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Over the past 20 years significant progress has been made in tackling hunger and poverty, with extreme poverty rates cut by more than half since 1990. Despite this, around the world two billion people currently live in countries affected by conflict, violence and poverty.
One of these countries is the Central African Republic (CAR). With 60% of the population undernourished, CAR is one of the hungriest countries in the world, and has been for many years. This is a result of entrenched poverty and years of conflict which has forced over a million people from their homes.
Despite this, however, the crisis in CAR has received little attention from the media or politicians over the years, but the humanitarian crisis is so severe and so chronically underfunded that it requires an additional £500m in aid.
That's why, in early 2018, we asked you to help the people of CAR break the cycle of hunger and conflict and tweet your MP urging the UK government to do all it can to help the people of CAR.
And you did!
The MPs listened to you, asking questions in Parliament and themselves writing to the Department for International Development (DFID). In fact, you generated so much attention a member of our policy and campaigns team was then invited to Whitehall to discuss the crisis with the officials responsible from DFID. It was a positive meeting, and we followed up by writing to the Secretary of State, expressing our concerns.
We then heard back from Harriet Baldwin, the then Minister of State for International Development. She welcomed the light you shone on the crisis in CAR, and reassured us that the UK was taking action, including providing food, shelter and basic healthcare to 1.5 million people between 2016 and 2019.
We have continued to work to make sure that it’s a promise that is kept, and that the world doesn’t leave behind the poorest and most vulnerable.