7.1 Common advocacy themes in emergencies.

• Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women and Girls (GEEWG): As women and girls are disproportionately affected in humanitarian crises, gender, age and diversity considerations are a central part of advocacy. Women and women-led organizations (WLOs) should play a leading role in humanitarian response (See the Advocacy Roadmap).
• Localization: As a signatory of the Grand Bargain, CARE is committed to the principle of localization, increasingly working with and through partners in humanitarian response. Whenever possible, we strive to follow the lead of local partners, particularly women-led and affected-people led organizations and movements. (See Localization in Operational Practice (2020).)
• Humanitarian access: Gaining access to populations affected by a crisis is a paramount consideration for humanitarian action. Obstacles to such access may be rooted in the actions and decisions of policy makers at different levels (Bureaucratic and Administrative Impediments decided by crisis affected countries’ governments, sanctions and counter terrorism measures d, and may therefore require an advocacy response.
• Protection, prevention and response to GBV and CRSV, and protection of civilians: CARE recognises protection as a cross-cutting theme in its humanitarian response (see the Chapter on Protection). Addressing gender-based violence and conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in emergencies, both in terms of prevention, response and mitigation are priorities for CARE and our women-led partners. Advocacy can be a strategy to raise the protection needs of vulnerable people with policymakers and humanitarian organisations at crisis, country and international level.
• Humanitarian space: Safeguarding the impartial and non-partisan nature of relief efforts is an increasingly important advocacy concern, especially because it is linked directly to the safety of humanitarian personnel (see the Chapter on Humanitarian space, and the Chapter on Civil-military relations) and of Protection of Civilians.
• Adequate and quality funding: Shortfalls in humanitarian funding can cripple an emergency response effort. Advocacy can be used to ensure that key policymakers prioritise the emergency, including allocating sufficient resources. That said, this is different from fundraising directly on behalf of CARE. Funding should ideally be predictable, long-term, and flexible. Advocacy efforts should encourage donors to uphold their Grand Bargain commitment of 25% of funding going directly to local and national actors.
• Health, food security and livelihood, shelter, WASH and other emergency programme areas also give rise to priorities for which an advocacy response may be necessary.