Angeline 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 enrol and thrive in secondary
school, 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 vocational training and work, 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, 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. Young women who graduate from secondary school with CAMFED’s support marry and have children later than their peers – between two to four years later than national averages.

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 has represented CAMFED on Zimbabwe’s Education Coordination
Group. She has served on the Board of the Zimbabwe National Youth Council and on the UNAIDS Gender Task Force. In 2006, she 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 forwardas leaders to drive support for girls’ education.