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Crisis Action - Responding to armed conflict

Core Partners

We are keen to work with organisations across civil society. For information on becoming a Crisis Action partner please contact us directly.

Network Members

What they say about us

"By helping NGOs work more effectively together, Crisis Action helps to ensure a strong and coordinated voice on critical human rights and humanitarian issues around armed conflict. This more unified, strategic vision pays dividends, again and again."

Kenneth Roth
Executive Director, Human Rights Watch

"Crisis Action plays an important and catalytic role in informing, mobilising and supporting organizations – including The Elders – to act decisively and strategically in response to emergency situations in many parts of the world. I am a strong supporter of Crisis Action's impressive work."

Mabel van Oranje
CEO, The Elders

"Crisis Action’s great added value is its ability to draw on the different strengths of its partner organisations and mould them into effective and strategic advocacy campaigns that make a difference on the ground. Crisis Action helps ensure coherent, targeted engagement between civil society and important decision-makers across the EU, UN, African Union and Arab League. The difference they make far exceeds their small size."

Jeremy Hobbs
Executive Director, Oxfam International

"Crisis Action harness the combined power of different NGOs, thus helping us at critical moments to be more than the sum of our parts. Whether speaking on the Middle East or other key crisis points around the world, decision-makers are more likely to listen to us if we act in unison."

Salil Shetty
Secretary General, Amnesty International

"Crisis Action has demonstrated an impressive ability to strengthen the impact of civil society advocacy and campaigning on armed conflict. By coordinating information sharing and joint strategic activities, Crisis Action has increased the effectiveness of its partners and member organisations."

Louise Arbour
President, International Crisis Group

"NGOs increasingly seek to influence the UN Security Council. Many Council members encourage NGOs to provide input based on their experience in the field. Still, nothing reinforces our persuasiveness more than coordinated messaging. Crisis Action has therefore become a vital agent for promoting NGO collective action."

George Rupp
President & CEO, International Rescue Committee (IRC)

"By working across sectors, through an unprecedented international network of human rights organisations, humanitarian agencies and policy groups, Crisis Action is creating a new momentum for global campaigning and advocacy on armed conflict."

Antoine Bernard
Chief Executive Officer, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)

"Having Crisis Action in the Middle East and North Africa adds great value to the work of the region on Darfur. It draws the different capacities of organisations together and channels them in the most effective and strategic direction. Its support to the Arab Coalition for Darfur work has been extremely useful and impressive."

Haggag Nayel
Secretary General, Arab Coalition for Darfur

"In recent months, Crisis Action has become known for swift, targeted action that enables civil society to have a much larger collective impact. We greatly appreciate our partnership with Crisis Action."

Ziad Abdel Tawab
Deputy Director, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)

"By bringing together NGOs from 18 countries across the Arab world to do joint advocacy and media work, Crisis Action’s work on Syria made a real difference. They helped me to gain access to the highest level policymakers on the Security Council right as they were considering a resolution on Syria. With Crisis Action’s support, we were able to directly influence key states at the right moment."

Dr Radwan Ziadeh
Founder and Director of Damascus Centre for Human Rights Studies

"At the start of the Egyptian uprising, Crisis Action came to us immediately to ask how they could help. At a time when we were stretched to our limits, we could rely on Crisis Action to help get media coverage for our investigations into human rights violations against protesters and the support of prominent individuals to back the agenda for reform."

Hossam Bahgat
Founder and Director, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights

"Crisis Action helps to amplify the voices of international NGOs and our partners in the global south and has a knack of getting the ear of senior policymakers. The current Together Afghanistan campaign is a fine example of how Crisis Action has bravely pushed the public discourse forward."

Loretta Minghella
Director, Christian Aid

"We salute Crisis Action’s ability to drive effective lobbying and lead on joint campaigns on armed conflict. Our collaboration with them on Afghanistan is highly valued - we benefit a lot from their important information, key contacts and efficiently led coalitions."

Jessica Mosbahi
Advocacy and Human Rights Officer, medica mondiale

"As the international community focused on events in the Arab world, Crisis Action played a vital role in driving policymakers’ attention to the humanitarian and human rights crisis in Ivory Coast and helped us to ensure that measures were taken to protect vulnerable civilians. Crisis Action’s support was crucial to enable us to deliver targeted, high-quality lobbying and media work in such a short and troubled period of time."

François Danel
Executive Director, Action Against Hunger

"Joining Crisis Action’s coalitions has enabled us to better coordinate our messages with key likeminded organisations and to influence policymakers outside our traditional US sphere of influence. Crisis Action has helped to amplify advocacy messages on conflict issues in Sudan and DRC."

Michel Gabaudan
President, Refugees International

"Crisis Action enables organisations in the region to speak collectively and incisively on issues pertaining to peace and security in the region. They have helped us get access to decisionmakers and linked us up to a powerful international network of NGOs so that we can be part of global campaigning and make a bigger impact."

Ambassador Ochieng Adala
Africa Peace Forum

"Crisis Action knows how to help NGOs find common ground, identify the most strategic angles for joint work and bring on board the organisations and individuals that can make a real difference to policy and ultimately to communities affected by conflict. NRC is a firm-believer in the importance of collaboration – from the Ivory Coast to Israel/Palestine, Crisis Action has added real value to our work."

Elisabeth Rasmusson
Secretary General, Norwegian Refugee Council

"Crisis Action provides invaluable expertise in building coalitions, enabling us to deliver precise, joint messaging to regional intergovernmental organisations in Africa. This helps us mount pressure on regional actors to respond to situations in which civilians are at risk."

George Omondi
Executive Director, Africa Research and Resources Forum

"Since Crisis Action arrived on the scene it’s been night and day in terms of coordinated advocacy, at the UN and globally, to combat the threat posed by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Crisis Action has anticipated and created unique advocacy moments on the LRA at the AU, UN, EU and key capitals."

Paul Ronan
Director of Advocacy, Resolve

"Crisis Action has brought real added value to advocacy and campaigning in Germany. They have successfully brought together different NGOs to push collectively, and more powerfully, around our shared concerns – including strengthening women´s voices from conflict areas. Their flexible and actionorientated approach is of great benefit to our work."

Selmin Çaliskan
Advisor on Women's Human Rights and Politics, Medica Mondiale

"As Zimbabweans faced violence and repression after controversial elections, Crisis Action brought local, regional and international organisations together to share information and develop common messages and campaigns. Their strategic support was crucial in stopping the export of paper used to print Zimbabwean dollars, which was used to pay militias committing the violence."

Pascal Richard
Coordinator, Zimbabwe Europe Network

"Crisis Action's campaign coordination and strategic public advocacy are invaluable in the movement for peace, justice and equality. The Nobel Women's Initiative is deeply appreciative of the skill and dedication of the Crisis Action team."

Liz Bernstein
Executive Director, Nobel Women's Initiative

"As the world grappled with how to deal with the crisis in Myanmar, Crisis Action was able to effectively channel civil society's efforts to bring about change. It plays an unique role."

Irene Khan
Secretary General of Amnesty International

"Crisis Action may be small but it adds big value to our work on armed conflict, particularly by bringing together a wide range of organisations to inform the public and put concerted pressure on decision-makers"

Barbara Stocking
Director, Oxfam

"Crisis Action plays a vital role in focusing political attention on conflicts and crises around the world, pulling together coalitions of NGOs to maximise their collective influence and impact. Its recent report on Gaza was an excellent example of this: helping to highlight desperate humanitarian situation there"

David Mepham
Director of Policy, Save the Children UK

"In a matter of hours Crisis Action pulled together the biggest grouping of UK NGOs that have ever worked on Burma. They took the lead in organising the largest demonstration on Burma that there has ever been in the UK, and they did so in just one week. Crucially, it gave new political momentum to demands for the international community to take action. None of this would have happened without Crisis Action."

Mark Famaner
Director, Burma Campaign UK

"Crisis Action’s global mobilization work played a key role in throwing the spotlight on to China during the crackdown in Burma last year. Effective external pressure of this sort was critical to Beijing’s decision to use its leverage over the junta on various issues and to support a condemnatory UN Security Council presidential statement. With China’s support now so essential to addressing these crises, intelligent and targeted action of the kind that Crisis Action undertakes will be ever more important in the years ahead."

Andrew Small
Transatlantic Fellow, German Marshall Fund of the United States

"Crisis Action helped us to give a voice to messages from Chadian civil society in Brussels and to promote a greater EU involvement in the Crisis in Chad. Its flexible model allowed it to adjust to our needs and to bring real added value to our work in France by echoing it in Brussels, where our capacity was limited."

Bruno Angsthelm
Head of Africa Programme, Comite Catholique contre la Faim et pour le Developpement

"Crisis Action played a critical role in bringing together a range of NGOs and helping us find a common voice. In addition to advising us on strategy, they were integral in enabling the coalition to arrive at a strong joint position. As a result, our report had much greater impact and much greater force."

Susan Wright
Director, Medecins du Monde

"Crisis Action enables diverse organisations to work together on a common cause. Their initiative strives to mobilize action worldwide; to resist staying silent and to help their many partners take a collective stand that we see has real influence over government policy"

Saif Ahmad
Chief Executive, Muslim Aid

"Our co-operation with Crisis Action on Darfur is very strong and very important for our European level advocacy work on this region, enhancing intelligence sharing, capacity, and consistency of message with other NGOs"

Susi Dennison
Executive Officer Common Foreign and Security Policy/External Relations, Amnesty International

"Crisis Action was instrumental in bringing together for the first time in Germany different NGOs and student groups working on Darfur"

Marianne Heuwagen
Berlin Director, Human Rights Watch Germany

"Thanks to our collaboration with Crisis Action, the Day for Darfur we organized in Italy on 16 September was a great success. We hope to continue to work together to gain greater attention for the crisis in Darfur from the Italian government"

Antonella Napoli
President, Italians for Darfur

"Crisis Action's networking and analysis has enabled Action Contre la Faim to refine its approach by meeting other experts, broadening its perspective as well as increasing dialogue on key themes"

Anne Garella
Advocacy Officer, Action Contre la Faim

"Crisis Action's work on Iran has been professional, responsible and politically astute. By illustrating that military action would be disastrous, and that there was scope for negotiation, Crisis Action helped change the public debate. Crisis Action is a rare beast; able to harness the expertise and influence of practitioners, analysts and civil society groups to engage both in writing and face-to-face with the realities of politics and to make an impact"

Sir Richard Dalton
former UK Ambassador to Iran

"By coordinating our work on Iran with them and their partner NGOs, we have been able to work with development organisations, trade unions, religious groups, and others with whom we previously had limited contact. They really have shown that by working together, civil society groups can have a genuine impact on policy-making and public debate that goes far beyond our influence as individual organisations"

John Sloboda
Executive Director, Oxford Research Group

"Through dynamic advocacy and incomparable facilitation, Crisis Action has made a serious contribution to transatlantic cooperation on Iran. In doing so, they have increased the impact of the work done by civil society organisations on an issue of global importance"

Carah Ong
Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation, Washington DC

"By organizing a Somalia Round Table early in the year, Crisis Action managed to kick start policy and human rights work on Somalia and helped coordinating efforts. It is with the help of Crisis Action that information is shared, policy is formulated and implemented"

Annette Weber
Research Associate, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik

"Crisis Action is fulfilling the potential it always had; catalysing action and adding value to our work. They don't do rocket science but they do take the initiative, catalyse action and help us achieve impact in a way that would require many more resources were we to seek to do this work alone"

Tim Hancock
Campaigns director, Amnesty International UK

"Crisis Action came into its own during the Lebanon war. Its light touch yet reliable, creative and professional coordination allowed Save the Children to amplify our advocacy through coalition when it was appropriate whilst at the same time not constraining us when we needed to tread our own path. In such a highly political environment, it provided a perfect vehicle for bringing disparate voices together and resonate the public mood"

Martin Kirk
Public Affairs Advisor , Save the Children

"Thanks to Crisis Action, those of us who are seeking a change of government policy on Darfur, were brought together under one campaigning umbrella. It's a cliché, but in unity, there is strength, and our day of action had much more effect than we would have had working alone. Crisis Action performed a remarkable job by getting us to agree a common policy and objectives, and then making it happen"

Rebecca Tinsley
Director, Waging Peace

"By fusing authoritative analysis with joint advocacy, Crisis Action's work on Iran has gone far beyond the usual boundaries of NGO campaigns. Crisis Action has succeeded in bringing together a diverse group of organisations - from campaign groups to foreign policy analysts - to work strategically on one of the most challenging international issues of the day"

Robert Lowe
Middle East Programme Manager, Chatham House

"Crisis Action plays a valuable role in facilitating joint advocacy by different organisations in the field addressing current crises. We find working with them an enormously positive experience"

Dr James Smith
Chief Executive, Aegis Trust

"Crisis Action's swift response in coordinating an urgent demand for a ceasefire during the recent flare-up of conflict in the Middle East drew in a wide range of actors with similar concerns in a professional and truly consultative manner. An organisation that brings organisations together around common concerns within a short timeframe is very valuable"

Marion Birch
Executive Director, Medact

Current Funders