1. family and parenting
2. children

KEEPING OUR promises
Accountability and transparency report 2012
KEEPING OUR promises
Accountability and transparency report 2012
Save the Children works in more than 120 countries.
We save children’s lives. We fight for their rights.
We help them fulfil their potential.
Acknowledgements
This report was written by Alasdair MacDonald, Accountability and Transparency
Manager at Save the Children. Thanks are due to colleagues Jen Stobart, Jayne Liu
and Burcu Munyas Ghadially for their insight and input.
Published by
Save the Children
1 St John’s Lane
London EC1M 4AR
UK
+44 (0)20 7012 6400
savethechildren.org.uk
First published 2013
© The Save the Children Fund 2013
The Save the Children Fund is a charity registered in England and Wales (213890)
and Scotland (SC039570). Registered Company No. 178159
This publication is copyright, but may be reproduced by any method without fee or
prior permission for teaching purposes, but not for resale. For copying in any other
circumstances, prior written permission must be obtained from the publisher, and a
fee may be payable.
Cover photo: Rubina at a child-friendly space set up by Save the Children in Punjab
province, Pakistan and now run by the local community. Following the floods here in
2010, which devastated millions of people’s lives, we set up more than 150 safe-play
areas, providing activities and emotional support to more than 100,000 children.
(Photo: CJ Clarke/Save the Children)
Typeset by Grasshopper Design Company
Printed by Page Bros Ltd on 100% recycled paper
contents
Introduction1
1 Children and their communities3
2 Child safeguarding8
3 Our advocacy and campaigns9
4 Our staff and volunteers11
5 Our partnerships14
6 Our supporters17
7 Our environmental impact20
8 Our strategy and governance22
Appendix: Our key external commitments
and memberships24
photo: jonathan hyams/save the children
Mohammed Nassirou, one of our life-saving team
at a feeding centre in Niger, assesses a child for
acute malnutrition. In the food shortage that
gripped west Africa last year we helped 1.5 million
people with food aid, healthcare, cash transfers
and emergency nutrition.
INTRODUCTION
Save the Children helps to bring about
immediate and lasting change to the lives of
children overseas and here in the UK. We
believe we have made dramatic progress in
recent years – saving more children’s lives,
getting more young people into school, and
protecting more children in the toughest
places in the world.
This has brought us to a tipping point. Ours could be
the first generation in human history to say that no
child dies from preventable diseases, and that every
child has a fair chance in life.
Save the Children is determined to help make this
happen. To do this, we must be an accountable and
transparent organisation.
Why accountability and
transparency matter
Accountability is one of Save the Children’s core
values. By being accountable, and transparently
explaining our work, we empower the children
and communities we serve to help them transform
their own lives. Not only is this the right thing
to do, it is crucial to us further accelerating change
for children.
We have clear responsibilities to be accountable and
transparent to those who make Save the Children’s
work possible, such as our donors, supporters,
staff and volunteers, and partners. And we must
clearly explain our approach to child safeguarding,
and our advocacy, environmental impact, and
governance. This report explains how we are
doing this.
Although we can always do better, Save the Children
continues to make real progress. We measure
ourselves against the highest standards, as defined
by key sector codes and collaborations. We publish
frequent, detailed information on our spending
through the International Aid Transparency Initiative
(IATI). And accountability to children is one of Save
the Children’s strategic priorities in the delivery of
our humanitarian and development programmes
around the world.
What does
accountability mean?
What does
transparency mean?
For Save the Children, accountability means we
take responsibility for using our resources
efficiently, achieving measurable results, and being
accountable to supporters, donors, partners and,
most of all, children.
For Save the Children to be transparent, the people
we work with must have access to timely, relevant
and clear information about our organisation.
We are committed to presenting this information
in ways that can be accessed and understood by
children and their communities.
Accountability to children is giving them a voice. It
means making sure they have the opportunity to
influence the key decisions affecting how we work
with them, and the power to hold us to account
in ways that influence our policies, priorities and
actions at all levels.
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keeping our promises
Why have an Accountability
and Transparency Report?
This report is a companion document to our
Annual Report 2012 (which provides more
information on our strategy, programming and
advocacy activities, organisational structure, leadership
team, and income and financial performance), and to
our Impact Learning and Innovation Report,
which contains additional data and reflection on our
programme reach and impact.
The Accountability and Transparency Report builds on
this work by explaining our wider commitments and
how we are delivering against them. Its key purposes
are to:
• Explain ongoing progress in improving our
accountability and transparency, and make
commitments for further development by 2015.
• Outline our existing commitments to key sector
standards, such as IATI and the Humanitarian
Accountability Partnership (HAP). Using the
2010 HAP Standard in Accountability and Quality
Management as a guide, the report explains what
these commitments mean for Save the Children,
our donors and supporters, our partners, and the
people we serve.
The scope of this report
This report applies to the activities of Save the
Children UK, one of 30 members of the global
movement. ‘Save the Children’ refers specifically to
Save the Children UK.
We have now brought the majority of members’
programmes under a unified delivery structure
known as Save the Children International. This
model enables us to retain close oversight
of accountability and transparency. Further
information on this transition can be found in the
Strategy and Governance chapter.
Though this report is not intended to specifically
address our legal and regulatory obligations, these
important matters are also discussed in the ‘Strategy
and Governance’ chapter. More details can be
accessed in our Annual Report and on our website.
2
The contents of this report
This report looks at accountability and transparency
across Save the Children in 2012:
1. Children and their communities – how
we are accountable and transparent in our
programming through, for example, complaints,
child participation, and information-sharing
mechanisms around the world.
2. Child safeguarding – how we keep the
young people we work with safe, a fundamental
requirement for Save the Children.
3. Our advocacy and campaigns – how we
demonstrate accountability in our role speaking
out for change in children’s lives, by gathering
evidence of what works and learning from key
sector standards.
4. Our staff and volunteers – how we keep our
people healthy and safe, help them be as effective
as possible in their work, pay a living wage, and
build a diverse and engaged workforce.
5. Our partnerships – how we select and are
accountable to our partners, transparently
share information with them, and agree mutually
appropriate standards.
6. Our supporters – how we manage the money
we raise, capture and respond to feedback, and
transparently share information with everyone that
supports our work.
7. Our environmental impact – how we minimise
the environmental impact of our work, and so the
negative impact of climate change on children and
their communities.
8. Our strategy and governance – how we make
decisions and take action for children at all levels
of our organisation.
Further information
Please visit our website at www.savethechildren.org.uk
For any queries, or to request copies of this report
or those mentioned above, please contact the
Save the Children Supporter Care Team.
You can do this by email at supporter.care@
savethechildren.org.uk, by phone on 0800 8 148 148,
or in writing at Supporter Care Team, Save the
Children, 1 St John’s Lane, London EC1M 4AR.
1 CHILDREN AND
THEIR COMMUNITIES
What does accountability
in our programming mean?
“These are beneficiaries who you are serving,
who you are accountable to. They are your
constituents. When you are doing this service
you are someone in power with a resource or
information. Accountability demands that you
use this power responsibly. This is about building
relationships and making your programmes more
efficient. It’s really an important issue.”
To make our programmes accountable to children, we:
• work together with children (defined by us as any
person under the age of 18) and their communities
to come to decisions
• effectively share information about our
organisation and programmes
• listen and respond to feedback and complaints
• monitor and evaluate our impact, and learn to
continuously improve our programmes.
Save the Children staff member, Wajir, Kenya
Ten million children directly benefited from our
work in 2012. We believe that accountability and
transparency are at the core of delivering world-class
programmes – helping to improve performance and
impact by empowering people to lead changes in
their own lives.
Accountability to children is one of our key strategic
priorities. We focus on some of our largest and most
complex country programmes, now managed by
Save the Children International.
We want children and their communities to
be engaged and informed participants in our
programme work.
Our 2012 focus was to empower children to take
a central role in their own development, through
improved information sharing and complaints handling
Figure 1. accountability focus countries
Egypt
Colombia
Ecuador
Bangladesh
South Sudan
Ethiopia
Niger
Sierra Leone
Liberia
China
Occupied
Palestinian
territory
Nigeria
Rwanda
Kenya
Tanzania
Thailand
Myanmar
(Burma)
Sri Lanka
Mozambique
Accountability focus
countries 2011
South Africa
Countries added in 2012
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keeping our promises
practices in at least 15 countries and in 40% of
emergency responses. We have dedicated significant
funding to this aim until 2015, and accountability was
built into our largest ever grant to fund a nutrition
project in Nigeria.
To make sure we meet these commitments in our
new programme delivery structure, we have developed
a Programme Quality Framework to promote a
shared culture of good practice in accountability
across Save the Children. We have also produced a
standard operating procedure on handling feedback
and complaints, and Humanitarian Standards.
The structure of this section follows the HAP
Standard for Accountability and Quality Management
benchmarks, which are the basis for our
accountability to children work.
Establishing and delivering
on commitments
Our commitment to accountability comes to life
through our country-level programme work, with
Save the Children’s dedicated staff and partners
representing us to children and their communities.
In 2011, Myanmar (Burma) became the first country
programme to develop its own accountability
framework. Since then, 11 country offices managed by
Save the Children International have collaboratively
assessed how to demonstrate accountability in
our programmes.
Last year we delivered life-saving aid to 3.7 million
people in more than 50 emergencies. So we are also
integrating accountability and learning benchmarks
into our largest humanitarian responses. They
outline ten minimum standards, in line with sector
best practice, explaining how we will deliver on our
commitments through Save the Children’s
new structure.
Staff competency
We are helping our people effectively integrate
accountability and transparency into the work they
do for children every day.
We have identified and trained 70 specialists to
deliver regular accountability sensitisation and training
workshops for our staff, partner representatives, and
children and adults we work with in 15 countries.
We have also strengthened our accountability principles
in development work and emergency responses by
embedding them in our recruitment, induction, training,
and performance management processes.
Sharing information
For the people we work with to be able to hold us to
account on our commitment to deliver high-quality,
high-impact programmes, we need to make sure they
have access to clear and timely information about our
aims and activities.
To do this, Save the Children produces programme
summaries, annual country plans, child safeguarding
ACCOUNTABILITY IN ACTION
• Accountability was built into the Sierra Leone
country strategy and annual plan. As a result,
100 adults and children from three slum
communities in Freetown participated in
feedback and consultation sessions on our
programme work.
• In Myanmar (Burma) we set up more than
30 groups for children to take part in our
programmes, including a national forum for the
most vulnerable children, such as those forced
to work.
4
• In Colombia we have produced a child-friendly
report on all Save the Children programmes.
• In Ethiopia our livelihoods project had
feedback that some of the most vulnerable
households were missing out on support. As a
result, we improved our targeting.
These materials are colourful and appealing, using
illustrations, posters, stories and websites to
share information with children in ways they can
understand. We have made a particular commitment
to enhance communication with disaster-affected
children, through our new delivery structure, by 2014.
We also run interactive workshops and consultations
to help us build the trust and knowledge of the
communities we serve. In 2012 we discussed
73 project budgets directly with communities in
14 countries. However, we recognise that we can get
better at, for example, sharing financial information.
We also aim to improve the understanding of children
and their communities of the standards of behaviour
outlined in our Code of Conduct.
We use a number of methods to involve young
people in programme decision-making. Our ‘Children
Measuring Change’ project will collaborate with
children on the impact of our work on their lives. We
are also leading a consortium of NGOs piloting a new
Toolkit and Framework for Measuring the Impact of
Children’s Participation.
“I feel now children come to our office with dignity
and rights, not [feeling like they are] asking for pity
or charity.”
Save the Children partner representative, Bangladesh
Our Young Leaders programme aims to place young
people’s voices at the heart of our UK programme
work, which is growing in scale and ambition. In 2012
we trained and recruited 47 young people from
across the UK to campaign for us on issues that
matter to them – and to challenge us on what we
do and why. Our youth ambassadors from Tanzania
also played a central role in our 2012 Olympic
hunger summit.
1 CHILDREN AND THEIR COMMUNITIES
guidelines in formats that children and adults we work
with are able to access – such as information boards,
posters and, where the necessary equipment exists,
websites and films.
We will continue to make sure the views of children
are a major influence on how we make our decisions.
Participation
“Our children talk with us about your programme,
which they didn’t do before. I think they’re happy
to get feedback and I think staff understand their
responsibility to share [information] with children.”
Mother in Khulna, Bangladesh
For Save the Children, participation is the informed
and willing involvement of children – including the
most marginalised and those of different ages and
abilities – in our programmes.
This means discussing issues with children, giving them
the opportunity to express their views and influence
programming decisions. We particularly focus on
encouraging the participation of girls and vulnerable
or marginalised groups, including children affected
by conflict, children with disabilities, those living in
institutional care or on the street, children from a
minority ethnic group, and those affected by HIV/AIDS.
We are measuring child participation across our
programmes by asking all country offices to report
on our new Child Participation Global Indicator.
We have learned that participation in education,
child protection and children’s rights programmes is
stronger than in other areas, and we aim to improve
young people’s involvement in our health, nutrition,
and livelihoods work.
Feedback and
complaints handling
“We get some unique information from the children
through this process that we never knew before.
It has helped us become more cautious about
our programmes.”
Save the Children partner representative, Bangladesh
The people we work with know their needs best.
That’s why we want them to tell us whether our
programmes are meeting their requirements through
accessible, confidential complaints mechanisms. By
responding to their feedback, we start a conversation
on how we can improve.
In 2012 we established complaints mechanisms in
111 projects across 15 countries. Several of our
country offices reported that programme flexibility
and quality, and community relationships had
improved as a result.
In our humanitarian work we aim to respond more
quickly and effectively to children’s needs in any
crisis. Last year we incorporated complaints-handling
into 60% of those responses, and in 2013 we aim to
expand this pilot into more countries.
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keeping our promises
Overall, in 2012 we recorded and responded to
5,589 instances of programme feedback. Of the
3,574 that were categorised, nearly three-quarters
were from children, and 45% of the feedback was
from females.
Some of this feedback is from communities
dissatisfied that we were unable to include them
in our programme work (category 4). To protect
children, we also collect and refer complaints that
do not directly involve Save the Children’s people or
activities (category 6). The single recorded incident
in category 5 concerned verbal abuse and resulted in
a dismissal.
We have established feedback mechanisms for our
own staff and partner representatives to make sure
we are effectively reporting any concerns from within
Save the Children.
In 2012, our staff and our partners directly reached
10 million children around the world, and we use
every possible measure to prevent, identify, and
address these incidents. But we can always improve.
We are working hard to respond to challenges we
face in recording complaints, database maintenance,
cultural norms on giving feedback, and slow response
times from Save the Children.
Learning and
continual improvement
We collect evidence of what works to learn, improve
our programmes, and convince others to replicate
them. In 2012 we fed back 63 project evaluations to
children and communities, and helped 163 partners
strengthen their project evaluations.
To enhance our ability to reflect on our emergency
responses, we have established an evaluation tool
called the Real Time Review, used in 70% of our
biggest emergencies last year. We will also establish a
humanitarian response standard operating procedure
on learning by the end of 2013.
Save the Children is also the host member
of the Consortium of British Humanitarian
Agencies (CBHA), a group of UK organisations
working together to improve learning, quality and
accountability in our humanitarian work.
Our commitments
By 2015, we will:
1. improve accountability practices in line with
sector best practice in at least three of our major
(‘signature’) programmes
2. design effective complaints and feedback
mechanisms for delivery in country programmes
and emergency responses, with improved
table 1. programme feedback 2012
Category 1. Request for information
Percentage
of feedback
546
9.8
2. Request for assistance
2,176
38.9
3. Dissatisfaction with minor issues, such as missing items from kits or
lack of follow-up
1,397
25
4. Dissatisfaction with more serious issues, such as the selection of the
communities we serve
771
13.8
1
0.02
6. Allegations of misconduct not involving Save the Children’s people or activities,
such as community members or staff from other organisations
252
4.5
7. Minor complaints in categories not specified due to lack of partner capacity
446
7.98
5. Breaches of Save the Children’s Code of Conduct and/or Child Safeguarding
Policy by Save the Children representatives
Total
6
Incidence
of feedback
5,589100
4. implement, with Save the Children International,
two standard operating procedures (on handling
complaints and feedback, and on learning) and
our programme quality framework
5. conduct real-time reviews within six to eight
weeks of large humanitarian responses, to ensure
we learn as we act
6. continue to harness the opportunities created
by social media, SMS, and open-source platforms
to build accountability and transparency into
our programming
7. influence, inform and learn from our sector peers
through networks such as the HAP Accountability
Peer Learning Group.
1 CHILDREN AND THEIR COMMUNITIES
confidentiality, better tracking and analysis of data,
and a clear process for emergency programmes
to act on community feedback or provide reasons
for not doing so
3. equip our programme staff and partner
representatives to implement accountability
mechanisms through training and support for
specialists. We will:
• clearly define the accountability tools required
for each stage of a programme
• support more country programmes in creating
their own specific and practical accountability
frameworks, based on the HAP Standard
• embed accountability into job descriptions
and performance measurement plans,
supported by training, information-sharing,
and leadership support
• build the evidence to demonstrate how our
accountability and transparency initiatives
contribute to the quality and effectiveness of
our programmes.
photo: save the children
A feedback box at one of our projects.
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2 Child safeguarding
All children have a right to protection from
violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect.
Keeping them safe is our top priority.
However, we work in some of the world’s
most hostile environments, where these rights
are widely and routinely breached.
We take child safeguarding extremely seriously, and
have a zero tolerance approach to child abuse and
the sexual exploitation of children by any of our
representatives. We are accountable to children for
ensuring that they are safe from harm when coming
into contact with our organisation.
As illustrated, our child safeguarding approach
includes a range of proactive and preventative
measures, with clear procedures for the investigation
of allegations and, if required, the disciplining of
perpetrators. Our delivery of this model is regularly
monitored across all departments and country
programmes through internal and external reviews.
Save the Children’s child safeguarding policies and
procedures – the cornerstone of our Code of
Conduct – give clear guidance to our staff, volunteers
and representatives on how to report a concern,
protect a child, and fulfil their responsibilities in
keeping children safe from harm. Our whistleblowing
policy also explains how to report concerns.
Child safeguarding is built into our recruitment
and ways of working. All our staff must attend
mandatory training on the subject, agree to abide by
our Code of Conduct, and then sign a declaration
of acceptance. Our trustees have direct oversight of
child safeguarding issues, and we report all allegations
to a nominated board member.
While recognising the challenging environments we
work within, we must also acknowledge that on
rare occasions a very small minority of our own
representatives don’t meet Save the Children’s high
standards of professionalism. We will not rest until we
can meet those standards at all times and in all places.
From June 2011 to June 2012, six complaints
were made against Save the Children
representatives. Three cases led to the
representative being dismissed when allegations of
sexual assault were proven. As each case alleged an
illegal act, we referred them to local police authorities,
and one resulted in a successful criminal prosecution.
Two cases were found to be unfounded or unproven,
while one case was referred to local authorities but
no formal action taken.
Our commitment
By 2015, we will continue to refine our child
safeguarding training, induction, and rigorous policies
and procedures on reporting, investigating and
disciplining of incidents, as linked to our Code
of Conduct.
Figure 2. how we safeguard children
Awareness
of policies, definitions and
responsibilities
Prevention
Risk assessments whenever
working with children
8
How we
safeguard
children
Reporting
When, how and to whom
Responding
both appropriately and supportively
3 OUR advocacy
and campaigns
Through our advocacy and campaigns work
we seek to influence the perspectives and
actions of decision-makers to give voice to
children’s needs, inspire public action, and
encourage the policy change that will deliver
immediate and lasting improvements to
children’s lives.
However, we assume great responsibility by
doing this, and must be accountable for our
words and actions.
Monitoring, evaluation,
accountability & learning
Measuring the impact of advocacy and campaigning
can be difficult – policy-making is a complex process,
influenced by many actors and trends. Nevertheless,
by documenting information and building an evidence
base on our activities and results, we can learn
from our achievements and setbacks in order to
strengthen our voice.
For instance, we use the Save the Children Advocacy
Measurement Tool (AMT) to help our country
programmes annually track their advocacy
and campaigns.
The long-term nature of our global EVERY ONE
campaign to reduce child mortality makes this
exercise particularly important. Last year, 39 Save the
Children country programmes and members used the
AMT to report on EVERY ONE.
The AMT has served as a starting-point. However,
we are now finalising our Reflexivity Tool, which will
help us plan, track and evaluate our advocacy and
campaigns work more effectively. The Reflexivity Tool
has been successfully piloted with Save the Children
India, one of our newest members and an EVERY ONE
priority country. This tool will help us to collect and
share more detailed information on our advocacy and
campaigns work around the world.
Key sector standards
Save the Children is one of 83 members of
VOICE (Voluntary Organisations in Co-operation in
Emergencies), collaborating to influence the European
Union (EU) on advocacy in emergency responses.
Our presence on the VOICE board allows us to
learn from our peers in promoting accountability and
transparency in humanitarian advocacy and across
the sector.
As part of NGO membership body Bond, we
exchange best practice with other organisations
and unify our policy and campaigning activity for
maximum impact.
ACCOUNtABILITY AND ADVOCACY IN SIERRA LEONE
In May 2012 Save the Children in Sierra Leone
brought together approximately 120 youth activists
(eight from each of the country’s 14 Districts) for a
three-day advocacy camp to exchange information,
learning, and best practice.
During the camp, each team developed election
advocacy plans specific to lobby candidates in their
Districts in advance of the 2012 election. Save the
Children was part of a coalition that had a major
impact on the allocation and transparency of
health spending.
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Our commitments
The media is a key civil society actor in holding to
account organisations such as Save the Children.
By 2015, we will:
1. share more detailed information on our advocacy
and campaigns partners and donors
2. build on our key external collaborations to
develop our tracking of, and learning from, our
advocacy and campaigns work
3. use the information generated by our Reflexivity
Tool to continually improve the monitoring and
evaluation of our advocacy and campaigns, and
publish the information derived from it
4. explore the feasibility of expanding our Reflexivity
Tool into other priority countries
5. collaborate closely with Save the Children
International to ensure advocacy capacity is on the
ground in key country and regional programmes.
We highlight children’s issues through policy reports,
campaigning, and fundraising; and by working with
print, online and social media outlets we amplify
this message to a wider audience. In doing so, we
are accountable for accurately reflecting child rights
issues, and for responding honestly and transparently
to any questions and concerns raised by the media.
Our team works every day to ensure that Save the
Children does this responsibly.
photo: sandy young/save the children
keeping our promises
Media
10
Children from Glasgow
took part in the Race
Against Hunger at the
Commonwealth Arena
in Glasgow.
4 OUR staff and
volunteers
Our skilled and passionate staff are our key
asset, with the specialist knowledge and
dedication they bring to their work enabling
us to achieve our ambitious goals for children
around the world. Our 9,000 volunteers have
also made a huge contribution to our cause
by running our shops, fundraising, organising
events and campaigning.
We strive to be an accountable, transparent,
diverse and inclusive organisation for all our
staff and volunteers.
Health, safety and security
“Save the Children is committed to minimising safety
and security risks to staff, ensuring they are given
training, support and information to reduce their
risk exposure while maximising the impact of our
programmes for children.”
Save the Children global safety and security statement
Health and safety
Our health and safety policy and procedures, linked to
our Code of Conduct, ensure we maintain the highest
standards of health, safety and wellbeing for our staff,
volunteers, visitors to our sites and premises, and
partner representatives. Through training, support and
information we can maintain an effective culture of
health and safety management.
Our volunteers are the heartbeat of Save the Children,
and all of our 126 community shops are wholly
volunteer-run. To keep them safe we have strengthened
our management processes on fire, asbestos and
electrical safety, and we’re currently reinventing our
shop health and safety manual and guidelines.
We provide a comprehensive framework of security
training, travel monitoring and occupational health
cover for our staff deployed overseas.
Safety and security
Save the Children works in some of the most fragile
and unstable regions in the world. Our global safety
and security team is responsible for keeping our staff
secure, wherever they work.
We are placing the utmost focus on institutionalising
safety and security during the changes to Save the
Children’s structure. We are rigorous on informationsharing, training, pre-departure briefings, technical
assistance, learning and development, and building
security issues into proposal development and
programme design. We work closely with Save
the Children International through well-defined,
complementary security policies and procedures.
Reporter is a global system that collects and displays
the data that helps us identify and address emerging
security trends affecting our programmes. We publish
the key information in our widely distributed annual
Global Safety and Security Report.
While we have aimed to increase rates of reported
incidents, and do everything we reasonably can to
minimise risk to our staff and partner representatives,
Figure 3 (overleaf) shows that we have work to do
to reduce the proportion of property and vehicle
incidents we record.
We are a member of the European Interagency
Security Forum steering group. By sharing learning
from more than 50 European NGOs, we are better
able to keep our staff safe around the world.
People in Aid
We are accredited by the People in Aid Code of Good
Practice, an internationally recognised standard for
improving the quality of people management in
humanitarian and development work.
We are one of only 13 ‘verified compliant members’
from 136 members overall. This is the highest level
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keeping our promises
Figure 3. security incidents 2012
Other incidents 7%
Harrassment 4%
Vehicle accidents 21%
Armed conflict, violence
or unrest 5%
Fatal incidents 6%
Disruption to operations 6%
Property incidents 21%
Acts of physical violence 9%
Threats 10%
Weapons use 11%
of accreditation, and is regularly reviewed. We are
currently monitoring plans to merge People in Aid
into the new Joint Standards Initiative.
We also use our people management standards to
review and improve our employment contracts,
recruitment and induction, disciplinary and grievance
procedures, and performance management.
The Living Wage
“3.5 million children are growing up in poverty in
today’s Britain – most live in households where their
parents are in work, earning poverty wages. Our
commitment to The Living Wage campaign is based on
the simple premise that employers must be a part of
the solution to child poverty in our country.”
Save the Children
Diversity
Millions of children are denied access to their rights
because of discrimination. Promoting diversity, nondiscrimination and equality of opportunity is therefore
central to Save the Children’s right-based approach.
In collaboration with our staff, we have developed
diversity working groups and improved training and
communications. We aim to now improve the visibility
and impact of these initiatives.
The diversity of our staff makes us better at our
work. We aim to be an equal opportunities employer,
and our employment policy seeks to ensure that no
job applicant or staff member receives less favourable
treatment on the grounds of sex, marital status, ethnic
origin, disability, age, class, colour, HIV/AIDS status,
personal circumstances, sexual orientation or any
other unjustifiable grounds.
We believe every child in the UK should have the
chance to realise their potential, and that a job
should be a route out of poverty. To support this
ambition we are one of six principal partners of The
Living Wage Foundation, and one of hundreds of
employers paying an independently agreed living wage
to all of our people in the UK, above the current
national minimum wage. More than 15,000 families
have been lifted out of poverty as a direct result of
the living wage, and it forms a key part of our UK
child poverty strategy.
We carefully monitor our compliance to this
important initiative, and we’re also subject to external
reviews. Wherever possible we require our service
providers to pay the living wage.
Employee engagement
Consulting with our staff and responding to the issues
that really matter to them is essential for achieving
our ambitious goals for children. We communicate
through team briefings, a weekly bulletin and regular
updates from our Chief Executive.
12
We want our staff to experience a compelling
purpose to their work. 77% of staff returned our
fourth Global Employee Engagement Survey in 2012,
an encouraging figure given our varied locations,
languages, and IT accessibility.
Overall, results were positive, particularly in terms
of the proportion of our staff feeling pride in their
work and that they are trusted to do it. However, it
is also clear that we could improve in areas such as
communicating our strategy. Actions are being taken
to respond to staff feedback up to 2015.
table 2. employee engagement results
2011 and 2012
Driver
2011 (%)
2012 (%)
Pride
8585
Interesting work
74
71
Open communications
42
44
Two-way dialogue
46
48
Trust
7682
Values
6063
Strategic direction
56
Our commitments
By 2015, we will:
1. review the effectiveness and implementation of
our people management best practice standards
throughout changes in our organisational structure,
through a People and Organisational Review
2. monitor changes to the People in Aid code, and
agree the most appropriate relationship with the
emerging Joint Standards Initiative
3. more effectively capture, share and use information
on gender, disability, diversity and turnover in
our workforce
4. revise contracts record-keeping and spot checks
to make sure sub-contracted employees, such as
cleaners, are receiving the living wage
5. continue to act on the results of our employee
engagement surveys, and implement the results in
a collaborative and engaging way
6. align our UK policy with Save the Children
International’s new Vehicle and Driving Standards
7. support an increase in the professionalism and
leadership capability of 1,000 humanitarian
professionals every year through our Humanitarian
and Leadership Academy, which aims to promote
excellence in the humanitarian sector through
improving learning, policy and practice.
4 OUR staff and volunteers
We recognise the UK trade union Unite, and will
continue to promote healthy staff relations in all
countries where we work.
52
photo: colin crowley/save the children
Mohamed Ismail is our
Community Health Services
Officer in the Wajir South
district of Northeastern Kenya.
He overseas the community
health worker programme.
13
5 OUR partnerships
“We build partnerships: collaborate with
children, civil society organisations, communities,
governments and the private sector to share
knowledge, influence others and build capacity to
ensure children’s rights are met.”
From Save the Children’s Theory of Change
Working through mutually beneficial partnerships helps
us achieve much more for children. By harnessing the
power of others we can increase income, reach, impact
and influence beyond what we can achieve alone.
We have long-term strategic and operational
partnerships that go well beyond funding, such as with
the UK Department for International Development
(DFID), the EU and key corporate partners. Some
partnerships are project-based, while others involve
us in networks or coalitions seeking to achieve
shared objectives, such as the Enough Food For
Everyone IF campaign.
We have clear obligations to our partners, particularly
to donors giving us their funds and expertise. But
accountability in partnerships works both ways. We
must make sure that organisations representing us
strive to reach the same levels of accountability and
transparency as us, and do the same in return. By
openly sharing information within partnerships we can
minimise duplication, spread best practice, and learn
from our partners’ expertise and experience.
Grants management
and accountability
Grants management is about more than money; it is
about ensuring we keep our promises to multilateral
and institutional donors. By demonstrating real
accountability to those organisations – and, ultimately,
the citizens who fund them – we protect and develop
the key relationships that enable us to deliver more
for children.
To do this, our donor compliance team ensures our
grants implementation complies with donor reporting
14
requirements and key principles. It identifies risks and,
where we may have fallen short, actions to make sure
we meet the expectations of our institutional donors
in the delivery of our signature programmes.
While our overseas programmes now come under
our new delivery structure, we have long-standing
relationships with strategic partners and therefore
continue to monitor our programmes to ensure they
are of the highest possible quality.
Corporate partnerships
risk assessment
We work in mutually beneficial corporate
partnerships to find innovative ways to save children’s
lives together.
However, it is important that we always consider the
best interests of children when forming corporate
partnerships. We are willing to lose income
or opportunities where accepting them would
contravene our values.
We will not enter into corporate partnerships with
companies whose primary activities we deem to be
‘inherently harmful’ to children, such as tobaccogrowing and the manufacture of tobacco products,
armaments manufacture or export, and pornography.
We define donations as high risk, and carefully weigh
up the benefits and risks of accepting them, if:
• the donation is generated through an activity
carrying a risk of harm to children
• the company is based or regulated in a country
with a Transparency International Corruption
Perceptions Index score of less than 50, or rated as
High or Extreme Risk in Maplecroft’s Environment,
Social and Governance Risk Index
• the company is giving to a sphere of our work
with specific regional sensitivities
• acceptance of the donation might compromise
Save the Children’s independence, reputation or
ability to carry out our work.
We will constructively engage with high-risk donors
to generate funding for our work and, wherever
possible, improve donor practice. This is often the
best way of encouraging change in line with our
ambition. And where we do proceed to partnership,
we take a supportive, constructively challenging stance
to ensure that, together, we are continuing to act in
the best interests of children.
We want to learn from our corporate partners, and
both expect and welcome their due diligence on
Save the Children. This process underpins our most
successful relationships.
Ethical Investment Policy
Save the Children puts funds in investments, securities
or property, as agreed by our trustees. We specifically
exclude from our investment portfolio companies
whose practices are considered to be in conflict with
the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the
Child 1989 and our own objectives.
Fraud
We operate in some very complex environments,
focusing on the hardest-to-reach children, wherever
they are. We take any suggestion of fraudulent,
dishonest or corrupt behaviour very seriously,
and we have clear fraud reporting and monitoring
arrangements, including a fraud policy and a
confidential fraud email site. Save the Children
International has a dedicated Head of Fraud
Management role to mitigate risk.
During 2012, estimated and actual losses after
recovery arising from fraud reported through Save
the Children’s systems amounted to circa £581,000,
or 0.2% of our turnover. We have shared this figure in
order to be fully transparent.
However, as we complete all investigations and
further fund recovery processes, we will be able
to provide a revised figure next year as part of
our ongoing annual reporting and commitment to
minimising fraud.
Our partnership principles
We deliver our programmes in collaboration with
many different local organisations. Bringing the
delivery of our overseas programmes together
through Save the Children International has given
us a unique opportunity to define a shared vision of
partnership for our whole movement.
5 OUR partnerships
We assess all corporate partnerships for risk. If they
are high risk, we carefully consider the potential
impact of the relationship on our work, as well as the
opportunity to realise our goals for children. High-risk
partnerships are subject to our ethical due diligence
process, with decisions taken by a panel of trustees
and directors from across our organisation.
This vision is expressed through our Partnership
Principles. These are defined by the principles
of equity, mutual benefit, and accountability and
transparency. Openness and honesty are hugely
important in building trusting, mutually satisfactory
working relationships, and a partnership can only
be accountable to all its stakeholders through
transparent working and sharing of information.
Our implementing partnerships will:
• work towards children’s development and
wellbeing, and the realisation of their rights and
best interests
• emphasise joint planning of projects and other
initiatives, clearly articulating the added value of
the cooperation for both parties
• respect the separate identity and objectives
of partners, and recognise that differences in
resources, information and power must be
managed through principles of mutual respect
and accountability
• identify and deliver practical measures to build the
institutional, operational and technical capacity of
partners, as well as learn from the experience and
skills of partner organisations
• be clear on the terms of the relationship, usually
recorded in a partnership agreement. Such
agreements will be appropriate to the size
and capacity of the partner and the nature of
the collaboration, and are accompanied by the
appropriate due diligence and/or partnership
assessment process
• ensure that all parties are clear on their
responsibilities relating to Save the Children’s
child safeguarding policy
• contribute to the development of a vibrant civil
society and/or accountable government structures,
as duty-bearers for the effective realisation of
children’s rights
• be supported by Save the Children across our
‘dual mandate’, with equal consideration given
to partnerships in emergencies and those in our
longer-term development work.
15
keeping our promises
Grant-making policy
Our commitments
Save the Children provides funding to many partners
to deliver a range of services, including immediate
emergency relief. These grants help local organisations
provide sustainable benefits to children and their
communities, and so further our own aims.
By 2015, we will:
1. continue to refine our corporate partnership risk
assessment process to ensure we are always acting
in the best interests of children
2. collaborate closely with Save the Children
International to mitigate fraud wherever it occurs
3. work with country offices to implement
partnership management processes as agreed
in our Minimum Operating Standards. These will
include analysis of potential partners, transparent
and documented partner selection methods,
use of formal agreement documents, and robust
monitoring arrangements
4. clarify and improve Standard Major Donor
Requirements to better reflect award management
standards
5. through our partnership working group, develop
our humanitarian and development partnership
agenda, including the Partnership Engagement Guide
6. ensure the language and definitions in our
partnership documents convey the sense of mutual
respect and collaboration that we aim to embed in
all of our working relationships
7. assess the effectiveness and appropriateness of our
UK partnership arrangements.
We carefully consider the experience, reach and
governance of potential partners, as well as the value
they will add to our work for children. We also
closely monitor how all grants are spent.
Keystone Performance Survey
In 2010 our partnership agreements were assessed
by Keystone, which advises non-profit organisations
on planning, measuring and reporting on the impact
of their work. Keystone surveyed our implementing
partners and gave us specific feedback benchmarked
against our sector peers.
The process highlighted a number of areas where
our partnership working needed to be improved.
This is particularly relevant, given 70% of surveyed
organisations reported that we provided them with
technical advice on accountability issues.
In response, our new partnership working group –
which includes representatives from our Cambodia,
Egypt, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan country
programmes – has developed tools to manage
implementing partnerships, with a focus on compliance,
inclusivity and transparency. It has also refined our
partner assessment and selection process to develop
a Partnership Engagement Guide and to encourage
better collaboration with partner organisations.
We are also defining a partnership framework
for Save the Children’s humanitarian work, to be
implemented in 2013 and 2014. Meanwhile, Save
the Children International is checking our progress
through another Keystone survey in 2013.
Bringing Save the Children members’ programmes
under a single delivery structure will help us achieve
a consistent approach to partnerships built on
collaborative relationships. In doing this, we can
deliver more for children, together.
16
6 OUR SUPPORTERS
Our supporters make our work possible.
Community groups and individuals have made
our cause the cause of millions by giving us
their time, voices, energy and financial support.
In this challenging financial climate, we are
more accountable than ever for meeting their
varied expectations and requirements.
Key sector standards
and initiatives
The International Aid
Transparency Initiative (IATI)
In 2012 we published, for the first time through IATI,
a voluntary initiative to make information about aid
spending easier to find, use and compare. This unites
us with developing country governments, institutions
such as DFID and the World Bank, and other NGOs
in agreeing to meet our transparency commitments
coherently and consistently.
The IATI standard allows us to publicly share detailed
and comparable information on our spending from
institutional donors. As well as making us more
effective and accountable as an organisation, publishing
information this way has also highlighted areas where
we can improve our programme management, such as
through reducing delayed programme start dates.
Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)
The DEC brings Save the Children and 13 other
humanitarian agencies together to launch coordinated
fundraising appeals in response to large-scale overseas
emergencies. DEC members collaborate to maximise
money raised and ensure it is spent effectively
and accountably.
We also report annually to the DEC Accountability
Framework on how we can improve our programme
work. We submit evidence, including from two of
our country programmes, for review by fellow
members, and receive regular external assessments
and evaluations. Results are published in the interests
of transparency.
This process promotes best practice, learning
and DEC’s accountability priorities, which are the
benchmarks of good-quality humanitarian work
collectively agreed by members. Through our DEC
membership we are able to continually influence
and learn from sector peers and standards.
Other key agreements
We welcome external scrutiny of how we use
supporter donations. As a member of the Fundraising
Standards Board (FRSB), the independent regulator
for UK fundraising, we meet best practice in
fundraising standards and respond to the feedback
of the people who make our work possible.
We commit to the FRSB Fundraising Promise of
accountability and transparency, and feed back
annually against the Institute of Fundraising (IOF)
Codes of Fundraising Practice, adopted by the FRSB
as the standards set for UK fundraisers. The IOF’s
Accountability & Transparency in Fundraising code helps
us demonstrate how fundraising in this way makes us
better at our work for children.
We are aligned with a number of other sector
standards, such as the Public Fundraising Regulatory
Association, Direct Marketing Association and
Management Accounting for NGOs.
17
keeping our promises
How we spend your money
We want to ensure that every penny we have is
dedicated to achieving our ambitious goals for
children. We are proud that, over a five-year average,
88 pence in every £1 we spent went to help children.
Figure 4, with figures accurate to 31 December 2012,
offers an overview of how we do this. Much more
detail on our finances can be found in our Annual
Report 2012.
Figure 4. how we spend your money
Where our money came from
Investments £0.8m <1%
Other £2.4m 1%
Retail £8.5m 3%
Legacies £13.1m 5%
Gifts in kind £17.7m 6%
Institutional grants
£150.7m 53%
Total
income
£283.7m
Donations and gifts £90.6m 32%
How we spent it
Fundraising and investment
management fees £28.5m 9%
Retail £6.8m 2%
Governance £0.7m <1%
Charitable activities
£274.8m 88%
Other £1.6m 1%
Total
expenditure
£312.4m
How we spent it – by area
Campaigning and awareness
£18.3m 7%
Nutrition £24.2m 9%
Livelihoods £28.7m 10%
Total
charitable
expenditure
£274.8m
Rapid-onset emergencies
£86.6m 31%
Health £41.8m 15%
HIV/AIDS £2.5m 1%
Protection £23.7m 9%
Education £40.6m 15%
18
Rights £8.5m 3%
Access to our information
“I love working in the Supporter Care team – everyone
is so passionate about listening to our supporters,
learning from them and talking about our work. I think
our supporters want to be certain we’re making the
most out of our donations and that we aren’t wasting
their money.”
Save the Children Supporter Care Adviser
We want to ensure Save the Children’s supporters
feel valued for the incredible help they give us. So
we listen to what they have to say, build on positive
feedback and make changes where things could
be improved. We strive to offer the best possible
experience to each individual supporter so, together,
our cause is the cause of millions.
We report back to supporters on how their
donations have been spent, and record and monitor
their feedback so we continually improve the quality
and efficiency of our service. We now capture and
respond to more feedback than ever before.
We consider any expression of dissatisfaction a
complaint, and respond in line with our complaints
policy. Complaints are an opportunity for us to
improve as an organisation, and we work hard to
resolve or answer every enquiry we receive.
In 2012 we received 3,019 complaints. This represents
a notable increase from 2011 (the most recent
data to be reported to the FRSB). Some of these
can be attributed to a rise in our overall number
of supporters and the improvements made to our
complaints-handling procedures. However, as our
profile grows and we continue to speak out on
challenging child rights issues such as UK poverty,
we’ve seen more supporters contacting us with
questions on our programme work.
2011 FRSB complaints return
Complaints
FRSB
(%)
Save the
Children (%)
Addressed mail
0.009
0.019
Telephone fundraising
0.039
0.040
Door-to-door fundraising
0.145
0.001
Email fundraising
0.002
0.001
Street fundraising
0.003
0.001
Unaddressed mail
0.000
0.003
TV adverts
0.000
0.000
To be a transparent organisation, we must
proactively share information with children and
their communities, our supporters, donors, partner
organisations and governments. We explain how we
do this in our open information policy, which can be
found on our Being Accountable webpage.
We may sometimes have to consider the financial and
time resources necessary to meet our transparency
commitments, as we focus our resources on delivering
world-class programmes for children. We may also
have other reasons not to disclose information, such
as safety and confidentiality. However, we will always
try to explain why we cannot share information.
6 OUR DONORS AND SUPPORTERS
responding to feedback
Our commitments
By 2015, we will:
1. respond to 95% of supporter emails within one
working day
2. offer supporters who contact us through social
media the same high-quality service as those using
more established methods
3. ensure we provide clear and relevant information
to supporters who contact us with feedback on
our programme and advocacy work, particularly
when we focus on new or complex issues
4. explore the possibility of increasing the range of
information we publish through the International
Aid Transparency Initiative, subject to safety and
privacy considerations
5. expand our Being Accountable webpage with clear,
accessible information on as many of our activities
as possible
6. ensure full compliance with the range of external
standards we use to demonstrate best practice
in our fundraising, such as the IOF Codes of
Fundraising Practice.
19
7 Our Environmental
impact
Save the Children is a global organisation,
often operating in remote or hard-to-access
locations, and the transport of people
and goods is an important part of our
work. We will inevitably need to balance
our environmental commitments with
programming aims. But climate change
means more instability, more shortages and
more emergencies.
Environmental issues are also important
to our staff. So we are working to reduce
our carbon footprint and help mitigate the
negative impact of climate change on children
and their communities, beginning here in
the UK.
Carbon footprint mapping
We have mapped our UK carbon footprint, in order
to begin to make changes in how we work.
We analysed our six offices and 126 shops in the UK
over a six-month period, reporting in early 2012.
We found that in this period Save the Children was
responsible for 2,645 tonnes of carbon dioxide
equivalent (CO2e), with our yearly total estimated at
slightly under double that amount. This is a significant
figure, though comparable to other organisations of
our size in terms of per-person emissions.
The figure below shows that more than 90% of our
carbon footprint comes from transport and electricity.
Small adjustments in each area, many of which are
underway, mean we can make considerable financial
and carbon savings.
Figure 5. save the children’s uk carbon footprint (jan–jun 2011)
Other fuels
Water
Recycling
Paper and procurement
Waste
Gas
Electricity
Transport
0 2004006008001,000
1,200
1,400
Emissions in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)
20
Waste
The global nature of our work means that mediumand long-haul flights account for the majority of
our carbon footprint. We have already started to
implement some of the recommendations from the
carbon mapping exercise through new travel and
environmental policies.
Waste forms a small part of our carbon footprint, but
is a very visible issue to our staff and our response
is important in demonstrating our commitment to
environmental issues more widely.
For example, air travel within the UK must only be
considered as a final option. To reduce disruption to
our work, our video-conferencing facilities have been
upgraded; dedicated rooms for video-conferencing are
now operational and Skype is available on all desktops.
Flights within the UK and to nearby European
destinations are being minimised. We have also
introduced a cycle-to-work scheme.
Electricity and other utilities
Most of our energy use in Save the Children’s UK
offices and shops is from electricity. Though our head
office now uses energy from renewable sources, and
per-person emissions are relatively low, electricity use
during evenings and weekends is high. In Manchester,
for example, nearly half of our energy was used during
these times. That team has now moved to facilities
with movement-sensitive lighting.
This is clearly an issue we must address for financial
as well as environmental reasons. We have produced
materials encouraging staff to switch off lights around
our offices, though there is undoubtedly scope to
improve awareness of this issue.
We also have improvements to make in our energy
use from IT equipment.
Recycling bins are available throughout our UK
offices, and our paper use is minimised through
default printer settings, such as private and doublesided printing. We have installed a new set of energyefficient printers across our UK offices, which use
recycled paper. We estimate this switch will reduce
our annual carbon emissions by 5.9 tonnes a year.
7 OUR environmental impact
Travel
Our commitments
By 2015, we will:
1. limit all travel to mainland UK destinations and
nearby European cities, such as Paris and Brussels,
to rail unless in exceptional circumstances. We will
also increase use of teleconferencing facilities
2. continue to cut our energy use through, for
example, installing individual meters on each floor
of our headquarters, which is currently shared
with two other organisations
3. follow up the launch of our new environmental
policy and cycle-to-work scheme with continued
awareness and engagement activities throughout
Save the Children
4. undertake another carbon-mapping exercise in
2013, share the results widely, and act on them
5. through our newly created Disaster Risk
Reduction & Climate Change Adaptation team,
increase our influence on environmental issues
and impact-awareness more broadly.
photo: cj clarke/save the children
Farmers tend their fields
after they were damaged in
the 2010 floods in Pakistan.
21
8 Our strategy
and governance
We hold ourselves to the highest standards
of accountability and transparency in our
strategy and governance. Only then can
we encourage other organisations to do
the same and help create a better world
for children.
• achieve results on a broader scale by collecting
and spreading evidence of what works
• be the voice, speaking with and for children, to
advocate and campaign for change in their lives
• build partnerships by collaborating with
governments, companies, donors, research
institutes, and children and their communities to
fundraise, share knowledge, increase our influence
and reach more people.
Our Theory of Change
and strategy
We focus on rigorous, replicable and innovative
signature programmes that embody this theory
of change, as well as responding more quickly and
effectively to save children’s lives in emergencies.
For the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership,
explaining the meaning of, and reasons for, actions
and decisions is a key aspect of accountability. So it
is important for Save the Children to freely share
information on our strategy.
Our ‘theory of change’ is our vision to transform
children’s lives at the scale required. It means we will:
• develop and deliver high-quality, innovative worldclass programmes
We want our cause to become the cause of millions
for people around the world. In the UK, we want
to develop strong long-term relationships with one
million supporters.
Finally, we aim to build an agile, innovative and
accountable organisation, harnessing a range of
partnerships to achieve our goals.
Figure 6. save the children’s theory of change
We will…
…be the voice
…build partnerships
…be the innovator
…achieve results at scale
22
We are a charitable company limited by guarantee,
incorporated under the name The Save the Children
Fund. We are regulated by the Charity Commission
for England & Wales and the Office of the Scottish
Charity Regulator.
We also have a wholly-owned trading subsidiary,
Save the Children (Sales) Ltd, which is registered in
England and Wales and trades goods through our
shops, branches and website. The two companies are
registered at Companies House, and we file statutory
annual accounts and returns with our regulators.
Save the Children’s Chair is Alan Parker
and our Chief Executive is Justin Forsyth.
More information on our senior leadership,
and on all other aspects on our strategy and
governance, can be found in our Annual Report
and on our website.
Our volunteer Board of Trustees is collectively
responsible for governing Save the Children.
Our trustees have backgrounds in international
development, policy, finance and general management,
and fundraising. They take overall responsibility for
delivery of our strategy, setting policy, defining targets,
agreeing the financial plan, evaluating performance, and
ensuring that strong relationships are maintained with
directors. Matters reserved for the board are clearly
set out in our standing orders.
The board acts on advice and information from our
Chief Executive and directors, and delegates the dayto-day management of Save the Children to them.
Our trustees are appointed, elected or re-elected
for a fixed term (maximum eight years), according
to defined processes led by our Nominations
Committee. Where appropriate, we use external
input to make our senior appointments as transparent
and inclusive as possible.
Our board is advised by a Donations Decision-Making
Panel, and by Audit, Performance and Remuneration;
Investments and Pensions; Finance; and Nominations
committees.
The board, which meets at least four times a year,
was subject to an external evaluation in 2011. It
recommended refinements to sharpen the focus of
certain board processes, such as succession planning.
We are continuing to act on those recommendations
to improve how we make our most important
decisions for children.
Save the Children
International governance
We are one of 30 independent national members
of the Save the Children movement, transforming
children’s lives in more than 120 countries.
Save the Children International is responsible for
delivering programmes for all members outside
our home territories, by line-managing regional and
country offices on our behalf.
8 OUR strategy and governance
Our structure
We design programmes in conjunction with donors
and maintain oversight of delivery. As well as our
programming in the UK, we continue to provide
humanitarian surge capacity and technical support to
overseas programmes, and we provide leadership in
specific areas for the Save the Children movement as
a whole.
Save the Children International has a global nonexecutive board of 13 trustees, with members
approving the constitution of the board and electing
or appointing trustees in line with this. Bylaws lay out
our decision-making rights and expectations of the
Save the Children International Board. Our Chair and
two nominated trustees sit on the Save the Children
International Board to help guide its overall direction
and represent us in this new structure. Two of these
three places are currently filled.
Our new delivery model has been developed to align
Save the Children’s activities, minimise duplication of
effort, and reduce costs, so that as a movement we
can deliver high-quality programmes and advocacy
to make immediate and lasting impact in the lives of
children around the world.
Our commitments
By 2015, we will:
1. increase the diversity of experience and
background represented on our Board of Trustees
2. clarify the processes we use to appoint and
re-appoint trustees
3. create a more rigorous induction process for all
our new trustees.
23
APPENDIX: OUR key
external commitments
and memberships
Bond
Code of Conduct of Red Cross and Red Crescent Agencies and NGOs
Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC)
Consortium of British Humanitarian Agencies (CBHA)
Direct Marketing Association
Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)
Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI)
European Inter-Agency Security Forum (EISF)
Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB)
Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP)
Institute of Fundraising (IOF)
Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE – endorsed)
Inter-Agency Procurement Group (IAPG)
International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI)
Management Accounting for NGOs (MANGO)
People In Aid
Public Fundraising Regulatory Association (PFRA)
The Living Wage Foundation
The Sphere Project (endorsed)
Voluntary Organisations in Co-operation in Emergencies (VOICE)
24
Accountability and transparency report 2012
COVER Photo: cj clarke/save the children
KEEPING OUR promises
Accountability is one of Save the Children’s core
values. By being accountable in our programmes, and
transparently explaining our work, we empower the
children and communities we serve to help them
transform their own lives. Not only is this the right
thing to do, it is crucial to us further accelerating
change for children.
We have clear responsibilities to be accountable and
transparent to those who make Save the Children’s
work possible, such as our donors, supporters, staff
and volunteers, and partners. And we must explain
our approach to child safeguarding, and our advocacy,
environmental impact, and governance.
Keeping Our Promises explains how we are doing this.
cover photo: hildren
savethechildren.org.uk