Advocacy brings a deeper dimension to humanitarian aid efforts, addressing not only the immediate needs of the poor, but also the root causes of poverty and obstacles to its elimination.

Increasingly, CARE International integrates an advocacy component into projects, encouraging governments to adopt corrective policy measures. We consult with donors, work with influential United Nations agencies and other multilateral organizations, and rely on the relationships we have established with governments and communities around the world to actively promote change.

The CARE International Secretariat carries out its policy and advocacy work through its representation in New York, Geneva and Brussels. Secretariat staff works in conjunction with CARE Member and Country Offices. All messages that CARE representatives deliver to United Nations officials, government representatives, and international fora are grounded in CARE’s longstanding and in-depth work in the field. In this way, Secretariat staff work transnationally with colleagues across the globe to support and reinforce policy recommendations to officials at all levels.

CARE’s most recent transnational advocacy work has focused on humanitarian issues associated with countries in conflict, and on HIV/AIDS. 

CARE International's Advocacy at the European Institutions, Brussels

CARE International works closely with the various institutions of the European Union through our representation office in Brussels. Communication takes place with the European Commission’s Directorates General on Development (DG DEV) - which formulates development policy; on European Aid (AIDCO) - which implements it; and on humanitarian crises (ECHO). We also work in close contact with the European Members of Parliament (MEPs). Efforts to influence policies of individual Member States are done in collaboration with CARE International members in the EU countries concerned.

CARE International's Advocacy at the United Nations, New York

CARE International works closely with the key United Nations institutions, member states and NGO partners to advance progress on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, especially women and children, unimpeded access to humanitarian assistance, and general issues in peacekeeping and peacebuilding.  Most recently, the office has worked on the conflicts in Sudan, the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Lebanon and Nepal.

A major focus of this advocacy work is the United Nations Security Council, which has the organisation’s “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security,"  and has adopted a number of crucial resolutions reflecting the efforts of humanitarian advocacy.  In addition, CARE and its partners are in regular consultations with the UN Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), UNICEF and many UN member states in the General Assembly.   We will soon be aiming to strengthen the work of the new UN Peacebuilding Commission, established in 2005 to bridge the needs of transitional societies where armed conflict is gradually giving way to economic reconstruction and development.