Angeline Murimirwa wins Africa Education Medal 2024

Founded by T4 Education and HP Inc, the Africa Education Medal is Africa’s most prestigious education accolade

Zimbabwe’s Angeline Murimirwa, CEO of CAMFED, has won the Africa Education Medal 2024. Founded by T4 Education and HP Inc, the Africa Education Medal is Africa’s most prestigious education accolade.

The Africa Education Medal recognises the tireless work of those who are transforming education across the continent – celebrating the stories of those who have lit the spark of change so others will be inspired to take up the torch. It is given to an outstanding individual who has demonstrated impact, leadership, and advocacy in the field of education.

Angeline (Angie) Murimirwa is CEO of CAMFED, a pan-African, grassroots-led NGO that tackles poverty, inequality, and injustice through girls’ education and women’s leadership. Murimirwa herself was one of the first girls supported by CAMFED to go to secondary school in Zimbabwe and understands from first-hand experience the hurdles girls face in accessing education. Now CAMFED’s CEO, she is uniquely positioned to bring the expertise of girls and women once excluded from education to inform policy and strategy at every level.

The vast majority of girls in rural Africa never complete secondary school. Their exclusion from education plays out at every stage of a young woman’s life and is passed on to future generations. Murimirwa is leading CAMFED in the delivery of a proven solution that enables marginalised girls to enroll and thrive in secondary school, and then graduate into secure livelihoods and positions of leadership.

CAMFED’s model operates at three levels: First, in engaging with school communities to implement a comprehensive support system targeted at the most marginalised girls, tackling impediments to their school attendance and learning. Second, as girls graduate from secondary school, enabling their transition to work or entrepreneurship, and providing a platform for them to step up as leaders and support younger generations of girls. Third, in partnering with governments to embed what works in national school systems, to ensure these better serve the needs of girls.

CAMFED currently operates at scale in five countries: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, and Ghana, working with 7,044 partner schools in under-served rural communities. Its model has proven highly successful. For instance, in Zimbabwe, marginalised girls supported by CAMFED were nearly three times less likely to drop out of school relative to peers in comparison schools. In Tanzania, literacy gains for marginalised girls were twice as high and maths gains were five times higher in CAMFED partner schools.

Murimirwa was a founding member and first elected Chair of the CAMFED Association — the pan-African network of 279,000 women leaders educated with CAMFED support, and united in their determination to secure every girl’s right to quality education. Each member of the Association is financially supporting at least three other girls in their community to help them stay in school – a huge multiplier.

Murimirwa serves on the Board of Masana wa Afrika and has served as a member of the Zimbabwe Education Coordination Group and on the Board of the Zimbabwe National Youth Council. In 2006, Murimirwa was awarded the Prize for Women’s Creativity by the Women’s World Summit Foundation, and in 2017, she was presented with the Diamond Ball Honours Award by Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation. In 2020, she was awarded the Yidan Prize for Education Development alongside Lucy Lake. She has also been recognised as one of 100 most influential women by the BBC, in tribute to her role in supporting young women to step forward as leaders to drive support for girls’ education.

Mayank Dhingra, Senior Education Business Leader at HP, said:

“Our warmest congratulations to Zimbabwe’s Angeline Murimirwa on being named Medallist for the Africa Education Medal 2024. Her vital work has led the way in breaking down barriers to girls in education. We know that so many others will be inspired to follow in her footsteps to build a world where every child receives the quality education that is their right.”

Vikas Pota, Founder and CEO of T4 Education, said:

“The Africa Education Medal honours the leaders working tirelessly to transform African education. To meet UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 of universal quality education, to end learning poverty, close learning gaps, and unlock the continent’s potential, we must give a platform to changemakers from across society who are making a real difference.

“Congratulations to our 2024 Medallist Angeline Murimirwa. Africa, and the world, has so much to learn from your inspirational example.”

Angie Murimirwa, Africa Education Medal 2024 Medallist, said:

“I am deeply honoured by this recognition and want to pay special tribute to T4 Education and HP for highlighting Africa’s education champions. This medal belongs to our entire movement – to every single person whose commitment to education drives them to go further and do better every day. The need is great, and we cannot do this alone – together we’re raising the flag for a more equitable world.”

Angeline Murimirwa was chosen as the Medallist from among the Finalists for the Africa Education Medal 2024:

• Ahmed Omar, Co-Executive Director, Kenya Drylands Education Fund, Kenya
• Angeline (Angie) Murimirwa, CEO, CAMFED, Zimbabwe
• Christopher Khaemba, Co-Founder & Director, Nova Pioneer, Kenya
• Hakeem Subair, CEO, 1 Million Teachers, Nigeria
• Josiah Ajiboye, Registrar & Chief Executive, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, Nigeria
• Julian Hewitt, Outgoing CEO, The Jakes Gerwel Fellowship, South Africa
• Mohammed Haroon, Principal Education Consultant, Ghana
• Nankunda Hope Mwijuka, Executive Director, Raising Teenagers Uganda, Uganda
• Olanrewaju Oniyitan, Founder & Executive Director, SEED Care & Support Foundation, Nigeria
• Taddy Blecher CEO & Co-Founder, Maharishi Invincibility Institute, South Africa

The Medallist for this year’s Africa Education Medal will be invited to attend the World Schools Summit in Dubai on 23-24 November and, in recognition of the urgent need to solve the teacher recruitment and retention crisis to tackle learning gaps, the winner will be entitled to nominate a school of their choice to receive membership of T4 Education’s Best School to Work programme – an independent, evidence-based mechanism to certify schools for their culture and help them transform their working environment to attract and retain the best teachers.

Nominations for the Africa Education Medal opened in February 2024 for individuals working to improve pre-kindergarten, K-12, vocational and university education who are either educators or school leaders, civil society leaders, public servants, government officials, political leaders, entrepreneurs, business leaders, or technologists.

In its third year, the Africa Education Medal is the oldest of the three World Education Medals established by T4 Education and HP. The Medallist was chosen by a Jury comprising prominent individuals based on rigorous criteria.

ABOUT CAMFED

CAMFED is a pan-African movement, revolutionising how girls’ education is delivered. Through a gold-standard system of accountability to the young people and communities we serve, we have created a model that radically improves girls’ prospects of becoming independent, influential women. Our impact increases exponentially through the Association of Young Women Educated with CAMFED’s support. Together, we multiply the number of girls in school and accelerate their transition to secure livelihoods and leadership.

Through the CAMFED Association, women are leading action on the big challenges their countries face – from child marriage and girls’ exclusion from education to climate change. This unique pan-African sisterhood of teachers, nurses, doctors, sustainable agriculture experts, and entrepreneurs now numbers nearly 279,000 and is growing every year as more girls complete school and join them.

Our collective efforts have already supported more than 7.2 million children to go to school across Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and millions more students have benefited from an improved educational environment across our partner schools. Through our partnerships with governments, we are working to transform education systems to better serve the needs of all marginalised children.

ABOUT T4 EDUCATION

We believe every child, everywhere, deserves a good education. We are building the world’s largest community of teachers and schools to achieve this. Together. Our digital media platform provides opportunities for educators to network, collaborate, share good practices, and support each other’s efforts to improve learning and school culture. We work to amplify teachers’ voices because the world we want to see will only be built by listening to those at the heart of education.

Our global community of over 200,000 teachers and our digital media platform provides an engine for organisations to run education prizes that cut through in both the international media and the public consciousness.

ABOUT HP

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) is a global technology leader and creator of solutions that enable people to bring their ideas to life and connect to the things that matter most. Operating in more than 170 countries, HP delivers a wide range of innovative and sustainable devices, services, and subscriptions for personal computing, printing, 3D printing, hybrid work, gaming, and more. For more information, please visit: HP.com.