23rd February 2018 

Dear Kevin, 

My name is Alexia Pepper de Caires and I am one of the many women who suffered at Save the Children while it was overseen by Justin Forsyth as CEO and Alan Parker as Chair.  

This week in Parliament you described the recent scandals of mistreatment of women in NGOs as "a powerful wake up call by employees" and promised "we stand ready to answer it". I am calling on you to answer this letter, in public, within the next 48 hours.

As you have noted, some men in the international development sector used their power, privilege and opportunity to make women feel powerless, vulnerable and under pressure. MPs may have not have understood that you were also talking about Save the Children’s senior leaders in HQ in London. Can you acknowledge now that you were?

Do you agree that a system that is fundamentally broken can’t be fixed by those who corrupted it? Can you agree that Alan Parker, who as Chair brought in Justin Forsyth and Brendan Cox and awarded Forsyth a financial bonus as an indication of his assessment of his performance, cannot be the best person to lead Save the Children across the world through root and branch reform when he is one of the roots?

A group of witnesses have been telling this story for a long time. I took part in a process at Save the Children in 2015 that left me more vulnerable as my named witness statement ended up in the hands of a man who left with his reputation intact, who I saw in New York days later in all the right places, with all the right people. As a former trustee, can you tell me whether you knew nothing, or knew and didn't act, or knew and tried to act and others stopped you, or did what you regard as just the right amount of action?

I now publicly call on you to act on the following:

1.    You will immediately and publicly request Alan Parker to resign from his position as Chair of the Board of Trustees for Save the Children International, given he presided over a sustained environment where women felt unsafe and afraid to speak up.

2.    You will invite a group of survivors and witnesses of sexual harassment to direct Save the Children UK’s next review into culture, values and behaviours that is entirely independent from the Executive Management team and trustees, and reports directly to staff and the wider group of ex-staff.

3.    You will commit that the process – not just the outcome – of Save the Children's new review will happen in public, and only be in secret at survivors' request.  

4.    You will immediately and publicly request for contributions to be made by Brendan Cox, Justin Forsyth and Alan Parker for a fund to compensate women for their time in securing safety for women in the workplace, which includes gathering of anonymous evidence for the UK Parliament’s Select Committee Hearing, liaison with media as an instrumental tool in this process to date, and further work as needed. You will suggest that a donation of the bonuses that Justin Forsyth received from Save the Children be amongst the donations.  

5.    You will commit that no legal threats will be issued to news agencies reporting women’s testimonies, and state that this commitment overrides any letters previously sent.

6.    You will immediately publish the review conducted by/ for Save the Children UK which found the relevant HR processes were not followed, together with any related reviews or studies done for the trustees.  

7.    You will immediately publish the reference provided by Save the Children for Justin Forysth's role at Unicef, together with any correspondence by Save the Children or its trustees that sought to support that application.  

8.    Instead of merely talking about failings in the sector, you will admit that you, Kevin Watkins, failed as a trustee to keep women safe, and that as the new CEO you failed to be forthcoming about what had just taken place.

I am sure you agree that it is not right to "hide behind a legal defence of corporate-speak and avoid open and honest dialogue" and that leaders should never "try to avoid blame" or "hide behind legal constraints". I read that in a piece on crisis management authored by Alan Parker.

We have already started the work of atoning for the mistakes of you, and other current and former trustees. You can find us at https://timeisup.now.sh. We welcome anyone to help us move forward in response to this heavily guarded secret which we are now finally shining a light on. 

Yours, 

Alexia Pepper de Caires