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

female education Female education is a catch-all term of 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), also known as humanistic social science and moral science (or moral sciences), studies the philosophical, biological, social, and cultural aspects of human life. Human science aims to expand our ...

Wadham College Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges 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 W ...

, University of Oxford (1991)

Career

Lake joined CAMFED in 1994 shortly after it was founded in

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. 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, holding office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She is the first and only ...

. 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 giv ...

. 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, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

, 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'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

as "a perpetual motion machine".

Honours and awards

In 2020, Lake was awarded the

Yidan Prize The Yidan Prize (/i:dan/) is a prize founded in 2016 by Chen Yidan for "contributions to education research and development". The prize is financed and governed by a HK$2.5 billion (about US$320 million) independent trust. It is a global, inclusi ...

for Education Development, the world's largest education prize, alongside Murimirwa. She was awarded an 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 and the

Princess of Asturias Award The Princess of Asturias Awards ( es, Premios Princesa de Asturias, links=no, ast, Premios Princesa d'Asturies, links=no), formerly the Prince of Asturias Awards from 1981 to 2014 ( es, Premios Príncipe de Asturias, links=no), are a series of a ...

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 The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) is a forum to discuss issues surrounding aid, development and poverty reduction in developing countries. It describes itself as being the ...

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