Save the Children has a strong, long-standing partnership with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)
The FCDO is the UK Government department responsible for promoting the country’s interests overseas, reducing global poverty, responding to international crises, and supporting a safer, more prosperous world. It brings together diplomacy, development, and humanitarian action under one roof, allowing the UK to coordinate its global engagement more effectively.
Save the Children’s partnership with the UK FCDO is long-standing and broad - covering programming, technical and policy collaborations. Together we save lives in some of the world’s most fragile and complex contexts, and strengthen national systems to enable sustainable and locally led solutions. Save the Children contribute specialist expertise in areas such as child protection, social protection, education, health and emergency response. Our presence in over 100 countries—supported by teams embedded within communities—allows us to deliver rapidly and at scale, enabling the UK to channel funding and expertise to where they are most needed.
Save the Children is recognised as a trusted partner of the FCDO, advancing the department’s goals by leveraging our deep policy and technical expertise, operational capability, and commitment to co‑creation and innovation to meet the needs of children globally.
Family from Bangladesh, Suchana programme, led by Save the Children (which was funded by FCDO and EU). The programme aimed to reduce stunted growth among children under 2 in Sylhet and Moulvibazar, Bangladesh, by improving poor people’s access to essential health and nutrition services, empowering women and girls to improve nutrition practices at home and in communities, and improving the coordination and governance for nutrition services in government systems at local and national level. The best practice is now being replicated in more districts across Bangladesh and we have seen sustained empowerment of women regarding childcare, nutrition and health-seeking behaviours in these districts.
START network
In 2010, 15 agencies formed the Consortium of British Humanitarian Agencies (CBHA) hosted by Save the Children UK, with the goal of rethinking the humanitarian aid system – and of showing that by working together they could innovate, do things differently and deliver aid more effectively. FCDO provided initial investment and has provided substantial ongoing support. The START network, focused on locally led action, now has membership including more than 130 organisations, working across six continents to act early when they see crises coming.
SUPPORTING OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN IN DRC
In Democratic Republic of Congo, our AXE-Filles programme, funded by FCDO, has reached over 60,000 out-of-school children in 2024—more than half of them girls—by improving school infrastructure, establishing catch-up classes, and providing vocational training for teenage mothers who'd been excluded from formal education.
The Future of International Cooperation
As the landscape of international development and cooperation evolves, we are working closely with the UK Government and the wider UK sector to help shape this future—anchoring our positions in what children need to survive, learn, and thrive. In a changing humanitarian environment, our role is more critical than ever: delivering evidence‑based, locally rooted, and high‑impact programmes that protect lives and contribute to global stability. We will continue to support the UK in meeting its commitments to the world’s most vulnerable children, with a focus on value for money, effective risk management, and strategic impact. These shifts will help the UK maintain its global leadership and strengthen stability in ways that align with the UK’s national interest.
