
(seit 2001), Tanzania (seit 2005), Und, most recently, Malawi (seit 2009).
Camfed tracks the development of each girl it supports and has never aban-
doned the full-term education of any of its beneficiaries. Wherever we refer to
“children,” we mean both the girls and boys who benefit from Camfed’s support
through primary school, as well as the girls who receive Camfed’s bursary support
at the secondary school level.
Camfed has set up alumnae networks of 14,005 young women, known as
CAMA members, most of whom were previously supported by Camfed bursaries
in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, and Tanzania. Im Gegenzug, these young women, along
with other community activists, have supported an additional 118,384 Schule-
Kinder. Many CAMA members occupy positions of leadership and influence in
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Lance Croffoot-Suede and Diana Good
their communities, providing tangible proof of systemic change as a result of
Camfed’s programs. In der Tat, it is former Camfed beneficiaries who now lead
Camfed Zimbabwe and who are rolling out the new programs in Malawi.
All of Camfed’s social assistance programs for children and their communities
are delivered by a network of community activists, which currently numbers
56,387. Among the activists are young women, local officials, Eltern, teachers and
village chiefs. Through
Gemeinschaft
diese
Aktivisten, Camfed’s pro-
grams have gained a
momentum of their own
in tackling local impedi-
ments to girls’ education.
Many of these communi-
ty activists are now in a
Position
make
demands
service
providers and policymak-
ers, Zum Beispiel, Weil
they have gained posi-
tions of influence in local,
National, and internation-
al decision-making bod-
ies. Das, Camfed main-
tains, is multiplying the
initial
returns on
What began in Zimbabwe in 1993
as an educational program
supporting 32 girls in two schools
has become a movement that has
supported 1,065,710 Kinder
across 3,148 schools in rural
districts in Zimbabwe, Ghana
(seit 1998), Zambia (seit 2001),
Tanzania (seit 2005), Und, most
recently, Malawi (seit 2009).
Zu
An
its
investment in girls’ education and constitutes systemic change.
By tapping into the innate desire of people to improve their lives, and by giv-
ing community members responsibility for their own decisions, Camfed’s intend-
ed beneficiaries and entire communities are able to move beyond dependency on
aid and are motivated to achieve long term and sustainable change at all levels.
Whenever Camfed starts in a new school district or country, the process of
introducing the programs and training local people is essentially the same. It is car-
ried out by those who best understand the problems on the ground, in other
Wörter, those who have themselves benefited from and helped to shape its pro-
Gramm, such as former beneficiaries and current community activists, as well as
national staff from Camfed offices in sub-Saharan Africa. When Camfed starts in
a new country, it first holds meetings with the Ministry of Education and discuss-
es, among other things, national-level statistics showing the districts with the
greatest educational exclusion of girls. At this point, Camfed will be represented by
members of its executive team, and a memorandum of understanding will be
signed with the ministry. When Camfed introduces its programs in districts and
schools in a new country, Camfed community activists will carry out this work as
well as the subsequent selection of beneficiaries, run community health programs,
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Camfed Governance: Accounting to the Girl
and offer counselling and mentoring.
In Malawi, we at Linklaters participated in the start of the roll out of Camfed’s
Programme. The introductory meetings with village elders and teachers which we
witnessed in Malawi were run by Camfed alumnae from Zimbabwe, who under-
stood the issues faced by the villagers and their children. These former Camfed
beneficiaries grew up in remote rural villages themselves, and their families had
been too poor to send them to school. They now lead Camfed Zimbabwe. All the
meetings consisted of a dialogue in which the villagers were asked to explain what
challenges they faced and who in their communities most needed help. They had
no difficulty in identifying the most vulnerable children in the village and agreed
that the best way to choose them would be to have a transparent process in which
all relevant local stakeholders such as parents, Lehrer, community leaders, tradi-
tional leaders, the police, and the local education board officers would take part.
This is how Camfed begins the democratic process by which stakeholder com-
mittees are elected locally to select Camfed beneficiaries and run Camfed’s pro-
Gramm. The committees will identify not only which children need help but pre-
cisely what help they need (fees, uniform, books, shoes, sanitary pads etc.). Der
committees will conduct their business in a very transparent manner, recording
each item purchased for and provided to each Camfed beneficiary. The progress of
each girl and the precise support she is receiving will also be recorded in the
Camfed program database. Eventually, Mutter (and even father) support groups
will be formed to provide even further community-based support for the children.
Each Camfed beneficiary will be guaranteed the full four years at a secondary
Schule, and once she graduates from school she can become a member of CAMA.
As we discuss more fully in this paper, this is the way in which Camfed encour-
ages and achieves systemic change.
Linklaters
Camfed asked Linklaters to observe its governance model in action, question its
approach and then articulate its principles for governance. Camfed recognises that
it is at a stage in its development, as it extends its reach across sub-Saharan Africa,
when it should document and share its approach to governance.
As a global law firm, we are conversant with the principles and practices
underlying corporate and regulatory governance. In the corporate and regulatory
sectors, legislation, rules, and principles are created, when required, to help to
ensure that best practices are observed and that systems of governance protect
shareholders, investors, and the public.
Our work was not intended to constitute an audit or detailed analysis of each
of Camfed’s programs but, eher, an analysis of Camfed’s governance model and
of how and why it works.
Since the Camfed governance model operates on a “bottom-up” approach, Wir
had to identify how the model works, witness whether it works, and then articu-
late how and why it does so.
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Since late 2007, we have worked in partnership with Camfed to produce the
report from which this paper constitutes an excerpt. We visited three of the five
African countries in which Camfed operates to understand both the complexity of
the problem and the simplicity of the solution Camfed has identified for removing
the barriers to girls’ education in rural sub-Saharan Africa. In order to observe the
Camfed governance model in its different stages of evolution and the sustainabil-
ity of the model,
in January
2009 we visited Zambia, Wo
Camfed has been operating
seit 2001; in June 2009 we vis-
ited Malawi, where Camfed was
preparing to commence opera-
tionen; and in October 2009 Wir
visited
Wo
Zimbabwe,
Camfed has been operating
since it began in 1993 and con-
tinues to operate
In 1,713
schools despite the recent polit-
ical and economic turmoil that
has afflicted the country.
The paramount principle of
the Camfed governance model
is protection of the
beneficiary. Children are the
intended beneficiaries of
Camfed’s programs, so every
action that Camfed takes is
examined first and foremost
by Camfed to determine the
effect it will have on the child.
We visited a total of 15
schools in areas where the prob-
lems of disease and poverty are
at their worst. In each of these
remote rural communities, Wir
held meetings with and inter-
viewed hundreds of teachers, Eltern, students, and community and traditional
Führer. We also met officials in each country’s Ministry of Education, at both
regional and national levels. In each of the districts we visited, we travelled with
teacher mentors, education officers and members of the local school management
committees, all of whom work on a voluntary basis with Camfed. We also travelled
with national Camfed staff, Zum Beispiel, the former Camfed beneficiaries who
now run Camfed Zimbabwe and are rolling out the programs in Malawi. This gave
us the opportunity to talk at length with the very people who are implementing
and benefitting from the programs.
SECTION 1. THE CAMFED GOVERNANCE MODEL:
WORKING TOWARD A STANDARD FOR GOVERNANCE IN THE
DEVELOPMENT SECTOR
Camfed asked us to identify the vital elements of its model and to articulate them
in this report. When performing that analysis, we witnessed both the empowering
effect on entire communities when members of a community are given responsi-
bility for identifying which children need help and what kind of help they need.
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Camfed Governance: Accounting to the Girl
We also witnessed how the Camfed governance model strives to ensure that every
aspect of Camfed’s programs revolves around the girl in her community.
Camfed wants to articulate and share with the sector the principles, Systeme
and controls that make up its governance model, so that its approach can be made
accessible and serve as a platform for debate toward reaching a consensus on stan-
dards for governance in the international development sector.
Governance Means…
Discussion of good governance in the corporate sector often focuses on the need
for a separation between the roles of the board of directors and management; Die
requirements for independent audit and other committees; and issues relating to
the institution’s compliance with relevant procedures, rules, and regulations.
Although these are important tools in achieving good governance, and we talk
about Camfed’s corporate structure later in this paper, governance is a broader and
more strategic concept. Each sector and each organization in a sector seeks to find
its own way to promote good governance in its operations. In der Tat, governance
inside and outside the corporate sector can perhaps best be described as “the sys-
tem and processes concerned with ensuring the overall direction, effectiveness,
supervision and accountability of a corporation.”2
In this report, we seek to identify and distil the principles on which Camfed’s
governance model has grown organically and then describe how they work in
practice vis-à-vis the local communities in which Camfed delivers its programs.
No governance model can be effective if it rests on principles and theory alone;
the proof of a model’s effectiveness lies in how the principles are applied in prac-
tice.
Camfed’s Governance Model…
Camfed believes that its achievements are due to the distinctive model for gover-
nance it has developed. For Camfed, governance is about who has influence; WHO
makes the decisions; who controls the resources; and where and to whom account-
ability lies within the communities that its programs serve. Governance is also
about the evolving processes, Beziehungen, institutions and structures by which
communities organize themselves collectively to negotiate their rights and inter-
ests, access the resources to which they are entitled and make decisions about what
arrangements will best enable them to achieve their goals.
Camfed implements its principles of governance through the process of bring-
ing together all of the constituencies that influence a girl’s life in order to ensure
that her right to education, and the entitlements that follow from this right are
protected and accessible. This includes her entitlement to the resources raised in
her name, and her entitlement to attend a school where she is safe.
This broad view of governance resonates with Linklaters’ legal and regulatory
knowledge of the duty of care that is owed to the beneficiary, consumer, or share-
holder in the corporate and financial sectors, as well as with the standards of trans-
parency and accountability imposed for their benefit.
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The paramount principle of the Camfed governance model is protection of the
beneficiary. Children are the intended beneficiaries of Camfed’s programs, so every
action that Camfed takes is examined first and foremost by Camfed to determine
the effect it will have on the child.
As all actions can risk unintended consequences, Camfed deploys a further
four organizing principles for governance (set out below) that serve continually to
vet, monitor, and modify any action Camfed takes to ensure that it will not unwit-
tingly have a negative impact on the intended beneficiaries.
Camfed strives to ensure that these principles are constantly at work in its sys-
Systeme, Verfahren, and controls. But it is not just the principles that make the gov-
ernance model distinctive: it is the way in which they are implemented on the
Boden. Camfed has had to learn many lessons over the 17 years of its develop-
ment. Its governance model is built on living principles that require constant and
vigorous application if they are to work.
Camfed believes that unless it adopts a wholly uncompromising attitude to the
implementation of each of the principles, the model will break down. This is what
Camfed means when it describes its principles as non-negotiable: all Camfed
employees and activists are expected to observe and promulgate the principles.
The way Camfed implements its principles in detail is what allows its model to suc-
ceed.
Is Scalable and Replicable…
We have seen the Camfed model in operation in three countries: Zimbabwe,
Zambia, and Malawi. From these visits we have seen how the model has been
scaled up and replicated in very different situations.
Camfed has developed a governance model in impoverished rural communi-
ties in sub-Saharan Africa that currently operates across five countries with differ-
ing religions, ethnic groups, and political situations. The systems, Kontrollen, proce-
dures, and ethos of Camfed are what make its model work. In this respect, Die
essential elements of Camfed’s model should be scalable and replicable, both with-
in the education sector and in the wider development community.
While recognizing that each development agency and initiative has its own
ethos and that the particular arrangements each agency puts in place for gover-
nance will be influenced by that ethos, the governance principles that Camfed
deploys may be broadly applicable in this sector.
SECTION 2. CAMFED AND ITS COMPONENT PARTS
A. Camfed’s Mission
The majority of Camfed-supported children and young women in rural sub-
Saharan Africa are orphans, the victims of HIV/AIDS and short life expectancy.
For these girls and their communities, poverty has manifested itself not only in
poor health and a lack of resources but, more critically, in a poverty of knowledge
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Camfed Governance: Accounting to the Girl
Five key principles that inform the Camfed governance model
Paramount Principle:
1. Protection of the vulnerable and disempowered client.
Organizing Principles:
2. Transparency and accountability at all levels and to all involved in the process
einschließlich, critically, the client.
3. Partnerships with existing national and community structures.
4. Activism and social capital in the place of dependency.
5. A holistic and long term approach to the delivery of both resources and pro-
tection to achieve a long term outcome.
of the rights and resources to which they are entitled.
This poverty of knowledge is most acute in rural areas where generations of
marginalized communities have been excluded from many of the decision-making
processes that affect their lives. The result is an “inequality of arms” in which
impoverished communities simply lack the knowledge, means, and capacity to
demand the resources to which they are entitled. This state of exclusion and con-
tinual deprivation robs communities of their confidence and forces them into a
mindset of dependency in which they consider that the opportunities afforded to
much of the world are simply out of their reach. Camfed believes that the process
of engagement with communities is the key to unlocking this mindset. Der beste
examples of this are the support systems around girls, and the girls themselves
whom we met on our visits to the countries in which Camfed operates and whom
we discuss throughout this report.
In each of the countries in which Camfed operates, over half of the population
lives on less than $1 a day. High levels of malnutrition and HIV/AIDS, coupled
with poor sanitation and lack of access to health care, have resulted in an average
life expectancy of 40 Zu 45 Jahre.
In sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS is the leading cause of death among those
zwischen dem Alter von 15 Und 59. An estimated 12 million children aged 0-17 have
lost one or both parents to AIDS-related illnesses, making the region home to 80
percent of all children in the developing world who have lost a parent to the dis-
ease.3 It is estimated that by 2010 15.7 million children, oder 30 percent of the pro-
jected 53 million orphans from all causes in sub-Saharan Africa, will have lost at
least one parent to AIDS. As many as 50 percent of sub-Saharan people are under
the age of 15.
The prevalence of AIDS among women is increasing, and because a sexually
transmitted disease is likely to infect both parents, so too is the number of double
orphans. In Zambia, zum Beispiel, it is currently estimated that around 1,100,000
children aged 0–17 years have lost one parent to HIV/AIDS and that 390,000 have
lost both.4 It is anticipated that AIDS will push the number of double orphans in
sub-Saharan Africa to approximately 10 million by the end of 2010. The time lag
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Lance Croffoot-Suede and Diana Good
between HIV infection and death means that even where HIV prevalence stabilizes
or begins to decline, the number of orphans will continue to grow for years.5
The impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on children has been catastrophic,
effectively robbing them of their childhood as well as undermining their future. Von
course, for many, the loss or illness of a parent has meant that education is put on
hold, and that they become the primary caregivers of the household. For many of
these girls, the HIV pandemic has forced them into a life of prostitution where they
too are at risk from the disease.
One of the foundations of Camfed’s work is the human right to education, A
right that, when implemented, secures multiple economic and social returns.
In advancing its stated mission, Camfed has developed, in partnership with
Eltern, Schulen, and ministries of Eeucation, a package of financial and social sup-
port that is aimed at providing girls with all the essential help they need to access
education in a safe and secure environment. Together they deliver and support the
programs detailed below, all of which are long term and follow girls through the
critical transformations from primary to secondary education, and from second-
ary education into young adulthood. What distinguishes Camfed, we have heard in
Africa time and time again, is its long term and holistic approach: Camfed provides
funding for school fees and for long term projects; it creates the environment for
and supports the development of community organizations at a local level; it goes
out into remote rural districts where few other organizations go; and it is deeply
involved at both regional and national levels. Camfed’s programs act as a catalyst
and motivator to tap into the desire of the poor and vulnerable to transform their
Leben. Over time, Camfed becomes a people’s movement led by local teams and for-
mer beneficiaries who have real passion for what they can achieve in terms of long
term change. This holistic approach, we have been told by government representa-
tives and other parties, is unusual and transformational.
B. Camfed’s Structure
Throughout this paper, the term “Camfed” encompasses all of the individuals and
entities discussed below.
1. Camfed’s Local Structure
Camfed’s overall objective is for participation in its programs in each country to
reach a level of critical mass from which its community activists can expand the
programs and initiatives. To its beneficiaries and their local communities,
“Camfed” is a team of local people who are implementing Camfed’s programs.
These community activists consist of: (ich) the members of the school management
committees and community development committees, whose tasks, among other
Dinge, are to identify who in a given school or district is most in need and what
they need, and also to run and monitor the Camfed education programs; (ii) Die
mother and father support groups, which play a variety of roles in the girls’ lives,
from mentoring and counseling to building housing or providing firewood or
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Camfed Governance: Accounting to the Girl
making and selling objects to provide the girls with extra food; Und (iii) CAMA,
the Camfed alumnae association, the members of which provide health training,
teacher mentoring, and also distribute seed money, run their own businesses, Und
act as role models for the girls.
We note that before Camfed arrives in a rural community there are pre-exist-
ing community organizations with which it immediately sets to work. Speziell,
in many of the regions where Camfed operates there are pre-existing school man-
agement committees and parent associations. Camfed builds on and enhances
these existing structures; it organizes and capacitates. As we saw in Zimbabwe,
where Camfed has been operating since 1993, after Camfed has successfully
launched its programs and partnered with local groups, Camfed effectively
becomes its component local parts—the School Management Committees,
Community Development Committees, Mother and Father Support Groups, Und
CAMA—and the Camfed national and international organizations recede from
view, playing only a supporting role in financing, Ausbildung, Überwachung, and evalu-
ating.
2. Camfed’s Corporate Structure
Camfed’s corporate structure reflects a collaborative approach to management
and governance.
In each of the countries where Camfed operates (except Malawi), it has a
national organization that maintains a national office. Each office is a separate
legal entity with a common constitution. All officers in these national offices are
nationals who understand their national education system and the local issues. In
Zambia, Camfed was successful in attracting a former Permanent Secretary of
Education to become the Executive Director of the organization. In Zimbabwe, A
former beneficiary is now the Executive Director. Each national office has its own
board of trustees.
Camfed International and Camfed USA provide coordination and support
across all offices in the areas of finance, human resources, programing, advocacy,
fundraising, IT and communications.
Camfed International’s Executive Director is based in the U.K. The organisa-
tion is run by an Executive Committee that is international and consists of the
Executive Director of each office in Africa as well as finance and development
directors from its U.K. und wir. Organisationen, Camfed International and Camfed
USA, jeweils. The Executive Committee meets every week via teleconference
and twice a year in person. Strategic issues, such as which countries to invest in,
and how best to attract, use and balance the funding available, are discussed and
agreed collaboratively by the Executive Committee.
The boards in each country ensure that the legal duties of Camfed (such as
reviewing finances, accounts, audits, the risk register, conflict issues, Material
expense items, usw.) are fulfilled and that international standards are observed in
terms of finance and accounting issues. The boards also review the long term
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Figur 1. The Camfed Program Cycle.
.
strategic plans of the overall organization. They are given free licence to question:
Is the organisation being true to its values? Is it accessing the correct, and suffi-
ciently balanced, funds? Is the organization acting in the best interests of the girls
it is seeking to serve? Is the long term future of Camfed secure?
C. The Camfed Programs
Camfed’s programs provide holistic support for girls’ education. Linklaters wit-
nessed how these programs enable rural communities to help girls complete pri-
mary education, make the transition to and complete secondary education, secure
a livelihood in their home areas through the provision of further training and
micro-finance, and then, as young educated women participate in the regeneration
of their communities as social and economic activists. Camfed describes this as
“the virtuous cycle,” illustrated below. A brief overview of Camfed’s programs fol-
lows.
Camfed’s program model has four key components:
Erste, Camfed identifies vulnerable girls and boys who are at risk of dropping
out of primary school and puts in place a comprehensive support system at com-
munity level, which includes the provision of cash transfers, known as the Safety
Net Fund, administered by School Management Committees to protect the rights
and welfare of these children. This may include, Zum Beispiel, provision of books,
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stationery, Kleidung, and medical costs in order to close the gap in government sup-
port and ensure that children not only have access to education but that they have
a better educational experience. The large majority of beneficiaries are orphans,
have been abandoned, are from child-headed households, or are from very poor or
destitute families.
Zweite, Camfed continues to support vulnerable girls through secondary
Schule (the level at which tuition fees must be paid and uniforms must be pur-
chased), working with communities and schools to design effective interventions,
including locally managed bursary schemes and psychosocial support, guidance
and counseling from trained teacher mentors. The focus is on girls because they
experience the highest dropout levels at this stage of education. Camfed makes a
commitment to support girls through at least four years of secondary school.
Dritte, Camfed facilitates the post-school transition by providing graduates
with the chance to become economically active upon leaving school, by offering
ongoing training in finance and fostering local enterprise. In manchen Fällen, girls will
be supported through tertiary education
Vierte, Camfed promotes young women’s leadership and ensures that they
have the opportunity to influence policy related to girls’ education and young
women’s empowerment on national and international levels. This final component
is underpinned by CAMA, a pan-African network of young women, weiter
nachstehend beschrieben. These young women are important role models in their commu-
nities and are now leading philanthropic initiatives to support the current genera-
tion of vulnerable children to go to school.
In the delivery of its social assistance programs, Camfed partners with local
government and community structures that have the potential to support and pro-
tect vulnerable children. These structures are not only involved in the programs,
they have responsibility for running them, which is central to Camfed’s strategy for
sustainability and scale. Set out below are the all-volunteer community activist
structures with which Camfed partners.
• The School Management Committees are selected by the community to repre-
sent the different stakeholders in the community: Eltern, Lehrer, traditional
Führer, former beneficiaries, local education officers, usw. Their task is to iden-
tify which children in their communities are in need of educational assistance
and what kind of assistance can meet their needs. The School Management
Committees administer both the secondary school bursaries for girls and
Camfed’s Safety Net Fund for the benefit of both girls and boys at primary
school level.
• The Community Development Committees are democratically elected by their
constituencies, including local head teachers, for two-year terms and typically
consist of district education officers, head teachers, teacher mentors, Gesundheit
workers, police, Eltern, and CAMA members. At least 50 percent of the com-
mittee members must be women. They review the proposed recipients of
Camfed’s educational assistance and monitor the accounts. They respond to
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cases of financial mismanagement and cases of child abuse, and they play an
integral role in the development of Camfed’s budget for a given district.
• Mother and Father Support Groups: Throughout the districts in which Camfed
operates, mothers living in villages near schools have formed Mother Support
Groups to assist girls in need. In addition to being counselors and mentors, Die
mothers plant extra maize or make clothes and use the profits to support more
children through school and to make sure they have sufficient food to eat. In
Zimbabwe, the communities have also set up Father Support Groups. Diese
groups have proved to be an important platform for parents to engage with
local authorities and make demands on behalf of vulnerable children.
• CAMA: The Camfed Association (CAMA) is an organization for young
Frauen. CAMA has a written constitution, holds annual elections for officers,
provides health and leadership training, and organizes meetings both within
CAMA and for the community at large, that deal with issues of child abuse,
Geschlecht, and economic empowerment, unter anderen. Members who apply must
be between the ages of 16 Und 25 and commit to volunteering for a four-
month trial period prior to formal membership. Individuals need not be
Camfed beneficiaries to join; In der Tat, the current and previous chairs of CAMA
Zimbabwe were not Camfed beneficiaries. CAMA provides young women with
business training and seed money to start their own businesses. The Camfed
Seed Money Program is run by CAMA members, who are trained by Camfed
in preparing business plans and managing finances. CAMA members also train
through the Community Health Program as Community Health Officers who
go into the communities empowered to teach people about sanitation, Säugling
care, and HIV/AIDS. CAMA is currently a network of 14,005 women in
Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, and Ghana.
How does Camfed select the girls it will assist and how does Camfed provide its
assistance?
1. The Selection Process: In all cases, each local community is asked to identify the
children who are most in need in their community. Existing structures at the local
Schulen,
including School Management Committees and Parent Teacher
Associations, collaborate with Community Development Committees to ensure a
broad and balanced representation by all relevant stakeholders. These committees
and their members become part of the team of Camfed activists and are charged
with identifying who is most in need and what they need, as they know best who
those children are. They then monitor and run the programs without remunera-
tion.
2. The Accounting Process: All partner schools, community development com-
mittees, and school management committees are required to keep accounts and
records setting out the allocation of funds and support that are routinely audited
by Camfed. Camfed maintains a central database compiled from information col-
lated locally that enables the progress of every individual beneficiary to be tracked.
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It shows precisely what she has received by way of support and how she is progress-
ing through school in terms of attendance and exam achievements. There are only
two financial transactions from the donation of funds to the receipt of them by
Schulen. Each of the schools, the community committees, and the donors have
complete clarity as to what the entitlements are and where the money is. The fact
that there are only two transactions greatly minimises the risks of corruption and
“leakage.”
3. The Monitoring Process: Camfed’s detailed and extensive monitoring of and
support for its programs ensures that girls receive the support and assistance to
which they are entitled and that any changes in the girls’ circumstances are detect-
ed as quickly as possible. Continual evaluation of programs, ongoing training, Und
the sharing of information at local, National, and international levels ensures that
programs benefit from community feedback and lessons learned in the field. Wir
interviewed many committee members, who monitor at a local level, and members
of the Camfed national staff, who visit each of the districts on a regular basis.
Impressive documentary evidence of monitoring appears in the voluminous
Baseline Studies.
D. The Girl Focus
In the following vignette, we illustrate the all-too-common circumstances of an
African girl living in a remote, impoverished rural area. The vignette is a compos-
ite of the stories of the girls we met and spoke with and, im Wesentlichen, is representa-
tive of the girls Camfed encounters. We set it forth here to illustrate the context
within which Camfed developed its governance model for delivering girls’ educa-
tion.
If we look at life through the eyes of a girl of 10 oder 11 who lives in a very poor rural
area in sub-Saharan Africa and is coming up to puberty—“Celia”—the problems she
faces are overwhelming.
Currently, Celia goes to school. Primary education is free. Her teachers say she
is very bright and her parents are keen to support her. Her parents cannot afford
the school uniform or supplies, so she attends in a ragged dress and she does not
have pencils or paper. This means she is at a disadvantage and attends school in a
constant state of embarrassment. Infolge, she is less likely to put herself forward
in class than most of the other children. It is a very long walk to school, welches ist
tiring and sometimes dangerous. She also has to help at home with domestic
chores. These tasks fall on her rather than her brothers.
There is no electricity or lamp for Celia and her siblings to do their homework
in the evenings. They go to sleep on the mud floor, often without having had any
or adequate food to eat. When she and her brother do have food to take to school,
he is too embarrassed to carry the food, so he makes Celia carry the bag. Later, bei
Schule, she is bullied by her brother and his friends to hand over all of the food, Also
she goes hungry again.
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There is not much for Celia to look forward to. There are no role models to
show her that life can be different from her current existence. Celia’s mother is 25
and she already has four children. The family survives by means of growing a little
maize behind the house. Her father is away working.
Celia attends a school of 1,260 children where, until last term, there were only
seven teachers, of whom only one was a woman. Now there are two new female
teachers straight out of teacher-training college, but both of them are lonely and
isolated, as they do not come from this district and they are paid very little money.
Each class consists of up to 200 Kinder, so it is very difficult to concentrate and
learn. The expectation is that the vast majority of girls will not go on to secondary
school or get a job. Like the other women in her community who are only a few
years older, Celia in all likelihood will get married very young, will have many chil-
dren, and will grow the family food on a “subsistence” plot.
Once Celia starts to menstruate, the challenges become much greater. Erste, sie
has no underpants or sanitary pads, so she misses school for a week each month.
Infolge, she does worse in her exams at school than the boys and she feels
stupid. She begins to wonder: what’s the point of trying to gain an education
against such odds?
The chances of Celia being impregnated by a much older man who is HIV pos-
itive are significant. If she does become pregnant, she is likely to be blamed for her
behavior. Already, two of her friends have had to leave school at the age of 13
because they became pregnant. One has since died of AIDS, leaving her baby to be
looked after by her widowed mother who already has five children.
Celia’s parents are faced with a terrible dilemma. They have barely enough
food for the family, and an older man who has money wants to marry Celia. If she
were married, she would no longer be her parents’ financial responsibility. Eher,
her parents could expect Celia to help them financially. Her parents know that the
reason the older man wants to marry her is that he believes a virgin will protect
him from HIV/AIDS, but he is an influential man in the village and the pressure is
considerable.
Celia’s parents resist this pressure for the moment because they long for her to
have a better life than they did, and the teachers continue to encourage Celia. Her
performance is not what it was when she was younger, but she is bright and she is
prepared to work hard. She manages to pass her exams and gets into secondary
Schule. Only four out of the 50 children in Celia’s grade in primary school make it
to secondary school, and Celia is the only girl among them. Fees do have to be paid
at secondary school. Jedoch, the government has enabled the secondary school
to pay for the fees of those who could not otherwise afford them, so Celia is able
to attend.
Celia still has to have a uniform, books, and paper and pens. Her family finds
this nearly impossible to provide, but they are doing their best. More challenging
still, there are far fewer secondary schools than there are primary schools, und das
school that has accepted Celia is too far away for her to walk to and from every day.
The school has no hostel and provides no accommodation, so Celia has to stay
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with people in the village. She receives inadequate food there and may experience
sexual harassment or abuse.
After a month in school, the headmaster tells Celia that the bursary money
from the government has not arrived, and if she is not able to pay the fees by the
end of the term, she will not be permitted to return for the next term.
In der Zwischenzeit, one of the men Celia has met while living in the village meets
her after school and asks to carry her books home. He promises that he will help
her financially and give her food, but he expects sexual favors in return.
Celia is now caught in an all-too-common predicament faced by rural African
girls: she has no role models, no money for fees, very little food, and is at risk of
abuse.
All of the above details come from the stories of the lives of the children and young
women we interviewed in Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe.
If we continue chronicling Celia’s life, assuming Camfed does not find her where
we left her, the following is all too often what happens:
Celia hears the news that her father has died of AIDS. There are now five
younger brothers and sisters at home and Celia’s mother is herself probably facing
an early death. If her mother dies, Celia will become head of her household. Während
her mother is alive, Celia probably has no choice but to marry the older man “with
money in his pocket.” She will then be able to help her mother and her siblings,
and take her younger brothers and sisters on if her mother dies.
What if Celia does not marry and, a year after her father’s death, her mother
stirbt?
By the age of 14, Celia is alone with no money and no support. Her father’s rel-
atives will be quick to take what was left of her family’s land and possessions, leav-
ing her and her siblings with nowhere to live and no money. Left with no other
options, Celia turns to prostitution. Initially she insists that her clients use a con-
dom, but many refuse and go with other girls. She begins to see many of the girls
with whom she worked fall ill. She knows that if she continues prostituting herself,
she might also get sick and die.
What if Celia manages to extricate herself from prostitution and care for her
siblings? The vicious cycle will still continue. By the age of 24, Celia will have mar-
ried and borne her own children, her husband may well die of AIDS, and then she
will live under the threat of AIDS herself and will struggle as to how to prevent her
own daughters from dropping out of school and being forced into early marriage
or prostitution.
What would Celia’s life and school experience be if her school district were in part-
nership with Camfed?
At the point when Celia dropped out of school or was about to do so, she and
her family would be visited by members of the school management committee.
Once the school management committee establishes that she is one of the girls
most in need in their community, she will be proposed for a bursary funded by
Camfed. She and a group of other similarly selected girls would be visited again
and told that they will be receiving Camfed bursaries, which Camfed ensures go to
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the most needy students, not necessarily the best students. The school manage-
ment committee and other community members will do this work because Celia
is one of their children. Camfed is not a substitution for parents or the communi-
ty, but rather it motivates a wider support system to help Celia.
Celia would be told that the Camfed bursary will consist of school fees, uni-
bilden, school equipment, and anything else without which it would not be possible
for her to attend school, such as sanitary pads. If Celia’s absence from home was
going to make it difficult for other siblings to attend primary school, her brothers
and sisters would be eligible for help from the Safety Net Fund, which provides
assistance with clothing, school equipment, and other incidentals.
Celia and the other Camfed bursary recipients will together and in public be
given their uniforms and other support. Celia will have no private meetings with
one person of power and influence.
Celia’s teachers will receive training and mentoring to ensure that the school
environment is safe and protective of all children. It is then likely that more women
teachers will be posted to the school, and gender-related violence and abuse will be
reduced.
If at any point Celia does not receive her Camfed entitlement, this will become
immediately apparent to her, her teachers, and the school management committee
and community development committee who track every girl’s progress and for-
ward the information on to Camfed’s national center in that country. The irregu-
larity will be detected and reviewed by the Community Development Committee
or the School Management Committee, as they know what Celia is entitled to and
they know to whom to elevate the problem. Disciplinary action will be taken if
need be, and lessons will be learned and acted on.
At school, Celia will receive mentoring from CAMA members and the Mother
Support Group. If she drops out of school at any point, she and family members
will be visited and Celia will be helped to get back into school. Camfed commits to
support girls through the four years of secondary school and has never let down
any child on that commitment. Camfed does not accept the substitution of
“Winnie” for “Celia” once Celia has been selected by the local community as the
most in need of assistance.
If Celia’s school is too far away for her to travel to each day, Camfed will try to
make Celia’s accommodation near her school as child-safe as possible and will
work with the Community Development Committee and School Management
Committee to improve her protection and that of other children who are away
from home. A Father Support Group may help by gathering firewood for the girls’
cooking fires and making tools to sell in order to provide the girls with money to
buy food.
If Celia gets a place at university, Camfed will endeavor to secure her sponsor-
ship, including national government scholarships.
When Celia finishes her secondary education, she can join the CAMA associ-
ation, from whom she may receive seed funding to set up a small local business to
earn her livelihood. She may give back to the community by supporting other
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Camfed Governance: Accounting to the Girl
members of her family and other children in need. She will receive training and
will be invited to participate in Camfed’s programs, such as the community health
program through which she and other CAMA and mother support group mem-
bers will go into remote villages to teach the communities about the risks of
HIV/AIDS.
As an adult Celia, in all likelihood, will choose to support other children in the
local community, will make money through running a small business, or will become
one of the teachers or doctors who will show other girls that they can aspire to these
role models and that there is a way to change their lives. Systemic change will be
im Gange.
SECTION 3. THE CAMFED GOVERNANCE MODEL:
EFFECTING SYSTEMIC CHANGE
In diesem Abschnitt, we identify the Camfed governance model. It has not previously
been distilled or documented in this comprehensive form. We also seek to describe
here the sustainable and transforming change that is brought about by the Camfed
Modell.
A. Camfed’s Governance Model
Camfed’s governance model underpins all of its programs and was developed to
ensure accountability to the girl by means of the overarching principle of child
protection and the organizing principles of transparency and accountability, Teil-
nerships with government and community, activism and social capital, and a holis-
tic long term approach. The governance model is designed to ensure that the right
of girls to education is protected and promoted. It also provides innumerable
intangible deterrents against fraud because it instills from the grassroots up a cul-
ture of integrity in which participants at all levels work together to guarantee that
a girl’s right to education and protection is respected and supported.
1. What is “Governance” to Camfed?
For Camfed, governance is not just about the formal structures and corporate
technicalities that Camfed as an organization uses to deliver its programs.
Governance is about who has influence, who makes the decisions, who controls the
resources, and where and to whom accountability lies within the communities that
its programs service. Governance is also about the evolving processes, relation-
ships, institutions, and structures by which people in rural communities organise
themselves collectively to negotiate their rights and interests, access the resources
to which they are entitled, and make decisions about what arrangements will best
enable them to achieve their goals.
Camfed implements its views of governance through the process of bringing
together all of the constituencies that influence a girl’s life in order to ensure that
her right to education and the entitlements that follow from this right are protect-
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Figur 2. Accounting to the Girl: Principles and Levels of Governance in the
Camfed Model.
ed and are accessible—such as her entitlement to the resources raised in her name
and her entitlement to attend a school where she is safe.
This broad view of governance resonates with Linklaters’ legal and regulatory
knowledge of the duty of care to the client, consumer, or shareholder in the corpo-
rate and financial sectors, and the standards of transparency and accountability
imposed for their benefit.
2. The Key Principles in the Camfed Governance Model
The key principles that drive the Camfed governance model are as follows:
(ich) Protecting the Interests of the Intended Client: At all levels of Camfed’s
involvement and delivery of programs, it requires that everyone involved in the
programs be aware of and observe child protection policies. These inform all of the
Camfed processes, structures, and systems.
(ii) Transparency and Accountability: This is essential in all systems, structures
and processes for the selection of beneficiaries, financial management, sozial
auditing, impact assessment, usw. For Camfed, transparency and accountability
must be afforded to every individual on whose behalf it works, as well as to their
Gemeinschaft. It also provides equal and mirror-image transparency to donors.
(iii) Partnerships: Camfed enters into dynamic partnerships with government,
local communities, and parents and teachers. It believes that the only way to
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Camfed Governance: Accounting to the Girl
Figur 3. The Camfed Model: Effecting Systemic Change.
achieve systemic change is to use and complement existing structures, by ensuring
that there is a constant dialogue, and by influencing and effecting change to the
institutions at each of the national, regional, and local levels.
(iv) Social Capital and Activism: The Camfed governance model turns the tra-
ditional approach of paying people to carry out their civic duties on its head. Der
community members who are Camfed’s community activists are rarely paid to
attend committee meetings or for other activities they undertake to deliver girls’
education through Camfed’s programs. Community members get involved and
become Camfed activists because they care passionately about the future of their
community and they want to help—not because they are motivated by financial
gain. As a community development committee chair of the Wedza District of
Zimbabwe told us, Camfed taps into people’s innate hunger for education and
advancement; these people do not need to be paid. By reducing the potential for
financial self-interest, the collective interest—the advancement of girls and young
women—and the individual’s sense of ownership in the community are promot-
Hrsg.
(v) Holistic and Long term Approach: Sustainable change is effected by ensur-
ing that all aspects of a girl’s development are met through the involvement and
consequent enrichment of the community in which she lives. Money and resources
committed even in the long term are not enough. The Camfed governance model
strives to ensure that beneficiaries go through the school system and become active
members of their communities who give back to the community and assume a
leadership role. By involving the community at all stages, and by providing men-
toring, counseling, and training programs to more than just the Camfed benefici-
aries, the community itself becomes empowered and strengthened.
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Figuren 2 Und 3 (previous page) illustrate Camfed’s governance model and the
process of systemic change that it sets in motion. Erste, we describe how each fam-
ily, Schule, Gemeinschaft, national government, and the international community
are engaged by Camfed for the benefit of the girl. Nächste, we illustrate the long term
change that Camfed’s governance model puts into effect: Erste, through creating a
strong local infrastructure through which to secure girls’ entitlements; zweite,
through enabling young women to take up strategic decision-making positions;
and finally, through making demands on other service-providers, including gov-
Ernährung, and influencing policy change and implementation at national level.
B. Effecting Systemic Change
Camfed encourages systemic change by giving communities the responsibility for
running the Camfed programs and making the critical decisions themselves. Lokal
stakeholders take ownership of the problems and find the solutions with Camfed’s
support and through long term programs that ensure that those who are excluded
from education receive it, and those who have no voice are helped to the confi-
dence and means to determine their own futures and influence change for others.
Aggregate Figures
What began in Zimbabwe in 1993 as a program with 32 girls in two schools has
now become a movement supporting 1,065,710 disadvantaged children across
3,148 schools in rural districts in Zimbabwe, Ghana, Zambia, Tanzania, and most
recently Malawi. Camfed has set up an alumnae network of, presently, 14,005
young women who take on roles as mentors and trainers and run seed money
schemes. CAMA members, along with community activists, have themselves sup-
portiert 118,384 children since CAMA began. It is a testament to the sustainability
of the Camfed model that Camfed’s programs are still thriving in Zimbabwe
notwithstanding the recent political turmoil and violence in that country. In der Tat,
it is alumnae of the Zimbabwe Camfed educational programs who are leading the
introduction of Camfed to Malawi.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Camfed’s figures are so precise because Camfed tracks each girl it supports.
Camfed’s database tracks the progress of each girl through secondary school and
beyond. Camfed also maintains at the national level a copy of the hard copy
records kept by the schools of every boy and girl who receives assistance from the
Safety Net Fund at primary school, and precisely what each child has received.
Camfed’s figures relating to the number of girls receiving bursary support are for
the total number of girls currently receiving four years of secondary education.
The number of children supported by CAMA members and community activists
is based on (ich) reports made by individual CAMA members to CAMA district
committees, which are reported at the CAMA annual general meeting, (ii) the sur-
vey results obtained during the baseline studies in the three countries where the
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Tisch 1. Camfed Programs: Current Statistics.
The figures above show current statistics as at January 2010, and are provided by
Camfed International.
studies were conducted, Und (iii) reports made by community representatives at
district and national annual general meetings. The number of community activists
is calculated based on the number of community development committee mem-
bers, CAMA members, school based committee members, mother and fFather
support group members, and teacher mentors, for all of whom Camfed maintains
records.
In 2008 Und 2009, Camfed developed and implemented a large-scale impact
assessment in Zambia, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe (with Ghana and Malawi to fol-
low in 2010) designed to establish a baseline against which to measure the future
success of its programs in the countries where it operates (the “Baseline Studies”).
The Baseline Studies are a key component of Camfed’s monitoring process and
consist of a rigorous, detailliert, exhaustive survey of key stakeholders invested in the
success of girls’ education in the communities where Camfed is operating its pro-
Gramm. They are designed to assess the knowledge, attitude, behavior, and practice
of those stakeholders as they support the girls through their education. The inter-
views are carried out by local Camfed activists. In Summe, manche 5,818 interviews have
been conducted to date in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania.
Camfed will repeat the exercise in each country at five-year intervals in order
to continue to measure Camfed’s impact on long term systemic change. The pur-
pose of the Baseline Studies is to compare progress in schools and communities
where Camfed programs have been very recently introduced with those where they
have had more time to become embedded. The Baseline Studies involve training
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Lance Croffoot-Suede and Diana Good
Proposed Questions for Donors and NGOs
Our work with Camfed has prompted the development of detailed questions
and a checklist focusing on the delivery of aid. We believe such questions and
checklist might help donors and aid providers to gain insight into the sustain-
ability and effectiveness of the aid provided. The questions and checklist are
designed to test the implementation of policies and programs and check
whether they result in accountability to the intended client. We provide here an
excerpt of Linklaters’ Proposed Questions for Donors and NGOs:
1. Who is the beneficiary/client?
2. Is the aid fit for purpose?
3. Are there policies for the protection of the beneficiary/client?
4. Is there community decision making?
5. Is the emphasis on payment or social capital?
6. What about financial management, cost effectiveness and speed of delivery of
funding?
7. What happens when there are irregularities?
8. Is there partnership?
9. Is the focus on long term impact?
10. What is the make-up of the management and boards of directors?
We invite readers to examine the full set of questions and checklist in the report,
which can be found at
local populations in the use of the survey technology. In Zimbabwe, we participat-
ed in two days of meetings with Camfed activists who had conducted the survey
there and who were analyzing, discussing, and learning from the results. Der
results are published and shared, with both local communities and national gov-
ernments.
The Intangible Metrics
Through “bottom-up” community leadership and management guided by
Camfed’s monitoring and evaluation of results, rural communities are incentivised
and inspired to deploy their ideas to the fullest, so that they not only achieve short-
term benefits, but their actions and interventions also foster a continual cycle of
community renewal and improvement, which results in systemic change. From a
program’s inception in a new educational district, Camfed engages local commu-
nities that drive Camfed’s work forward and maximize its impact on the girls with-
in those communities. The synergy within the communities created by these pro-
grams generates the systemic change Camfed sets out to achieve. This systemic
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Camfed Governance: Accounting to the Girl
change is measured by intangible metrics such as the extent to which :(ich) local
communities take ownership over and expand Camfed’s programs; Und (ii) indi-
viduals, enlightened and empowered through Camfed’s programs, selbst
become powerbrokers on behalf of their constituencies.
Becoming Powerbrokers
CAMA members are becoming genuine powerbrokers at national level. Sie sind
increasingly occupying important positions in government and NGOs. Sie sind
accessing international platforms, including a member of CAMA Zambia, WHO
spoke at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit where she acceptec the
Goldman Sachs & Fortune Global Women Leaders Award in September 2009, Und
the National Chair of CAMA Zimbabwe, who traveled to San Francisco in April
2008 to speak at the Seventh Annual Global Philanthropy Forum. Other examples
include former CAMA members who are now on the National Youth Council of
Zimbabwe and the Provincial Head of the Victim Friendly Unit of the Zimbabwe
Republic Police.
Camfed is a catalyst for systemic change because entire rural communities
learn, through working with Camfed to deliver girls’ education, that they can
transform themselves by taking responsibility for programs. They do it as a matter
of civic pride, and thereby become decision-makers ready to affect, influence, Und
bring change to their societies.
Taking Ownership
In Zimbabwe, where Camfed has operated the longest, the results of the Baseline
Study indicate that in the minds of the stakeholders interviewed Camfed consists
of the community activist programs that Camfed has set in place, rather than
Camfed being perceived as a national/international entity. During the discussion
of the Baseline Study, we were shown diagrams that had been produced by local
community members to describe how Camfed contributed to the survival of their
schools during the upheaval in 2008, when many schools had to close. These dia-
grams showed that as Camfed’s programs became embedded over time, the local
communities took ownership of the programs. One diagram was put together by
local people in a school where Camfed had only just started its programs in the
previous year: Dort, Camfed was named as one of the external NGOs that provide
aid. Another diagram was put together by local people in a school where Camfed’s
programs had been operating for many years: Dort, Camfed, the external NGO, Ist
no longer referred to. Stattdessen, Camfed is seen as its local constituent elements
(CAMA, the mother support groups, and the local committees). We found these to
be a powerful illustration of the way in which Camfed, im Laufe der Zeit, becomes assim-
ilated into the communities where it operates to such an extent that, in the minds
of community members, Camfed is a thoroughly local entity. As one Community
Development Committee chair told us, the major accomplishment of Camfed has
been to help people view education as something in which they have a stake, als
something of which local people can take ownership. This is systemic change.
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Lance Croffoot-Suede and Diana Good
CLOSING THOUGHT
Instituting good governance in any domain is a daunting task. Its success ultimate-
ly relies on a proper understanding of the context in which it is to be implement-
ed and the end goals to be achieved, and in fashioning principles and structures
that effectively facilitate the development of a culture of common cause, responsi-
bility, and ownership at every level. In working on this project, we at Linklaters
learned much about the challenges to, and potential for, good governance in
impoverished communities in rural sub-Saharan Africa. While the remote rural
communities of sub-Saharan Africa offer stark reasons for despair about poverty
and disempowerment, they also offer great hope, both generally and for what can
be achieved through the implementation of good governance. Due to geographi-
cal isolation from centers of commerce and government, people living in rural
areas have continued to rely on existing community structures to survive, Und
through shared knowledge, Werte, and history, genuine community living has
been preserved.
Camfed has developed a governance model that reflects these existing commu-
nity structures and that taps into the communities’ desire for empowerment and
self-improvement. Through Camfed’s governance model, corruption and abuse
can be minimized and volunteerism made endemic, not only in the education sec-
tor but, potentially, in all contexts in which rural communities face disenfranchise-
ment and exclusion from resources and decision-making power.
As the vast majority of the population in sub-Saharan Africa resides in rural
areas much like the ones we visited in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, these rural
communities and their propensity for good governance offer a great chance for
rapid improvement in the conditions in these countries, which can be carried out
by local communities themselves.
While we at Linklaters have learned a great deal in the course of this project,
most of all we learned that there is a real opportunity to improve conditions in
these impoverished areas by furthering good governance in them. We hope that
this report may help the international aid sector advance the debate as to how to
best seize this opportunity.
Acknowledgements and Work Outline
The visits to Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe were conducted by the following
Linklaters lawyers, in teams of four, three and three, jeweils: Lance Croffoot-
Suede, Diana Good, Ruth Harlow, Lisa Vincent, Philomena McFadden and Ulysses
Schmied. The following Linklaters staff have also contributed significantly to this
Papier: Christopher Coombe, Oonagh Harpur, Ben Singer, Jared Jenkins, Aalia
Datoo, Carly Nuzbach, Celia Davidson, Leila Zerai, Paul Wray, Elsha Butler,
Matthew Sparkes, Vicki Doughty, Susan Jackson Cousin and Isla Pickering.
1. Herz & Sperling (2004) “What Works in Girls’ Education: Evidence and Policies from the
Developing World,” Council on Foreign Relations Press; Tembon & Fort (2008) “Girls’ Education
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Camfed Governance: Accounting to the Girl
in the 21st Century: Gender Equality, Empowerment and Economic Growth,” World Bank
Veröffentlichungen.
2. Cornforth (2003) “The Governance of Voluntary Organisations.”
3. UNICEF (2006) “Africa’s Orphaned and Vulnerable Generations: Children Affected by AIDS.”
4. UNICEF, UNAIDS and WHO (2008) “Children and AIDS: Country Fact Sheets 2008.”
5. UNICEF (2006) “Africa’s Orphaned and Vulnerable Generations: Children Affected by AIDS.”
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