New York City, USA and Barcelona, Spain
United Nations Human Settlement Programme - Global Alliance for Urban Crises
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As an Advocacy, Outreach and Communications Officer at the Global Alliance for Urban Crises, a brand new initiative for an emerging issue, I created the Alliance’s visual identity, created a Style Guide, produced an advocacy microsite (above), launched the Alliance’s website, created templates for social media, newsletters, flyers/pamphlets and collateral (and copy-edited all external communications). These were essential tools for advocacy.
Broadly, the goal was to raise awareness about the inadequacy of humanitarian response in an urbanizing world, and to persuade humanitarian actors to join the Alliance, influencing policy and changing operations.
A year after delivering a comprehensive advocacy package and implementing a rolling strategy, the Alliance had 65+ partners including UN agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations, various Mayoral Associations and academia.
The Alliance worked behind the scenes to influence key policy documents such as the “New Urban Agenda”, streamlining urban crises and resilience into the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and the “Kuala Lumpur Declaration on Cities in 2030”, a forward-looking outcome document during the World Urban Forum 9, featuring recommendations for urban crises and migration, and various other international foras.
Style guide and templates codified visual identity throughout flagship products
The main deliverable for the Alliance’s was a microsite, launched as an educational advocacy piece for the general public. The microsite features three case studies on urban crises and a Call to Action to subscribe to and/or join the Alliance.
The script involved distilling language to be more approachable, less academic and bureaucratic, while maintaining important technical points. Geo-political sensitivities were also heavily considered. The look and feel of the microsite needed to be interactive, and evocative of urban crises, but respectful and not too severe. The iteration process was rigorous and the budget was slim.
The microsite had far reaching visibility, having been viewed in over 50 countries, shared widely by influential partners, and built the foundation for a Contact Management System, e-mail distribution list and monthly newsletters. Over 300 contacts voluntarily signed up through the Call to Action.
Produced high-impact, branded collateral for visibility during key events.
Developed, launched and managed the Alliance’s twitter account