Advocacy and Campaigns Manager

About Crisis Action

Crisis Action exists to protect civilians at risk from violent conflict or the widespread and systematic abuse of human rights that can provoke it. We are a catalyst and strategic convenor, with a unique, award-winning model of building coalitions from a global network of organisations and individuals, to compel those in power to uphold obligations to protect civilians and to address factors that cause and sustain conflicts. Our partners and allies include grassroots movements, local and international NGOs, humanitarians and human rights activists, politicians and peacebuilders, faith leaders, academics, artists, and businesspeople. We serve the goals of the coalitions we build, taking neither policy positions nor profile. It is the voice of the coalition that counts.

We work through innovative campaigns that shift power towards populations at risk from conflict and spur action to ensure the safety and rights of these populations are prioritized in line with international human rights and humanitarian law. We strive to empower those we work with and provide platforms for those with direct experience of conflicts to tell their stories and speak truth to power. For an insight into our way of working, watch this video.

We are international, independent, and not-for-profit, with a diverse global team of about 50 people strategically located where decisions to protect and prevent conflict and abuses are made.
We have presence in Addis Ababa, Beirut, Brussels, Johannesburg, London, Nairobi, New York, Paris, and Washington DC.

We are currently working to save lives in Syria, the Sahel, South Sudan, and Yemen. We continually monitor other potential and actual conflicts and engage in shorter-term “emergency response” campaigns, recently including Nagorno-Karabakh, Myanmar, Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories and Mozambique.

The Crisis Action Board is composed of respected leaders from across the humanitarian, human rights, policy, and business spheres.

Our recent annual reports summarise Crisis Action’s achievements. For more on our pioneering model that has now been emulated by other organisations, including Digital Action and the Climate Catalyst, check out our Handbook for change and video for tools to maximize collective action.

You can also find out more about Crisis Action through the following films: the 2012 MacArthur Award

for creative institutions and the 2013 Skoll Foundation Award for Social Entrepreneurship.

Job description

Key details

Title: Advocacy and Campaigns Manager, UN Office

Location: New York (applicant will require relevant authorisation to work in US)

Compensation: A competitive package commensurate with experience

Applications close: 4 March 2022, 23:59 EST

Starting date: 1 June 2022

Responsible to: UN Director

Crisis Action is an award-winning organization at the forefront of global advocacy to end conflict. We work to create and support strategic coalitions to prevent deadly conflict and to ensure the protection of civilians where conflict exists. We are lucky to work with some of the world’s most effective local and global civil society leaders, human rights, humanitarian, and policy organisations. We have staff in Addis Ababa, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Johannesburg, London, Nairobi, New York, Paris and Washington, D.C.

Current conflict priorities for Crisis Action include The Sahel, and Yemen, though the organization monitors other potential and actual conflicts and engages in shorter-term emergency response advocacy as well including shorter-term campaigns over the past year on Cameroon, Syria, South Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Mozambique and Tanzania.

Overview of role

The Advocacy and Campaigns Manager is a key member of the Crisis UN Office based in New York, alongside the UN Director and Campaigns and Research Assistant, and will lead strategic coalitions primarily in UN advocacy, as well as supporting global campaigns.

Principal responsibilities

1. Develop and coordinate impactful joint advocacy campaigns that strengthen the protection of civilians in armed conflict – a main focus of your work will be collaborating with our partner organisations, in New York and elsewhere, to develop and drive our advocacy and campaigns. This will involve consulting on strategy, proposing tactics and then coordinating diverse and innovative activities to achieve strategic objectives. Activities include direct policymaker advocacy, creative public campaigning, media work, mass mobilisation, social media engagement, and supporting civil society delegation engagement with senior policymakers. Working with colleagues in our other offices, you will also lead or contribute to international campaigns.

2. UN political analysis and network – focusing on actual or potential conflicts of most concern to our partners, you will ensure that Crisis Action supplements their understanding by analysing policy positions of UN Security Council members and UN Secretariat decisionmakers. You will ensure that Crisis Action builds up in-depth and sophisticated intelligence on the position of key actors towards relevant conflicts, the results of which will be top quality advice to partners on advocacy demands, strategy and suggestions for action. You will also be responsible for feeding this intelligence in our global campaign groups and advising how developments should shape our campaign strategies and tactics.

3. Contribute to the strategic development of Crisis Action in New York and globally – Within the UN office, you will play a key role in consolidating and expanding Crisis Action’s relationship with key policymakers, journalists, core partners, new non-traditional partners and our global civil society network. You will bring an ambitious entrepreneurial attitude and will be asked to assist with devising and implementing our New York office strategy. You will also be a core part of the Crisis Action team, contributing to changing policy outside the UN. You will also help us reach out to potential partners in countries where we don’t have a presence and seek to engage and support them.

Person specification

The following are essential:

• A proven commitment to Crisis Action’s core mandate

• Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, how they apply in situations of armed conflict, and the role of the international community in protecting civilians in armed conflict

• At least 5 years’ experience conducting high-level impactful advocacy

• A track record in leading or developing effective and innovative public campaigns

• Established relationships with key contacts in the UN system, Permanent Missions to the UN, UN press corps and civil society

• Proven ability to convene coalitions and build genuine partnerships with civil society groups to ensure their expertise drives and determines the nature of our work

• First-class interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to cultivate high-level contacts within government or diplomatic circles, the media and civil society

• Proven ability to analyse complex political crises, identify impactful campaign opportunities, develop innovative campaign activities, and deploy a range of campaign tactics, to achieve policy change

• Expertise in working with the media, including ability to draft opinion pieces, prepare media releases, brief journalists, promote stories, coordinate large-scale media drives, and effectively integrate social media into campaign strategies

• Outstanding writing and editing skills

• Excellent project management and administrative skills and a high level of organisation

• Ability to work as a collegiate member of a small team, and with minimal supervision

• High levels of efficiency, professionalism, energy, enthusiasm and ambition

• Resilience and an ability to cope with multiple internal and external demands

• Fluent written and spoken English

The following are desirable:

• Experience in supporting and advancing gender equality and women’s full, effective and meaningful participation in all aspects of peace and security

• Experience of working with geographically dispersed and culturally diverse teams

• Proficiency in Arabic or other UN languages

Terms and conditions

Salary: Competitive salary according to experience

Benefits: Excellent benefits package including pension, 25 days holiday increasing to 30 days after 3 years and 3 months paid sabbatical after 5 years of service.

Right to work: You must have the right to work in the country

DEI Commitment Statement: Crisis Action values and supports a diverse working environment and strongly encourages applications from women, people of colour, people with lived experience of conflict, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQIA+ and gender non-conforming people.

Disabilities: We are committed to making every reasonable adjustment to the workplace or working arrangements to accommodate people with disabilities.