Save the Children UK is one part of the Save the Children movement, a global membership organisation made up of Save the Children International and 30 national members. We share one name and one ambition: a world in which every child has the right to survive, learn and be protected.
In 2024, the Save the Children global movement directly supported 41.2m children in 93 countries around the world. Save the Children UK supported the global movement in 41 countries. We provided technical expertise, funding, strategic and governance support, advocacy, programme management and humanitarian response work. We also supported staff, partners and the wider humanitarian sector with capacity-strengthening programmes.
We want to deliver change for children now as well as long‑lasting change to policies and practices that affect them. We are committed to putting power and resources into the hands of communities and countries closest to our work. This means sharing our experience, data, knowledge and skills to forge truly equitable partnerships. It also involves elevating the voices and views of children wherever we can. Every child matters and we want to reach the most marginalised and discriminated against.
Our work for children in 2024
Life saving impact for children through humanitarian action
2024 was a year marked by conflict and the global climate emergency. In the occupied Palestinian territory and Ukraine, conflicts devastated lives, with children paying the heaviest price. Other conflicts didn’t even make the headlines, such as the one in Sudan, which is experiencing the world’s largest displacement crisis and where famine has been declared in parts of the country. The effects of climate change wreaked havoc on children’s lives. 2024 was the hottest year on record, with devastating floods In the Sahel, east Africa and Europe; drought in Southern Africa and the Americas; and heatwaves and wildfires across the globe.
In 2024, we raised £31 million for our emergency response work from our supporters and through our partnership with the Disasters Emergency Committee.
Despite the extremely challenging context, we continued to provide essential lifesaving services in Gaza. We gave families cash to cover their urgent needs, provided clean water to communities, set up spaces where children could feel safe, and ran two primary healthcare centres.
In Sudan, we ran mobile health clinics to treat cholera outbreaks, provided essential learning services to children who have been forced out of school, and ensured people have access to clean water and sanitation facilities in conflict-affected areas.
Read more about our humanitarian work here (page 8).
Defending children’s rights
As well as driving progress on the biggest issues facing children, we also work on cross-cutting issues that underpin progress on children’s rights. In 2024, we brought young people’s voices and perspectives to the institutions, governments and policy forums where decisions that affect their rights were being taken.
We supported girls in Colombia and Malawi to work to tackle gender inequality and take forward solutions.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a blueprint for a fairer, more prosperous and sustainable world by 2030 – but is the world on track to meet them? In 2024, we piloted a toolkit to enable children to provide their own views on progress toward the Goals.
We worked with World Bank staff and key stakeholders to help shape the IDA’s policy package to best support the world’s poorest children.
Read more about how we defend children’s rights here (page 10).
A healthy start in life
A healthy start in life begins in pregnancy and a safe delivery, through a child’s first five years of life. We tackle the greatest barriers to children’s health, focusing on childhood illnesses and adequate nutrition. Together with our global, regional and national partners and local civil society groups, we have continued to work on behalf of those most affected by inequality and discrimination to bring about lasting change from the very start of a child’s life.
In 2024, we continued work in Kenya and Somalia strengthening community systems to address child malnutrition.
We were part of a large-scale, World Bank funded family planning programme in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which successfully increased access to modern family planning methods.
This year we used our voice in support of calls for vital health funding. We developed the strategy for a new UK-based civil society coalition with partners in Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Read more about our work on health here (page 13).
A right to learn
Education is every child’s route to change the rest of their life for the better. Education allows children to learn and develop, and can protect them from poverty, violence and abuse. But too many children continue to miss out. Even when children are in school, they can’t learn basic skills like literacy and numeracy if their teachers aren’t trained and equipped to teach them. Children in low-income and conflict-affected countries are the most likely not to be in school or learning. We keep a particular focus on those most affected by inequality and discrimination – including girls, children with disabilities, refugees, migrating and displaced children, and those from the lowest-income households.
With the Global Partnership for Education, we are making sure children in Myanmar can continue to learn, in safe, supportive environments.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), we worked with international and local partners to increase access to education for over 60,000 children who were out of school or at risk.
In Nigeria, with four local partners, including a disability organisation, Hope for Village Child Foundation, we provided support to marginalised children aged six to 13, particularly girls, children with disabilities, and those who are out of school.
Read more about or work on education here (page 16).
A childhood free from violence
Every child should grow up safe and supported. Yet many children’s lives are blighted by violence and abuse. We work with partners and communities to protect children who are being bombed, shot, starved, raped and often left with no escape from violence – and to enforce the global standard that children should always be off-limits in war. Around the world, girls are at risk of early marriage and other forms of gender-based violence. We are supporting girls and working with them to build their agency to stand against violence in their communities. And we make sure children’s own voices are heard by those in power.
With funding from the UK government, we started work on a project called Gaashaan (‘shield’ in Somali) to tackle sexual, gender-based and other forms of violence against children in conflict-affected and remote parts of Somalia.
In Sierra Leone, where 30% of girls were married before they turn 18 in 2020, our work has played a part in dramatically reducing rates of child marriage and changing societal views. The government has now passed a new law prohibiting child marriage and set a seven-year costed plan to implement it.
In April we hosted a roundtable with the UK Minister for Children and Armed Conflict. Young people from the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Ukraine and the occupied Palestinian territory spoke about their experience of living through conflict, the impact it had on them and their recommendations for the future.
Read more about how we protect a childhood free from violence here (page 19).
Resilience in tough times
2024 was a devastating year for the climate and the first in which average temperatures exceeded the key limit of 1.5°C above pre-industrial times. Around the world, children are facing more extreme weather – from floods in west Africa, landslides in the Philippines, droughts in southern Africa and heatwaves in Bangladesh. Intense shocks and stresses such as these are exacerbating inequality, destroying livelihoods, affecting children’s health, decimating farming and livestock, disrupting water sources, causing food price spikes and driving people from their homes. Meanwhile, a rise in conflict is uprooting families from their homes and destroying critical infrastructure and livelihoods. Finally, economic turmoil has driven up prices, creating a cost-of-living crisis across the world – pushing food beyond the reach of many families. The combination of these threats is driving the worst global food crisis in decades. The UN projects that more than 582 million people will be chronically undernourished by the end of the decade.
In 2024, we shared learning from our anticipatory action programmes in Kenya and Somalia locally, nationally and globally. This research, conducted with support from Oxford University, provided important evidence on the role and limits of anticipatory action.
In August, we published a report and analysis on heatwaves and their impact on children. We revealed that a record 766 million children – one-third of the global child population – were exposed to extreme heatwaves in the twelve months from July 2023 to June 2024, with serious impacts on their development and wellbeing.
Read more about our work to strengthen resilience in tough times here (page 21).
Our work in the UK
All children should grow up in families that have enough money to live with dignity so they can play and learn and have the best start in life. Yet 4.3 million children in the UK are growing up in poverty. This is a national emergency, a major infringement of children’s rights and a crisis that compels us all to action. In 2024 we worked with over 400 different organisations, working for and with children and advocating and campaigning for change.
- The EastSide Early Learning Community in East Belfast focused on developing the early years workforce and co-designing services that enable positive parent and child interactions through play. They launched an Early Years Innovation Fund, with ten local projects designing creative opportunities for children and parents to build responsive relationships.
- Our Community Power and Power of Play projects in Tower Hamlets supported by Morgan Stanley and the LEGO Group and the LEGO Foundation respectively engaged over 80 families in workshops, which gave us a comprehensive insight into the challenges faced by families with children from birth to six living in poverty.
- The Ehangu (Expand) project is a brilliant example of community power in action. Working with members of the community, we facilitated listening workshops to collectively develop a shared vision for Ely and Caerau in Cardiff. Through the workshops, families told us there was a need for safe outdoor spaces for under-fives to play and learn.
- In Glasgow, we launched a new five-year partnership with Morgan Stanley to bring together communities, families, charities and services to increase support for children in the early years. We supported 37 parents to engage with the Scottish government’s review of its Parenting Pathway – helping ensure practice better meets families’ needs.
Read more about our work in the UK here (page 23).
Reducing our Ecological impact
With the conclusion of our 2022–24 strategic period, this year marked the first milestone in our journey to becoming an ecologically smart organisation. We have set out not only to minimise our environmental footprint (see page 59 for our streamlined energy and carbon reporting), but to actively contribute to protecting nature and demanding ecological justice through our work for children and their right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
Over the course of this strategy period, we laid the foundations for reducing our harmful impact on the environment and children.
- In 2024, our emissions from air travel were 1,016 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) (1.14 tonnes per employee) – a reduction of 71% from the baseline in 2019. We are pleased that we have exceeded our commitment this year.
- 1,459,412 pre-loved items donated by supporters were sold in our shops across the UK, reducing waste and extending the lifespan of clothing, books and household goods. Charity shops like ours help fight fast fashion by promoting circular economy practices and reducing landfill waste.
- We launched a project to better understand emissions associated with our media use. This accounts for among our highest emissions outside of financial engagement. Recognising that all paid media generates emissions, we are collaborating with Medialab to better understand the environmental impact of different advertising methods.
Read more about how we reduce our ecological impact here (page 44).
