Peter Sherratt: Camfed is right on the money

We interviewed Peter Sherratt, Vice Chairman at the global investment bank Lehman Brothers and a board member of Camfed, to find out how Camfed shapes up as an organisation and what made him support it.

How did you first get involved with Camfed?

I spent a long time – five years! – figuring out which charity to support. There were two important objectives: get the right cause and figure out who does it the right way. Girls’ education came through that process because of its long-term impact on poverty, AIDS and injustice. Camfed came through because it is the world’s leading organisation at delivering in this area.

How do you know your donations are well spent?

“Frankly I’m a bit obsessed by strong governance. Any leakage of funds because of poor governance deprives someone of their basic human right to an education.” Peter Sherratt, Vice Chairman of Lehman Brothers and Camfed International board memberWell, that’s the key question. The answer is by knowing the Camfed people and understanding the Camfed model. Frankly I’m a bit obsessed by strong governance. Any leakage of funds because of poor governance deprives someone of their basic human right to an education. Those funds are hard earned, and have to be protected.

First of all I did the boring bit and dug into the numbers. Every time the number of girls supported by Camfed ticks up by one, that means a real person is getting an education. I then looked at the overall model of how exactly funds get to where they are needed.

Second, I went to see the Camfed programmes on the ground, visited the schools, looked through their records, met the people running the programmes, interviewed the girls. I watched how people reacted as I asked questions. I took a random sample of names from the lists of children used to decide funding, and then asked to see those children so I could ask what they were getting. It checked out, which is what I expected. Also, no-one was resistant to what I was asking. There was a culture of transparency, which was very important too.

What is Camfed like as an organisation to work with?

The thing about Camfed is that it’s a growth story. It’s grown quickly, but it’s still at the start of a long journey. Essentially it turns people’s hopes into reality, and gives them the tools to pass their education on to future generations. So it is a very positive charity with an entrepreneurial feel to it. It’s also very rational, grounded, and that’s because Camfed programmes operate at the grassroots level. Every Camfed girl is a real person whose life has been changed by getting to school.

Some of the young women Camfed has supported have gone on to become lawyers, doctors, teachers and businesswomen. Some are now working for Camfed, and that has a wonderful effect on the organisation. It’s part of breaking the cycle of poverty – especially in rural Africa.

Why support Camfed?

Everyone has the basic human right to an education. That’s easy to say without much emotion. But the injustice you feel if you look at a secondary school classroom filled with boys and maybe a girl or two in the corner, is very striking. Other girls want to be there and their parents want them to be there. Money is the missing ingredient and, for each child, Camfed is a cheap way to get them there. We tend to assume that everyone should have the chance to contribute to society, but in practice how can they if they can’t afford the school fees, or the shoes or the uniform?

Last year I decided that it was time to introduce Lehman Brothers to Camfed. I knew their association with a charity that was doing so much to deliver international diversity would be an excellent investment. They ran their process and I’m pleased to say that they became donors too.

Any final comment?

At the end of the day, it’s very simple. Camfed can make, and is making, an enormous difference in fighting poverty, AIDS and injustice in sub-Saharan Africa. It has a strong and successful track record of getting African girls where they want to be – at school. And the journey has only just started.

Peter is Vice Chairman at the investment bank Lehman Brothers. He joined the firm in 1986 and is currently responsible for the approval process for its large transactions outside the US. He is a member of its European executive team, trustee of its UK pension scheme and board member of a number of its companies, including its charitable foundation in New York. Peter trained as a lawyer in England, qualifying as a barrister, and holds degrees from Oxford and Cambridge universities.