Wednesday 18 January 2012 was a little different. I went to Downing Street.

I was one of six Save the Children campaigners who went to hand in a petition calling on David Cameron to sign up to the Charter to End Extreme Hunger.

Each of us was representing one of the cities in the 66 Cities campaign — so I got a natty wee T-shirt with ‘St Albans Champion’ emblazoned across the front — but we were also representing the incredible 18,000 people who had signed up to the petition online.

DorkyDad took the day off work (thank you!), and I took a train into London. It was a true role reversal — he stayed at home with DorkySon while I headed to Save the Children’s office in Farringdon, where I was due to meet up with the other campaigners.

The day got off to a great start when I picked up a copy of The Guardian at the station, and a story about Save the Children and Oxfam’s newly released report – A Dangerous Delay – was on the front cover.

The report details the cost of late response to early warnings in the 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa. More than 30 million people are still affected by the crisis, and A Dangerous Delay outlines some of the steps that can be taken to avoid a similar situation happening again.

At the Save the Children headquarters, as I sat in reception waiting to be met, there was further coverage of the report on BBC News — it looked like it was going to be dominating the morning news, which was brilliant.

After everyone had arrived, there was a short breakfast meeting with some of the brilliant campaign staff, the other campaigners attending the hand-in (including Charlie Is So Cool Like, and his lovely vlogging Mum Lindsay), and Save the Children CEO Justin Forsyth who was just back in the office after an appearance on the Today Show.

We had a chat about the campaign, and posed for some photos with the GIANT petition, before hopping into a cab to Downing Street.

We had been due to do the hand-in at 1pm, but due to a visit from the Italian Prime Minister, we’d been bumped forward to 12pm.

The members of the Italian media gathered outside 10 Downing Street looked somewhat bemused by our group, walking up and down the street and posing for photos in our matching t-shirts! But they were full of questions about what we were doing, and it was great having the opportunity to talk about the 66 Cities campaign.

We had only planned on handing in a small version of the petition, but the policeman on the gate said we couldn’t take in the large version — which was supposed to just be a photo prop — unless it was handed in too.

So now lucky old David Cameron has a giant petition about ending extreme hunger sitting in his front hallway. (It really was big — I had to stand on tip-toes to see over the top!)

I’m hoping it acts as a constant reminder to him of the need for action.

We came out of the hand-in to two pieces of very exciting news.

The first was that Save the Children’s Twitter takeover had been a huge success. Hundreds of people had taken over the PMQs hashtag thread with messages about the Hunger Charter.

In terms of raising awareness and demonstrating the breadth and depth of support for action from the Government, that was absolutely fantastic.

So far, so riveting, hey? Stick with me.

Imagine if you wanted to introduce a brand new shiny high-speed train to the network that would alleviate over-crowding and shorten journey times.

This is a train so great that it would laugh in the face of leaves on the line, plough through snowdrifts like a hot knife through butter and could essentially revolutionise the face of rail travel. Sounds good.

The challenge

What if you have this amazing new train but the tracks weren’t strong enough, the source of fuel was unreliable and there weren’t enough train drivers or guards that knew how to operate it?

What if it there were only a few stations in major cities so that only those in the places that already had good rail links were able to use it?

It’s starting to appear less like a magic solution.

This is the challenge that faces immunisation. We have these amazing new vaccines that can save the lives of millions of children, but the health services through which they are delivered are poorly resourced and rely on weak infrastructure.

They are also massively understaffed — there’s a global shortage of at least 3.5 million health workers who are needed to put the jab in the child’s arm.

The solution

The solution is to strengthen the health systems and make sure that immunisation is an integral part of the health service, rather than operating through one-off campaigns. This is the fourth target outcome of the Decade of Vaccines Action Plan.

In discussions around this target there were many questions on what ‘integration’ means. Should vaccination programmes run alongside existing health services? Should they be joined together or should they merge?

If immunisation and the health service are both 20-seater buses, do we send two buses, do we tie one to the other or do we create a new 40-seater vehicle? (Thanks to Raj Kumar at GAVI for another transport analogy).

One size doesn’t fit all

There can be disadvantages in integration (lack of focus, dilution of funding, etc) so the route to integration is not one size fits all.

To combat this lack of coherence and clarity, the Decade of Vaccines should commission a report as a guide, bringing together best practice on integration and disseminate it to practitioners.

To create incentives for innovations, the Decade of Vaccines could launch a scholarship for individuals or a research grant for institutions that is specifically designed to spur innovation in this area. 2020 seems like a realistic deadline for this to deliver results.

Universities, research institutes, pharmaceuticals and others who have the potential to come up with a game-changing idea on vaccines could be contacted straight away and after one year the first Decade of Vaccine Scholars could already be at work.

Closing the health worker gap

A strong integrated health system also depends on having sufficient human resources, so one of the areas where the Decade of Vaccines could make a difference is on health workers. You can’t train an army of health workers overnight, but a decade seems like about the right time scale.

The Decade of Vaccines should seriously consider how it can work with training institutions and ministries of health to help close the health worker gap.

What an amazing legacy that would be.

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It would be a missed opportunity if the plan is adopted only to later flounder because people don’t know how to get started.
 I decided to use this blog to do a little ‘blue-sky thinking’, if you’ll excuse the business speak, and think in terms of actions for the action plan targets.

Target 1: Countries commit to immunisation as a priority

The term ‘political commitment’ is much used, but poorly defined. It boils down to three things: time, money, and people — the government must dedicate time to discussing the issue in ministries and in public; they must dedicate financial resources and assign people to work on it.

Getting a government to make a public pledge to improve immunisation will not guarantee action, but it would indicate the amount of time, money and people they intend to dedicate.

It could also have two immediate beneficial effects: media coverage of a pledge could help counter some of the negative press about vaccines and it would give civil society something to hold governments to account with. Another benefit may be peer pressure — a public pledge from one country could prompt one from a neighbour.

Making it happen

Many governments have already outlined their objectives in their national health plans or immunisation strategies. So step one would be to find those targets, write them up, and write a letter to the right person in government asking for them to be read out at a public event.

The response, and the country context, will dictate the next step and how easy it will be to use this for influencing.

A survey of attitudes towards immunisation in government departments could help measure progress on this target. A survey that asked officials to rate whether they agree with  statements  like  ‘Children in this country do not get enough vaccines’ — would reveal changing attitudes.

Target 2: Individuals and communities understand and demand immunisation

As my background is in PR, I think there is a role for the media here. I’ve seen a number of glossy advertorials in outlets like the Financial Times, the sole purpose of which is to say ‘Hey, rich people, invest in Cameroon!’. So why not a four-page Decade of Vaccines advertorial in media read by decision makers in developing countries? The sole purpose being to say ‘Hey, Cameroon, invest in vaccines!’.

On day one you write a list of the key publications. A month later the  quotes are in and a slot secured, three months later the supplement is published.

Increasing demand

Effective feedback that shows communities their place in the immunisation ‘league table’ could encourage people to demand better coverage. Much like the passenger information boards in train stations that reveal the number of trains that were on time each period, could we not do something similar for vaccination?

Imagine if every clinic had a board outside showing how many children had been vaccinated that month against a target or against a national average.

Imagine if your district was falling behind the next district over — a little bit of healthy competition might go a long way. (Obviously there would be issues around literacy, cost, data, etc. but we have eradicated smallpox, so this seems relatively easy in comparison.)

That’s the first two targets covered, I will look at the more technical issue of health system strengthening and integration in my next blog.

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You’d probably find this particularly disturbing if you or your family members had a history of cardiac vulnerability. And you would presumably see it as standard and sensible practice if, instead, the doctor prescribed you with appropriate medication and offered you a set of dietary and lifestyle recommendations to reduce the risk of a heart attack.

While in such circumstances preventative measures and prompt intervention are considered the norm, expectations for response to early warnings of food crises are lamentably lower.

The Horn of Africa is currently experiencing the most severe food crisis so far this century – 13 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are affected, hundreds of thousands are at risk of starvation, and some estimates place the death toll at 50,000-100,000.

There were warning signs as early as August 2010 but almost across the board they were not significantly acted upon until well into 2011, despite East Africa’s longstanding propensity to drought and food insecurity.

So how was this allowed to happen?

This week Save the Children and Oxfam launched a joint report, A Dangerous Delay: the cost of late response to early warnings.

It examines the factors that resulted in a drought developing into a full-blown hunger and livelihoods disaster, which include: a failure among national governments to declare an emergency; and, on the part of the international community, a collective risk aversion and fear that intervention could undermine local systems.

It also proposes measures (in line with the Charter to End Extreme Hunger) to prevent the worst effects of such crises in the future.

The report calls for national governments, donors and aid agencies to accept the premise of uncertainty and unpredictability in the onset of emergencies and manage the risks rather than the crisis. Greater investment in early warning systems will enhance risk management but will be insufficient without improved action.

What does improved action look like?

It must be two-fold. On the one hand, it means addressing chronic vulnerability and building local and national resilience to deal with the challenges of uncertainty. But it also means more effective national and international emergency response mechanisms.

This dual focus must be used to break down the artificial divide between humanitarian and development programming.

It is long-term programmes that are often best placed to respond to forecasts of crisis but flexibility must be built into these so they can adapt, accommodate a humanitarian surge and respond to deteriorating food insecurity.

Mobilising decision-makers and civil society

Perhaps one of the most significant obstacles to early action is the slow mobilisation of decision-makers, as well as donor and national populations. Gaining traction among these constituencies is often extremely difficult until a crisis is in full flow.

Since governmental response to a crisis involves the investment of significant political capital, decision-makers are more likely to take early action if they have a stake in it, if conscious and mobilised populations hold them accountable, and if they are presented with a convincing economic case for preventing the escalation of food and livelihoods crises. Ultimately, committed and visionary moral leadership is what will make a difference here.

Changing aid culture

As aid agencies, we cannot hang about waiting for this to emerge. We should be seeking to set the agenda, shape policy and, I believe, fundamentally change aid culture. Popular mobilisation (and the fundraising efforts upon which aid programming so relies) is currently driven by appeals to empathy and charity.

‘Aid fatigue’ inevitably sets in and interest in supporting nameless starving children drops off, until confronted with images and footage of another raging disaster. We should instead seek to develop a new language of collective responsibility.

This is not beyond our imaginations. Indeed our expectations of response to chronic health problems are, despite its critics, a direct consequence of our acceptance of the National Health Service as the embodiment of our collective duty for the provision of healthcare for all.

Clearly, there are plenty of practical challenges in the mapping of a national system onto international emergency response architecture. But the building of a conscious internationalism and a sense of cosmopolitan responsibility is our starting point. Aid agencies must play a part in this.

Please support our East Africa appeal

The Week follows the launch of our ‘No Child Left in the Cold’ campaign.

We are calling on energy companies and the government to do more to help families who can’t afford to heat their homes this winter.

Research shows that growing up in cold homes poses health risks to children from babies to teenagers. So we’re really pleased to see more efforts to help communities and families get the best deals and advice on fuel bills.

Sign our petition asking that no child is left in the cold.

Energy-saving advice

Big Energy Week is helping people save money on their bills in the following ways:

• Contact your suppliers to check you are on the best tariff and payment method.
• Visit an accredited switching website to see if you could get your energy cheaper elsewhere. You may be able to save up to £200 off your annual bill by shopping around for a different supplier, particularly if you have never changed energy firm.
• Insulate the walls and the loft of your home and you could save on average around £120 per year.  All suppliers are giving away free or discounted insulation – ask if you’re eligible so you don’t miss out.  That goes for heating oil customers too.
• Check you are not missing out on any benefits or tax credits that could increase your income; your local Citizens Advice Bureau can help you with this.
• Using less energy could save you money, just by doing simple things like turning off lights and switching appliances off at the wall instead of leaving them on standby.
• Turning your thermostat down 1°C alone could cut your heating bill by £60 on average.
• If you can’t pay your bills,  contact your energy supplier immediately: they have to help you manage your bills in a way that you can afford.
• If you use heating oil or liquid petroleum gas to heat your home, shop around and compare prices from different suppliers.  You could also save money by buying in bulk with your neighbours; check if there is an oil club you can join or start one up.

You can find some useful advice and pointers at www.bigenergyweek.org.uk

Save the Children is calling on the energy companies and government to do their bit for children in fuel poverty. Please  sign our petition

The article draws from the report A dangerous delay, published today by Save the Children and Oxfam, which highlights the current situation in East Africa.

A disaster that didn’t need to happen

The reality that thousands of lives could have been saved if the international community, donor governments and humanitarian agencies had responded sooner to the early warning signs of a severe food shortage.

This is why I’ll be going to Downing Street today with five other campaigners championing the #66 cities campaign.

We’ll be handing in a petition, signed by nearly 18,000 supporters, which asks David Cameron to commit to signing the charter to end extreme hunger.

If David Cameron announces that he will support the charter at today’s PMQs it will be a huge step towards making sure disasters like the East African food crisis never happen again.

How you can help
We need your help to ensure that David Cameron fully supports the charter and encourages other leaders to do the same.

Today Save the Children, ONE, Oxfam and African’s Act for Africa will be leading a twitter takeover during PMQs from 12-1.

We need as many people as possible to tweet using #PMQs and #hungercharter with the aim of taking over the #PMQs twitter feed and getting the hunger charter trending.

Tweet one of the messages below between 11.30am and 1pm:

• I’m asking David Cameron @number10gov to endorse the #hungercharter in #PMQs today. Join in the twitter takeover!

#PMQs is used by MPs and monitored by the media so it is a real opportunity show David Cameron how many people in the UK want our government to act to stop preventable starvation around the world.

So as we feel those mid morning hunger pangs coming on and long for the next chocolate biscuit, remember the tens of thousands of children that have died from a hunger that could have been prevented and do something to ensure a different future for thousands more children…

Get tweeting to get East Africa eating!

Just for today you could swap those minutes of procrastination, endless google searching and facebook browsing, for something that could have an impact on thousands of children’s lives.

All you have to do is click on this link and ask David Cameron to support the Charter to End Extreme Hunger. Yes it really is that simple.

Why take action?

So why should you spare this valuable minute I hear you ask. Well, the answer is just as simple.

Up to 750, 000 people face death from hunger in east Africa and millions more are at risk in the worst food crisis of the 21st century. But the truth is, this crisis was preventable.

We have the knowledge and ability to stop this kind of tragedy from happening again. That’s why Save the Children, along with 25 other NGOs including Oxfam, ONE and CAFOD, has released A Charter to End Extreme Hunger.

The Charter sets out actions governments and leaders should take to address the underlying cause of this crisis. We need David Cameron to sign up to this charter and urge other leaders to do the same.

Be an Action Man (or Woman)

Your great work doesn’t have to stop here. There are lots of other things you can do to help raise awareness of Charter to End Extreme Hunger.

1) Tweet or use your facebook status to share the Charter to End Extreme Hunger with your friends. Use the hashtag #66cities and this link to our petition http://bit.ly/xWfv9n

2) Tweet your MP and ask them to support the campaign.

3) E-mail your local radio station or newspaper and ask them to spread the word about this campaign in your area.

So, while you’re taking your lunch break, stopping for a coffee or waiting for that important e-mail, why not do something amazing today. To quote the wise words of Take That ‘It only takes a minute’.

I got that ‘OMG, this is historic’ feeling, as we were walking under a bridge, singing a song.

Midwives gather in Durban to discuss the latest issues in their field.

There were hundreds of women, all singing in parts, and their voices were echoing beautifully around me.

It gave me goosebumps.

No ordinary women

These women seemed self-assured, strong, unafraid.

They were midwives.

Midwives from all over the world, who had came together as a professional body to consult the experts, and each other, on the latest in midwifery.

Nothing particularly historic about that – they do it every year, apparently.

Except this time, they were marching for the rights of mothers and babies.

Midwives save lives

Developing governments around the world struggle with staffing and resourcing enough qualified health workers.

In Africa and Asia particularly, this means that too many babies die frequently of easily preventable causes.

These midwives were asking that every mother and baby be within reach of a trained midwife to improve their chances of survival.

With your help, we can train and equip more midwives so that they can deliver newborns safely and keep them healthy.

I met two dedicated and inspiring male midwives from Ethiopia.

Would a man want to be a midwife?

It was an extraordinary gathering. I met two male midwives from Ethiopia.

Would a man want to be a midwife?

“We love our jobs,” they said.

And, are women okay with this?

“Yes of course,” they said. ”We know what to do – they trust us.”

It made me wonder whether my questions contained a hidden, reverse-stereotype.

Creating a little bit of history

It was about forty minutes later when I had an epiphany.

It’s not a word I normally use, but then it’s really the only one that comes to mind.

These women had the guts to stand up for what they believed in – and not so much for themselves, but for babies and mothers around the world, who really shouldn’t be treated that way.

They knew some horrific stories, and they weren’t going to remain silent about it.

I felt humbled to be a part of the little bit of history that they were creating that day.

Here’s a short film about their work, so you can see for yourselves…

You can help us train more amazing midwives — please donate now

This month we interviewed Noorjhan Akbar, co-founder of Afghan women’s grassoots movement for gender equality, Young Women for Change.

• Listen to her story (you’ll need Windows Media Player) of setting up the organisation and campaigning to empower Afghan women through awareness building and political campaigning.

Noorjahan has been an active campaigner on human rights and worked in Afghanistan for nearly ten years.

A mother and child in Afghanistan

We’ve been training our champions quite rigorously over the last month.

They’ve been writing blogs, emailing their MPs and signing petitions (over 6,000 actions so far!) – even braving the winter weather to take part in our #66Cities photo stunt.

What is #66Cities?

This year, food prices alone may have put the lives of up to 400, 000 children around the world at risk.

Campaigners throughout the UK have been representing their cities, calling on the UK government to take a leadership role and sign the Charter to End Extreme Hunger.

We’ve already had responses from the government because of our campaigners contacting their MPs and really driving the campaign forward.

Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development recently announced that the government ‘fully support’ the Charter and Madeleine Moon MP for Bridgend tabled a question in parliament receiving another nod from Mitchell stating “I will take appropriate opportunities to express publicly my support for the charter’s aims.”

This is great but we want more!

Great, but not good enough

The Charter to End Extreme Hunger is about ensuring preventative measures are put in place to avoid a crisis like East Africa happening again.

Whether you live in, or near a city, you can get involved in #66Cities and help make this a reality.

We’ve got campaigners signed up from over half the cities in the UK (there are 66 in total). But we need some more champions for following cities:

• England: Chichester, Manchester, Exeter, Bradford, Hereford, Kingston Upon Hull, Lancaster, Leeds, Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Litchfield, Lincoln, Peterborough, Plymouth, Preston, Ripon, Salford, Salisbury, Stoke-on-Trent, Truro, Wolverhampton, Worcester, York
• Wales: Bangor
• Scotland: Dundee, Inverness, Stirling
• Northern Ireland: Armagh, Belfast, Lisburn, Londonderry, Newry

Inspiring champions

St Albans’ #66Cities champion signed up last week and has already managed to get her blog posted on the Huffington Post website and has since written to her MP to request a meeting.

Canterbury #66Cities Champion has this to say about the crisis calling on others to get involved.

Oxford #66Cities Champion has sent a call out to all mummy bloggers to get involved and even tasked bloggers with some actions of her own.

How to sign up to be a champion?

1. Sign up here to be a #66Cities champion

2. If you have:

1 minute: Tweet or use your facebook status to share the Charter to End Extreme Hunger with your friends. Use the hashtag #66cities and this link to our petition bit.ly/savehungerwb

2 minutes: If you haven’t already, sign our petition asking David Cameron to sign the Charter now.

5 minutes: Write a blog post, a facebook post or an email to your friends about our campaign to End Extreme Hunger and ask them to sign the petition.

Help us ensure that a crisis like East Africa never happens again.

Keep up to date

Follow us on hashtag #66Cities @savechildrenuk and our news feed @savechildrenpr which features news and updates from our staff on the ground around the world.

Get in touch with r.phillips@savethechildren.org.uk if you have any questions.