Why the vision of Save the Children's founder is as relevant today as it was a hundred years ago

Save the Children's founder, Eglantyne Jebb, was an inspiring woman. She drafted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1923 which was adopted by the League of Nations and became the main inspiration behind the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Save the Children turns a hundred years old this year. In a moment in time where we are facing rising populism, nationalism, xenophobia, a shrinking space for civil society and with 420 million children – nearly one-fifth of children worldwide – living in a conflict zone it's timely to reflect on ten reasons why her founding vision is as relevant today as it was a hundred years ago (almost entirely from Clare Mulley’s excellent book “The Woman who Saved the Children”):  

1. She stood up against injustice when it was not convenient: Against overwhelming public opinion after the most brutal war that the world had seen, Eglantyne defended the rights and the need of starving German and Russian children. Just four days after her conviction for publishing leaflets in Trafalgar Square, Eglantyne and Dorothy stood up in a crowded Royal Albert Hall on 19 May 1919 with many sceptics sitting and standing, some with rotten apples in their hands, and Eglantyne said "it is impossible for us as normal human beings to watch children starve to death without making an effort to save them … We have only one object, to save as many as possible. We have only one rule, we shall help them whatever their country, whatever their religion.”  
2. She drove her vision with pragmatism and clarity: In drafting the declaration, she had to ensure keeping internal and external allies on board while driving for clarity and purpose. While she drafted her five-point declaration, the International Council for Women was drafting a fifty-one clause document trying to replace hers. It included long language on states' duty bearer rights and she called it "to my mind too socialistic". Eglantyne worked tirelessly with internal allies to get everyone on board with a short, yet comprehensive declaration. However, she strongly believed in the role of governments to fulfill their duties. During the drafting process, she wrote to a friend: ‘If we wish nevertheless to go on working for the children … the only way to do it seems to be to evoke a co-operative effort of the nations to safeguard their own children on constructive rather than on charitable lines. I believe that we should claim certain rights for the children and labour for their universal recognition.’
3. She opposed cultural colonialism in realizing children's rights: Right after the declaration had been completed, she noted that "the methods of child nurture must necessarily vary greatly according to differences of climate, race, traditions, beliefs, etc. But nevertheless there are certain fundamental principles which should be respected, however much the means of their practical application may differ in different localities."  
4. She was data-driven and evidence-based: During the 1919 anti-famine campaign, she insisted that "We must have figures... It is the only way to combat political influences. It is the only way to prove our honesty... And therefore the only way to rally public opinion behind us".  
5. She lived humanitarian principles of neutrality: Eglantyne would always promote humanitarian principles. Against much internal push back, she frequently reiterated her belief that aid should be prioritised solely on the basis of greatest need. These humanitarian principles were kept alive in the organization. During the Spanish Civil War ?The Council minutes record the decision to return a cheque for ￡5 for Spanish children, since it was accompanied by a letter stating that the donor was strongly opposed to helping the children of insurgents. In this case the donor was directed to an organization which was helping on  the Government side only.“
6. She tried to learn from other sectors: Eglantyne was always keen on introducing business methods into philanthropy and she looked to commercial marketing strategies to see what could be adapted for Save the Children. She studied commercial marketing strategies to learn what could be adapted. In March 1920, she launched expensive full-page ads in The Times against the opposition of the Fund's Council. This campaign, though expensive, created unseen return on investment and publicity.  
7. She believed that poverty is man-made: To her, poverty was not the result of natural law or providence, nor purely a government policy issue, but a collective social responsibility that could only be addressed through the promotion of active citizenship.  
8. She saw the need to think beyond aid: She wrote to John Maynard Keynes in 1920 that 'We cannot possibly go on maintaining children by charity for ever and ever,' 'our funds are certain to become exhausted, and it will be heartbreaking indeed if it comes about that we have only saved them from starvation one year in order to leave them to starve the next'. To Eglantyne relief work was never more than a clearing way of obstacles so that the real advance of humanity could proceed.
9. She disliked bureaucracy and organizational self-interest: There where often considerable differences of opinion within the International Union, and between them and the national Save the Children organizations, as to which agencies were best placed to administer relief. Eglantyne was a great diplomat in these situations and not above a certain amount of deviousness to get her way arranging things as if she had not been involved at all. Nonetheless the self-interest of different agencies, including the Save the Children committees, appalled her. She wrote in a letter in 1920 : "Everyone wants the Pope's money but no one wants very much that anyone else shall have it ... Alas for human nature."
10. She opposed provincialism and nationalism and believed in understanding between nations and people: As her sister and cofounder Dorothy wrote “We thought that one supreme way of doing this would be if we could appeal to men and women of different lands to reach each other through the most intimate source of all feelings, the interests of the child”. Shortly before she died, she articulated her hopes for Save the Children's role in a "new feeling of international responsibility": ‘the people who have been accustomed to have their outlook limited by a high wall’ will find when ‘the fetters of narrow provincialism suddenly drop from their wrists’. Perhaps this described her own moment of inspiration when she realized the potential for Save the Children to act as a transnational organisation, not only representing the interests of different nations, but the common concerns of humanity.  

The great author Amos Oz once said that "you can ignore the past but it does not ignore you". Save the Children and everyone fighting for human and children's rights can draw inspiration from the woman who led the way to a movement that created the most successful UN convention in history.