Join us in supporting change for children!

Today Ivan Lewis MP and I launched a petition calling on the UN Secretary General and UN Member States to recognise the vital importance of investing in a child’s earliest years.

We know from experience and evidence in the UK that investing in a child’s earliest years makes the biggest difference to that child’s life – making them healthier, more ready for school and more productive adults and members of their communities. Investing in children early is one of our best long-term social and economic policies which brings practical benefits to those children and their families.

In July I travelled to Malawi with Ivan to learn about how early childhood development programmes were delivered in countries that lack the resources we have in the UK. We came back reinforced in our conviction that the principles which underpin programmes like Sure Start in the UK still hold, and that integrating the organisation of support and services for children in their earliest years reaps the biggest benefit.  

That is why I think it is vitally important to ensure that a focus on early childhood development and a commitment to integrating the care, support and services to give a child the best start in life should be at the heart of any new global development framework that replaces the Millennium Development Goals in 2015.

The Millennium Development Goals galvanised unprecedented interest and resources for fighting poverty and injustice. Labour played a key role in catalysing this change and we want to continue playing an important part. We have a unique opportunity to shape the next development framework to ensure that it best embodies our values and commitment to creating a fairer, more prosperous and equal world.

We now need your help to build support for the campaign in the UK and internationally. Share the petition with your friends and networks. Write to David Cameron to express your support for the campaign and desire for the UK to commit to change for children.

I am extremely grateful to LCID for their continued support of this campaign and I hope that together we can be a new force for progressive change internationally.  

If it is right for our children, then surely it should be right for some of the poorest children in the world. Help us to take that first step towards improving the lives of children around the world.

Petition here