Lydia Wilbard was a 2024 Echidna Global Scholar at Brookings.
She is a seasoned gender equality advocate with over 15 years of experience in forging multi-stakeholder partnerships to advance girls’ education and women’s empowerment.
Lydia has been rising through the ranks of CAMFED’s leadership since 2005, when she founded the CAMFED Association (CAMA) in Tanzania. In this network of young, educated women, she became an active business mentor and leader, working with others to support the next generation of children in securing their right to education and developing the power to drive change in their communities.
Currently, as CAMFED’s executive director of learning and engagement, Lydia forges strategic partnerships with communities and government ministries in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Ghana, Tanzania, and Kenya to support the most marginalized girls to go to school, learn, and thrive. She is the lead on the organization’s systems transformation strategy and on the implementation of the Learner Guide Program, a peer mentorship and life skills program focused on addressing the social, cultural, and systemic barriers facing girls and the risks of school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV). Lydia has a master’s degree in public health with a focus on maternal, child, and reproductive health from Johns Hopkins University, earned with the support of a USAID scholarship.