Ann Cotton, OBE, founder and president of Camfed, the Campaign for Female Education, has been named the 2014 WISE Prize for Education Laureate. Ms Cotton spearheaded an internationally acclaimed model for girls’ education, which has placed education at the heart of development in Africa. The WISE Prize for Education was established in 2011 to raise the status of education by giving it similar prestige to other areas for which international prizes exist, such as literature, peace, and economics. The Laureate receives an award of $500,000 and a specially minted gold medal.
The WISE Prize for Education was presented by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairperson of Qatar Foundation, at the Opening Plenary Session of the sixth World Innovation Summit for Education in Doha, Qatar, before more than 1,500 experts from diverse fields and over 100 countries.
For more than two decades, Ms Cotton has focused on improving opportunities for children at the margins of education. Cotton’s commitment to girls’ education in sub-Saharan Africa began in 1991, when she realized that poverty, rather than cultural barriers, was the main reason for girls’ low school enrolment in rural areas. Camfed’s innovative education programs have already benefitted over 3 million children in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, and Malawi and are implemented across 5,085 partner schools in 115 rural districts.
Ms Ann Cotton said: “I am honoured to join education innovators like Ms Vicky Colbert, Dr Madhav Chavan, and Sir Fazle Hasan Abed as the fourth WISE Prize for Education Laureate. I accept this prize on behalf of the million girls Camfed is committed to supporting through secondary education in the next five years – a million girls whose poverty has so far robbed them of confidence and agency, and who do not yet know what an amazing transformation awaits them.”