Educating young people has been the focus of Ann Cotton’s life. In her early career, she established and led an education center for girls excluded from mainstream education in London. She went on to work as an educational assessor and advocate for children.

Ann Cotton is the Founder and Executive Director of Camfed International which is widely recognized and respected as an example of best practice in girls’ education. It is at the local and national levels where Camfed’s influence is most strongly felt and where it exercises a leadership role, advising national governments and international organizations, and multi-stakeholder coalitions. Its advocacy of girls’ education and child protection is ensuring that the voices of rural girls and women are heard at the highest level.

Since its inception in 1993, 1,065,070 children, primarily girls, have benefitted from Camfed’s education program across a network of 2,798 schools. And on leaving school, 5,132 young women have received business training and start-up grants to establish their own rural enterprises. They are leading change.

Ann Cotton has won numerous awards for her work including an Honorary Doctorate in Law from Cambridge University, an OBE from the Queen and the Skoll and Schwab Awards for Social Entrepreneurship.

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