Lucy Lake OBE (born 3 August 1972) is a leader in the field of

female education Female education is a catch-all term for a complex set of issues and debates surrounding education (primary education, secondary education, tertiary education, and health education in particular) for girls and women. It is frequently called girls ...

and Chief Executive of

CAMFED CAMFED (also known as the Campaign for Female Education) is an international non-governmental, non-profit organization founded in 1993 whose mission is to eradicate poverty in Africa through the education of girls and the empowerment of young wo ...

(Campaign for Female Education).

Education

Lake studied

Human Sciences Human science (or human sciences in the plural) studies the philosophical, biological, social, justice, and cultural aspects of human life. Human science aims to expand the understanding of the human world through a broad interdisciplinary appro ...

Wadham College Wadham College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy Wadham, a ...

, University of Oxford (1991)

Career

Lake joined CAMFED in 1994 shortly after it was founded in Zimbabwe. She then led the development of its programs in support of girls' education across the region. Lake took on the role of CEO of CAMFED in 2012. In 2017, she appointed Angeline Murimirwa, one of the first women to have completed her education with CAMFED's support, as Co-Executive to underline the importance of ensuring those who were once marginalised move centre stage as leaders. This move has received acclaim as an example of good governance in international development, including from

Julia Gillard Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013. She held office as the leader of the Labor Party (ALP), having previously served as the ...

. Lake was a founding member and co-chair of the

United Nations Girls' Education Initiative The United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI) is an initiative launched by the United Nations in 2000 at the World Education Forum in Dakar at the primary school Ndiarème B. It aims to reduce the gap in schooling for girls and to gi ...

. She served on the High-Level Steering Group of the Global Education Commission's Workforce Initiative (2017–2020) and is on the advisory board of the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report. In 1998, Lake worked with the first group of young women who had graduated from school with CAMFED's support to set up its alumni, the CAMFED Association. By 2021, the Association had grown to 178,000 women leaders in

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

, many of whom are now in prominent public positions. A hallmark of the Association is the commitment of its membership to support the younger generation of girls to go to school. Each member is financially supporting an average five other students in her community through education, a multiplier that was described by Nick Kristof in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' as "a perpetual motion machine".

Honours and awards

In 2020, Lake was awarded the Yidan Prize for Education Development the world's largest education prize, alongside Murimirwa. She was appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the 2019 New Year's Honours for "services to young people in Africa". Under Lake's tenure, CAMFED has been awarded the

Hilton Humanitarian Prize The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is an American non-profit charitable foundation, established in 1944 by hotel entrepreneur Conrad Hilton. It remained relatively small until his death on January 3, 1979, when it was named the principal beneficia ...

and the

Princess of Asturias Award The Princess of Asturias Awards (, ), formerly the Prince of Asturias Awards from 1981 to 2014 (), are a series of annual prizes awarded in Spain by the Princess of Asturias Foundation (previously the Prince of Asturias Foundation) to individuals ...

for International Cooperation (2021). It has also been the recipient of a UN Global Climate Action Award and has been recognised by the OECD DAC for best practice in taking development innovation to scale.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lake, Lucy 1972 births Living people Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Officers of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of Princess of Asturias Awards Yidan Prize laureates