A seat at the table: How (and why) humanitarian advocacy works

Every September, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) transforms New York into the world’s largest diplomatic stage. Leaders from 193 countries gather at the UN Headquarters on East 45th Street to debate and set the global agenda on everything from international security to humanitarian aid. 

But for commitments made in Manhattan to have an impact where they’re needed most, they need to be grounded in frontline reality. The 2026 General Assembly comes at a time where multilateral cooperation is under pressure, funding is recovering from historic cuts, crises are becoming more complex and protracted, and humanitarian need continues to outpace our collective response. 

“The UN will commence its ninth decade at a time when trust in our organization is being tested on multiple fronts,” says Khalilur Rahman, Foreign Minister of Bangladesh and the president of this year’s UNGA. 

High-level diplomacy only works when it reflects the truth on the ground. Concern’s international advocacy team works year-round to close that gap, bringing evidence from our work on the frontlines of global crises to the floors of the UN, Capitol Hill, and around the world. 

Relief is not enough: Why we need advocacy

We can stock clinics, drill wells, and distribute emergency relief kits, but humanitarian aid alone can’t force open a closed border, put an end to conflict, or stop hunger from being used as a weapon of war. While NGOs are non-partisan, we still work within political realities — both at home and abroad. Moreover, the issues that cause poverty are political issues at heart. 

Advocacy is the necessary bridge between temporary relief and long-term survival. 

Decades of experience have given Concern a deep, earned expertise when it comes to the work we do and the communities we work with. That knowledge is both an asset and a responsibility for us. Turning clinical data and frontline work into strategic advocacy can help remove some of the obstacles to our work, and protect the fundamental rights of the people we work with.

People-centered, evidence-based

Concern Worldwide’s advocacy is people-centered and evidence-based. We want the voices of those most affected by the world’s humanitarian crises in the room where decisions are made. 

To that end, our global advocacy work is driven by the countries where we work, the people we work with, and the evidence that work generates. It covers three key areas:

1. Hunger

We cannot end hunger without political action. Our advocacy around the global hunger crisis includes a large focus on conflict-induced hunger and using hunger as a weapon of war. We advocate for the access to food and nutrition support for civilians in conflict zones, especially through keeping humanitarian access open for deliveries of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) to treat malnutrition. 

2. Conflict

Concern consistently advocates for access to humanitarian aid for civilians caught in countries facing conflict. With so many crises becoming “forgotten,” we also work to amplify the voices of people caught in protracted situations to ensure that funding continues to support their needs.

3. Climate

With hunger and poverty increasingly driven by environmental issues, we advocate for heavy investments in community resilience and disaster risk reduction, proving that preparedness is always more cost-effective than investing in a response. 

Of course, addressing these overlapping crises even in an advocacy context requires more than individual effort. To make this happen, we combine people-centered and evidence-based work with strategic partnerships to make real change. 

Frontline evidence in practice: Advocating for Sudan

One of the most powerful policy tools is proximity, and that’s something many of Concern’s staff gain during their careers. And while we have a dedicated global advocacy team, anyone within our offices may step into the world of advocacy.

Dominic MacSorley, who was appointed Humanitarian Ambassador in 2023, first joined Concern in 1982, working with us on the Thai-Cambodian border. Over the years, he led Concern responses in Rwanda, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Darfur, the DRC, Haiti, and Iraq, and served as the CEO of Concern Worldwide's Dublin office.

In the early months of the conflict in Sudan, MacSorley stepped in as the country’s interim country director. His experience there, combined with the network he’d built over more than 40 years of working with Concern, helped place the crisis at the center of Ireland’s foreign aid commitments, with speeches delivered at both the Paris Sudan Conference and the Irish Parliament’s Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence.

Former Irish President Mary Robinson picked up the thread in a keynote speech given to the Irish network of NGOs, Dóchas. 

“Twenty years ago the world’s attention was focused on the conflict that was raging in Darfur,” MacSorley said in 2023. “The next generation of Sudanese are living through that same hell today, but attention along with the resources to provide basic humanitarian assistance to all who need it is desperately lacking.”

These moments helped convince the Irish Government to dedicate over €14 million (approximately $15.5 million) to supporting the crisis in Sudan from different angles in 2024, exceeding the humanitarian pledge they had made at the Paris Conference that year. 

More than the money: How advocacy shapes policy

Funding can be one of the outcomes of humanitarian advocacy — and it’s a critical one. However, that’s only one result. In some cases, actions speak louder than dollars. 

In 2018, the UN Security Council adopted a UNSC 2417, a resolution condemning the starving of civilians as a method of warfare. Concern was among the organizations campaigning for that resolution, which was ultimately taken on by the Irish and turned into something operational. 

While Ireland assumed the two-year presidency of the Security Council in 2021, Concern’s global team (including Concern Worldwide US) worked tirelessly to influence the Irish government on policy focuses. 

This led to the dual themes of hunger and conflict taking center stage at a time where our gains in the fight against hunger were showing signs of being undone, and conflict was beginning to take shape in more countries around the world. In that time, the Security Council adopted UNSC 2664, codifying humanitarian exemptions to sanctions that has helped enable our work in complex contexts. We also helped to shape the G7 Famine Prevention Compact. 

Driving collective action through InterAction

For Concern Worldwide US, global advocacy begins at home, where we also advocate for the on-the-ground realities we see in our daily work in 24 countries around the world.

But strong advocacy rarely happens in isolation. In the United States, we’re an active partner in InterAction, the largest alliance of US-based international NGOs. With InterAction, we bring technical evidence from our country programs into shared policy discussions, particularly around: 

1. Food security: We fight to keep emergency supply lines open. When conflict disrupts local markets, we push policymakers to protect funding for lifesaving interventions and protect critical supply chains and food systems. 
2. Public policy: Delivering aid requires navigating complex global laws and sanctions. We coordinate with fellow InterAction organizations to clear bureaucratic roadblocks. 
3. UN partnerships: The UN system is massive. We help shape how the American NGO community coordinates with many of the organization’s major agencies (including the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the World Food Program) as we work together in-country. 
4. Country-specific work: Our real-time, operational data from complex crises in Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, and Haiti helps keep these emergencies on the agenda for US decision-makers.

 

Looking ahead: Redesigning the humanitarian system

Whether we’re briefing policymakers in Washington, Dublin, or the UN, our goal is always the same: to make sure the voices of the communities we work with cut through the political noise to enable real, lifesaving action.

At the same time, the role of the international NGO is undergoing a fundamental shift, defined by a severe funding crisis, increasing humanitarian need, and shifting international frameworks combined with a long-overdue push for localization. 

As the frequency and complexity of global emergencies grow, we’re no longer just reacting to crises. We’re actively working to redesign the humanitarian system itself to meet and navigate this crossroads. Beyond policy work, advocacy is an active expression of global civil society solidarity. It’s how we actively influence these changes rather than just adapt to them. It’s how we ensure that we aren’t creating dependencies while also keeping a permanent seat at the table for civil society.

With each UNGA, Concern continues to ensure that the voices of those living through some of the worst crises in recent history are heard in the rooms where decisions are made. Holding the world’s leaders to those promises while turning policy into practice is ultimately what advocacy is really about.

Help us go further

By supporting Concern’s work with communities facing poverty and hunger, you can help ensure that their experiences are not only addressed through programs on the ground, but also heard in the global decisions that shape their future. 

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