Linklaters

• Report, produced on a pro bono basis, on behalf of Camfed, launched today at Skoll World Forum
• Linklaters also donates £200,000 to Camfed to enable more than 430 girls across Zimbabwe, Ghana, Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi to receive secondary school education
  
  

Linklaters today announces the publication of a new report into the governance model of Camfed, the international charity dedicated to the delivery of girls’ education and the empowerment of young women as the route to lasting social change in sub-Saharan Africa.

The report, which is being officially launched today (14 April 2010) at the opening plenary of the Skoll World Forum - the pre-eminent annual global gathering of social investors and entrepreneurs - in Oxford, examines how good governance can achieve greatest beneficial impact in poor communities.

The report, entitled "Accounting to the Girl" has been produced by Linklaters on behalf of Camfed, which asked the firm to study its governance model and report on it. The report concludes that Camfed’s governance model works because it:

• requires Camfed to account for its actions to the girls it supports
• gives communities the power and responsibility to run the programs. Over the long term, this self-help focus makes communities better at supporting their children and themselves.
  
  

Linklaters has produced the report at no cost to Camfed. To date more than 4,000 pro bono hours have been spent on the report, involving a team of more than 20 people from the firm’s New York and London offices.

For their research, the team visited schools in remote areas and government ministries in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi to interview girls, parents, teachers, government officials and village leaders to see how Camfed’s model works in practice and how it is introduced in a new country (Malawi). The report includes powerful examples of Camfed’s work.

Linklaters has also given £200,000 to Camfed to enable 433 girls across Zimbabwe, Ghana, Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi to receive their full four years of secondary school education.

Ann Cotton, Executive Director of Camfed, said:

"The international aid sector serves the most disempowered people in the world, those with the weakest voice and the least leverage to demand high standards of service. Yet it is a sector that is largely self-regulating. We strongly believe this report will make a difference, by promoting debate about whether we should set a standard for governance in the international aid sector. For this reason we - and the sector as whole - are indebted to the support shown by Linklaters in producing the report. We are also delighted to receive Linklaters’ £200,000 donation, which will have a direct impact on the lives of 433 children."

David Cheyne, Linklaters Senior Partner, said:

"Camfed’s model works for two principal reasons. First, it requires Camfed to render account to the girls it supports – much as businesses account to their shareholders, investors or consumers. Second, Camfed’s education and associated social assistance programs succeed because Camfed gives communities the power and responsibility to run the programs. It is this opportunity which enables communities to become capable, over the long term, of better supporting their children and themselves, through the practice of good governance."

For further information, please contact:

Linklaters:
Rupert Winlaw
Global PR Manager, +44 20 7456 3219 / rupert.winlaw@linklaters.com or

Camfed:
Kimberley Sevcik
Information & Media Relations Manager, +1 415-963-4336 / ksevcik@camfed.org

• A copy of the report, "Accounting to the Girl", is available by clicking here.
• Camfed - the Campaign for Female Education - was launched in 1993 with the mission to deliver girls’ education and the empowerment of young women as the route to lasting social change in sub-Saharan Africa. To date, Camfed has successfully supported more than 1,065,710 children through school in five countries, and is rapidly expanding. For further information about the organisation please click here.
• Linklaters is a global law firm. We advise the world's leading companies, financial institutions and governments on their most important and challenging transactions and assignments. Our business is to make our clients’ goals possible by providing them with solutions and finding ways to help them succeed. Our longstanding Community Investment Programme aims to provide the same level of service at no cost to disadvantaged communities local to our 26 offices around the world. This partnership with Camfed is one of our Global Projects, the aim of which is to contribute our particular expertise and cross border capabilities to organisations that have innovated a practical solution to one or more of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. This follows a project we undertook jointly with the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in 2005. We produced a report on the legal, regulatory and tax barriers to social entrepreneurship across six different countries, which was launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2006.
• We do not think our corporate responsibility goals should be separate from our vision: to be the leading premium global law firm. For us Corporate Responsibility is about living our values in relation to our people, our clients and the community. Corporate Responsibility underpins the way our people address our clients’ most difficult global challenges. The way we see our community investment and pro bono work is no different to our client engagements. We create value through the application of the same skills and high standards. For further information about CR within Linklaters please click here.
• Our longstanding Community Investment Programme aims to provide assistance, at no cost, to disadvantaged communities local to our 26 offices around the world. We gain from these partnerships through our own people gaining valuable experience and, where appropriate, through opportunities for client development and enhancing client relationships. We assign 0.5% of global pre-tax profits to charitable donations annually. We donate the equivalent of another 0.5% in pro bono work and volunteering.
• This partnership with Camfed is one of our Global Projects, the aim of which is to contribute, pro bono, our particular expertise and cross border capabilities to organisations that have innovated a practical solution to one or more of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. We selected Camfed as its work directly addresses, with practical solutions, lasting social change in Sub-Saharan Africa through the delivery of girls’ education and the empowerment of young women.
• Since 2003, Linklaters has used its cross-border expertise to address global social and economic challenges as well as local issues. Examples of this include the firm's work for the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship on overcoming the legal, regulatory and tax barriers to social enterprise, and our discounted rates work advising The GAVI Fund on an innovative use of the capital markets to raise funds for an immunisation programme for 500 million children.