THE SMALLER PICTURE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CHILDREN WHO INSPIRE US 2017: THE YEAR IN RETROSPECT DEAR READER, In these pages you will find stories of the children we work with across the world every day. I hope that you are inspired, WHAT’S THE and want to read on. These are just a few examples of the millions of children we helped in 2017. Whether reaching children SMALLER trapped in the middle of a warzone or in the midst of a natural disaster with life-saving aid, or helping all children to fulfil their potential through our work with PICTURE? schools, we are committed to changing the lives of the most deprived and marginalised children. Every year, we reach tens of millions of children across 120 countries Our annual report paints a picture of some of through our work. We help children our achievements and the challenges we still have to overcome. Over the past year, our sector has survive, learn and stay safe, and been under increasing scrutiny and it is clear that we working in partnership with others, have not always lived up to the high standards that 02 we speak up for and alongside people rightly demand of us. We are determined to 03 children to secure wide and long- put this right. lasting change for the world’s most deprived and marginalised children. This is the bigger picture of our WE ARE COMMITTED work. But behind these numbers are the stories of change for the TO REBUILDING TRUST individual children we reach. By WITH OUR SUPPORTERS, painting these smaller pictures of impact in our Annual Review, CHILDREN AND THE we hope to put our work around COMMUNITIES WE the world into context and give a clearer sense of what we do for WORK WITH. and with children. #thesmallerpicture As we do this, we will continue to fight for a world where every last child survives, learns and is protected. Helle Thorning-Schmidt CEO of Save the Children International CONTENTS WHO WE ARE STATE OF AND WHAT 06 THE WORLD 08 WE DO 2017 IN OUR WORK 09 NUMBERS 10 IN 2017 OUR WORK PROTECTING ON THE COVER THIS REPORT REPRESENTS WITH GIRLS CHILDREN IN Anna* spends time at one of our THE WORK OF SAVE THE CHILDREN CONFLICT child -friendly spaces at a refugee 12 16 camp in Tanzania. She is one of hundreds Save the Children is a federated of thousands people who fled violence organisation, made up of Save 04 in Burundi to neighbouring countries. the Children International and 05 28 members. REACHING We help children like Anna find a safe DISADVANTAGED WHERE place to spend time with other children Together, we are working to deliver CHILDREN WE WORK and carry on their education away from a shared ambition that all children 20 24 their home. survive, learn and are protected. *Name changed to protect identity This review has been produced for our supporters, donors, partners, staff and volunteers to provide an overview of WHAT DO WE TIGHTENING our performance in the past year. Thank MEAN BY OUR CONTROLS you for helping us achieve so much 26 IMPACT? 28 change for children. The Annual Review serves to complement our Global Accountability Report 2016/2017, THE CHILDREN which demonstrates how we use OUR INCOME CHAMPIONING our resources to achieve results for AND SPEND OUR CAUSE children, and the progress we are 30 32 making to remain accountable to supporters, partners and most of all, children; as well as Save the Children International’s Trustees Report, ACCELERATING 100 YEARS which provides an overview of our GLOBAL WORKING WITH global strategy and financial statements. PROGRESS CHILDREN All our reports can be found at 34 35 www.savethechildren.net GENDER EQUALITY CONFLICT ZONES AND DIGITALISATION STATE FRAGILE STATES OF THE Digital technology is changing how children learn and From Syria to South Sudan, and Yemen to DRC, communicate; how essential services are provided; and millions of children are caught up in violent conflict. how people around the world support causes and The struggle to give women and girls the Today, one in six children are living in areas affected by make their voices heard. It also has untapped potential same rights as men and boys is not new. In conflict. Conflict puts children at direct risk of death for improving how we design, implement and evaluate WORLD recent decades huge progress has been made and injury; forces many more children to flee their our own work. The NGO sector has often been in reducing female disadvantage. But many homes; destroys schools and hospitals; and creates slower to seize these opportunities than the corporate If we do not take the time to girls still face discrimination in education and a downward spiral of exploitation and vulnerability. sector. This is a risk, as we’ve seen with other business pause and consider the state of healthcare; and in how they’re treated by the Conflict is associated with increased hunger and rising models made redundant by digital disruptions. law.The #MeToo movement against sexual rates of child marriage and child labour. the world today, we will not be harassment and the widespread flouting of OUR RESPONSIBILITY able to help the world’s most laws against child marriage, are reminders OUR RESPONSIBILITY Digital technology can strengthen our ability to vulnerable children. These are some that discrimination can persist even when We provide physical help and protection, along with achieve positive change for children. We are working laws are in place. psychosocial support to children caught up in conflict. to deepen the quality of our engagement with of the major global trends that We also use our voice to stop violations of children’s members of the public; give children more of a say are shaping how we respond to OUR RESPONSIBILITY rights. We are working with others to uphold laws in our programmes and campaigning; and creating challenges faced by children today. We take an active approach to tackling that protect children in war, and hold perpetrators of more efficient support functions in areas such as gender bias, by ensuring girls benefit as much violations to account. procurement and human resources. as boys from our work and by empowering 06 all children to challenge attitude and 07 behaviours that harm both girls and boys. Inside our organisation, we are committed to making our female staff feel safe coming RAPID URBANISATION TRUST IN INSTITUTIONS to work, to ensure they feel confident and supported when speaking up against For the first time in human history, most people live harassment, and that they have the same in towns and cities. By 2050, it’s estimated that almost opportunities as their male colleagues. 70% of the world’s population will be urban. While this represents an enormous opportunity for social and economic improvement, rapid urbanisation can also overwhelm services and infrastructure, create new environmental challenges such as air pollution, generate new risks for children, and deepen inequality Polling data from around the world, and especially in ways that drive social tension. in wealthier countries, shows declining levels of trust in institutions, including government, business, the OUR RESPONSIBILITY media and civil society organisations. The reasons We are adapting our approaches to healthcare, for this decline are not always clear, but with more education and protection to respond to the needs than three billion people now online, information of children in urban settings, and aiming to expand and disinformation has the power to spread rapidly our work in this area. This means building new across social media channels, and the shortcomings of partnerships and campaigning for the rights and institutions are more likely to become visible. opportunities of poor young people who often make up the majority of urban populations. OUR RESPONSIBILITY We are committed to being transparent about who we are, what we do and how we do it. This is the first step towards being accountable, and being trusted by people who fund our mission, and by children and communities we work with. We need to learn from past failures, and take practical steps to stop them being repeated in the future. Cochabamba, Bolivia WE HAVE A BIG, BOLD AMBITION WHO WE We want a world in which all children survive, learn and are protected. Through our work, we strive towards achieving 2017 IN HEALTH AND these three breakthroughs in the way NUTRITION ARE AND the world treats children: SURVIVE No child dies from preventable NUMBERS 33M causes before their fifth birthday. CHILDREN DIRECTLY WHAT Our programmes and advocacy span five main areas REACHED THROUGH OUR of work; education, health, protection, child poverty HEALTH AND NUTRITION LEARN PROGRAMMES All children learn from a and child’s rights governance, in both long-term and WE DO quality basic education. emergency settings. We are one of the world’s BE PROTECTED In 2017, our early learning programmes Violence against children is no helped lead the Ministry of Education EDUCATION CHILD POVERTY leading independent longer tolerated. in Bhutan to establish early learning organisations for children. centres in every district in the country, and training over 400 early learning We work to save children’s lives. But we are facilitators in the process. In Nepal, 4.4M also committed to helping children fulfil their our programmes helped reduce the 10M potential. The fight to secure children’s rights prevalence of child marriage from 33% CHILDREN DIRECTLY CHILDREN DIRECTLY is the foundation of all our work. In a world to 27% in the places where we work. REACHED THROUGH OUR REACHED THROUGH OUR WORK TO REDUCE CHILD 08 where millions of children are denied their In Nigeria, where stunting levels are EDUCATION PROGRAMMES 09 rights because of who they are or where they some of the highest in the world due POVERTY live, we aim to put the most deprived and to malnutrition, we provided 90,000 marginalised children first, and to tackle the women with regular cash transfers barriers to survival, learning and protection.