Two decades ago, when Ann Cotton, a British educator and philanthropist, started examining the problem of low school enrollment among girls in rural Zimbabwe, she was struck by the crushing poverty, which to her presented an even bigger obstacle to girls' education than tradition.

Families did not have enough money for school fees, uniforms or books, and would spend what little they had on the education of their sons, who were more likely to get paid jobs.

On Nov 4, Cotton was awarded the World Innovation Summit for Education prize for her role as founder and director of Camfed, an organization that has helped millions of young girls in sub-Saharan Africa remain in school.

WISE, which was established by the Qatar Foundation in 2009 in Doha, Qatar, has become one of the leading forums for open discussion on the state of global education. More than 1,500 delegates, including academics, teachers, students and innovators from 107 countries, attended this year's forum, with an especially large representation of educators from the Middle East and the Southern Hemisphere.

The $500,000 prize was awarded to Cotton at the meeting's opening by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, co-founder and chairwoman of the Qatar Foundation, and the wife of the former emir of Qatar.

Cotton's early experience in Zimbabwe led her to the conclusion that direct sponsorship would help ensure that more girls attended school, a realization that motivated her to found Camfed in 1993.

She began by getting financial aid for a few dozen students. The organization has grown substantially since then and has supported more than 1.2 million students in Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.