Linklaters and Camfed Make Commitment to Action Through Clinton Global Initiative

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Premier global law firm Linklaters LLP and leading international development organization Camfed (Campaign for Female Education) today announced a Commitment to Action as part of their participation in the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting in New York this week. Through its commitment and membership in CGI, Linklaters will launch a second phase of its pro bono relationship with Camfed to raise awareness within the NGO, government and private sectors of the issues of governance, transparency and accountability as keys to the economic and social empowerment of the disenfranchised, particularly women and girls. This Commitment to Action aligns with Linklaters’ efforts to help provide innovative solutions towards the achievement of one or more United Nations Millennium Development Goals by the target date of 2015. The Commitment to Action by Linklaters and Camfed was selected by CGI organizers to be featured at a Commitment Announcement Ceremony on September 23, 2010 during CGI’s Annual Meeting.

Camfed is an international organization dedicated to eradicating poverty in rural Africa through the education of girls and the empowerment of young women. Camfed’s prime constituencies are the girls of impoverished rural families in sub-Saharan Africa. Camfed currently operates its programs in Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The subject of empowering girls and women is one of four Action Areas of CGI for 2010.

Linklaters culminated the first phase of its partnership with Camfed when it launched its report on the Camfed governance model, titled “Accounting to the Girl,” at the 2010 Skoll World Forum in Oxford, England. The report details the essential role played by good governance on the part of service providers in the empowerment of the most disenfranchised communities in the world. Linklaters believes that, in light of Camfed’s remarkable achievements, it is possible that Camfed’s governance model could serve as a model for the international development sector whenever the sector is devising programs to diminish poverty and disempowerment around the globe.

Linklaters and Camfed will fulfill their Commitment to Action through a five-pronged approach consisting of:

hosting meetings relating to governance with senior-level government delegations
partnering with educational institutions to promote further discussion of governance
partnering with private sector actors
promoting discussion of the ideas in “Accounting to the Girl” at high-profile international fora, and
developing and promoting articles and publications on governance issues

Ann Cotton, Executive Director of Camfed, said, “The response to ‘Accounting to the Girl’ has been overwhelming. Camfed is thrilled to continue its partnership with Linklaters through this Commitment to Action and to continue to promote debate around standards for governance in the international development sector. The work being done by Linklaters to help organizations understand keys to success in the development sector serves as an important international affairs issue and crucial element in how all of us work to support service provision in impoverished communities in a lasting and effective way.”

Lance Croffoot-Suede, Partner at Linklaters New York, stated, “Linklaters’ partners and staff in offices around the world thrive on taking on global, innovative pro bono and community investment efforts and we are honored to have the unique opportunity to continue our work with Camfed. We support CGI in taking on this subject as an Action Area as we believe that now is an important time to communicate widely how we can empower those in need.”

Since 2007, Linklaters has been working with Camfed to study its governance model. More than 4,000 pro bono hours have been spent on the report alone, involving a team of more than 20 people from the firm’s New York and London offices. For its research, a Linklaters 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.

So impressed were the firm by the Camfed model, 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.

Commitments to Action, a unique feature of CGI membership, translate practical goals into meaningful and measurable results. Throughout the year and at the Annual Meeting, CGI acts as a marketplace for a diverse community of change makers to develop commitments that fit their core business and philanthropic goals. Since 2005, commitments made through CGI have already affected more than 200 million lives in over 170 countries.

About the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)

Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Since 2005, CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 125 current and former heads of state, 15 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations, major philanthropists, directors of the most effective nongovernmental organizations, and prominent members of the media. These CGI members have made more than 1,700 commitments valued at $57 billion, which have already improved the lives of 220 million people in more than 170 countries. The 2010 CGI Annual Meeting will take place from September 20-23, 2010, in New York City. The CGI community also includes CGI University (CGI U), a forum to engage college students in global citizenship, MyCommitment.org, an online portal where anybody can make a Commitment to Action, and CGI Lead, which engages a select group of young leaders from business, government, and civil society. For more information, visit www.clintonglobalinitiative.org.

Notes to editors

A copy of the report, "Accounting to the Girl", can be downloaded 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, 1,065,710 children in five countries have benefited from Camfed’s education programs. For further information about the organization please click here.
Linklaters is a global law firm. It advises the world's leading companies, financial institutions and governments on its most important and challenging transactions and assignments. Linklaters’ business is to make its clients’ goals possible by providing them with solutions and finding ways to help them succeed. Linklaters’ longstanding Community Investment Program aims to provide the same level of service at no cost to disadvantaged communities local to its 26 offices around the world. The firm gains from these partnerships through its own people gaining valuable experience and, where appropriate, through opportunities for client development and enhancing client relationships. Linklaters assigns 0.5% of global pre-tax profits to charitable donations annually. It donates the equivalent of another 0.5% in pro bono work and volunteering.
This partnership with Camfed is one of Linklaters’ Global Projects, the aim of which is to contribute the firm’s particular expertise and cross border capabilities to organizations that have innovated a practical solution to one or more of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Linklaters 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. Its work for Camfed follows a project the firm undertook jointly with the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in 2005. Linklaters 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.
Linklaters does not think its corporate responsibility goals should be separate from its vision: to be the leading premium global law firm. Linklaters believes that Corporate Responsibility is about living its values in relation to its people, its clients and the community and underpins the way the firm's people address its clients' most difficult global challenges. The way Linklaters sees its community investment and pro bono work is no different to its client engagements. Linklaters creates value through the application of the same skills and high standards. For further information about CR within Linklaters please click here.