Review of Humanitarian Advocacy in Liberia and Ivory Coast during the Ivorian Crisis

Abstract

This report is part of learning activities undertaken by Oxfam’s West Africa Regional Office in order to improve the way that it conducts future advocacy campaigns during humanitarian crises in the region. Oxfam implemented an advocacy program in both Ivory Coast and Liberia. In both countries the advocacy work addressed the aftermath of the post-electoral crisis in Ivory Coast. In response to this crisis, Oxfam launched an ambitious campaign to strengthen the humanitarian response by addressing the needs of the hundreds of thousands of displaced people and those threatened by the fallout from the political conflict in the Ivory Coast. Oxfam’s role during the crisis was critical and important, the agency served as a leader for its peers. Not only conducting direct interventions in the sectors of water and sanitation, livelihoods, shelter and protection, Oxfam set themselves apart by working collaboratively with peer organizations to advocate and lobby for an improved and better coordinated effort.