Thanks to the thousands of you who emailed your MPs and took over Twitter, David Cameron promised to look into the lessons learnt from the East Africa crisis at today's Prime Minister's Questions.
Wednesday 18 January 2012
The Prime Minister was responding to a question posed by Mark Lazarowicz MP on whether the international community's response in East Africa had been too late, as argued in our new report, A Dangerous Delay.
Mr Cameron said that lessons had to be learnt and that he would look into a response in West Africa, where Save the Children is warning that a similar crisis is about to unfold.
We've managed to get the issue of hunger into the heart of the national debate, which is a testament to the efforts of our campaigners.
Almost 18,000 people signed our petition calling on David Cameron to sign the Charter to End Extreme Hunger, and this week two thousand supporters called on their MPs to raise the issue at today's Prime Minister's Questions, reaching 91% of all MPs.
A Dangerous Delay
The success at Prime Minister's Questions followed large-scale coverage of the launch of A Dangerous Delay in the national media, and the handing in of the Hunger Charter petition at 10 Downing Street.
The Guardian led with the findings of the report on its front page and our chief executive Justin Forsyth was interviewed on the BBC Today programme.
Our report says lives could have been saved if the international community had acted on warnings that the situation in East Africa was a disaster in the making in late 2010, early 2011.
It recommends that the Charter to End Extreme Hunger needs to be implemented if delays are not to be repeated. The Charter has been developed by a coalition of aid agencies.
Niger warning
Our success at getting early humanitarian intervention on the national agenda comes as we warn of an impending food crisis in the west African country of Niger.
Rainfall there has been limited, crops are failing and families are struggling to feed themselves.
There's a real danger the country may slide into a crisis like the one in East Africa
We're already on the ground, urgently working to reach vulnerable families but we need your help.