Cristal Downing

Guest Author

Cristal Downing (Bluesky – LinkedIn – X) is the Director of the Gender and Conflict Project at the International Crisis Group. In this role, she leads research and advocacy on how conflict impacts people of different genders and their diverse roles in preventing and responding to conflict. She also works with colleagues across the organisation to integrate gender into their conflict analysis.

Previously, Cristal worked at the UN University Centre for Policy Research, where she collaborated with partners across the UN, in government and in civil society to assess effective support for individuals leaving armed groups. 

Prior to this, she was Senior Policy Adviser at the UK Mission to the UN, leading the UK’s Security Council work on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS), Colombia, Venezuela and other country-specific and thematic files. Previous experience includes research, advocacy and programming with NGOs and the UN, focused on reintegration of ex-combatants, access to education in conflict, and other topics related to conflict prevention and resolution. Cristal holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London.