Save the Children launches new vision, ‘Our today, their tomorrow’, ahead of Conservative Party Conference 2016
To help shape debate on Britain’s role in creating a world fit for children, Save the Children has published a series of essays ahead of Conservative Party Conference 2016.
Our today, their tomorrow includes contributions from high profile politicians, business leaders, think tanks and leading academics. Together, these contributions set out an alternative agenda for post-Brexit Britain: a modern British foreign and development policy that has children at its heart.
Andrew Mitchell MP, first Conservative Secretary of State for International Development said “generations of generosity to charities working overseas and [to] causes like Comic Relief”, demonstrate our commitment to helping the world’s poorest people. While there is no doubt that giving aid is in our national interest (a safer, more prosperous world benefits us all), the former Secretary of State argues that voters support aid because it speaks to our “pride that Britain never turns its back on those most in need”. When voters see clear impact of “Britain doing its bit” to help those less fortunate, they are proud to support UK aid.
Christian Guy, former Director of the Centre for Social Justice, points to the fact that “the Department for International Development has led the way [and the world] in terms of aid transparency”. He argues that, in the name of taxpayer value for money, the Secretary of State for International Development is well placed to demand that her colleagues at the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence take the same rigorous and impact-led approach as her own Department.
Tom Fletcher, a former UK Ambassador to Lebanon, believes that Britain is a modern, internationalist nation capable of working alongside giants, whist helping those most in need stand taller in the world. It is thanks to this approach that post-Brexit Britain will be successful. By not playing a “zero sum game”, we will be offered a seat at the tables across the world – ready to flourish as the United Kingdom, standing outside the European Union but not alone.
Kevin Watkins, CEO of Save the Children, said:
“The children of Aleppo won’t be listening to the leaders’ addresses this party conference season. Nor will parents across Syria think anything said by a politician in Britain could make the slightest difference to their hellish lives and shattered country.
“But if we are to fulfil Theresa May’s ambition for a thriving, post-Brexit ‘Global Britain’, the words of our leaders must matter to people in countries where war is devastating lives and destroying opportunity.
“That’s why Save the Children has set out how Britain can continue to change the world, regardless of how Brexit negotiations play out. From protecting children in war, to delivering aid where it’s needed most, we must create a world that’s fit for all children.”
Save the Children works in 120 countries around the world, ensuring that children survive, learn and are protected. The essays demonstrate that a child-centred foreign policy is in all our interests, providing an implementable cross-government agenda and an urgent narrative about the UK’s place in the world.
