Opinion pieces

19 March 2013

Sanitation crisis: It’s time to talk about the solutions

Toilets are something that people are often embarrassed to talk about, making it easy to ignore. Now, while for most of us, finding a bathroom or toilet isn’t hard, ...

27 February 2013

Eradicating polio – the last mile is in sight

Breaking community barriers to achieve Polio eradication is vital Never before has the world been so close to eradicating polio, a terrible disease that can paralyze a...

19 February 2013

What silent disasters are saying

By Kristalina Georgieva , Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, European Commission Bekele Geleta , Secretary General,...

18 December 2012

COP18: Breakthrough or Empty Deal? The People's Perspective

This month, over 17,000 delegates gathered in the Qatari capital Doha to attend the 18th Conference of Parties (COP18), the annual UN summit on Climate Change. Amongs...

18 December 2012

International Migration Day: better protections needed for migrants as global recession begins to bite

18/12/2012 Geneva - The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is today marking International Migration Day and is renewing its appeal...

19 October 2012

Investing in Africa – the opportunities of a changing continent

Bekele Geleta, secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Three big trends stand out when reflecting on international ai...

16 October 2012

Looking Back - The Tyranny of Hunger

For many people, hunger is nothing new; it’s often just a part of life’s daily grind.

12 October 2012

Refining the social contract for health to build on the Millennium Development Goals

The social contract for health stems from our mutual responsibility to alleviate poverty and misery.

12 August 2012

Iranian Red Crescent delegation seized in Libya

On the occasion of the Iranian Red Crescent’s visit to Geneva on August 9th, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) wishes to...

25 July 2012

Existing drugs laws are harmful to individuals, communities and countries

by Dr Stefan Seebacher, head of the health department, International Federation of the Red Cross Red Crescent Societies, IFRC and Dr Rick Lines, executive director, Ha...

25 June 2012

Rio+20 - Red Cross Red Crescent urges investment in resilience and women

One message rings loud and true as Rio +20 comes to a close: we must listen to and invest in people’s abilities to bring about long lasting development in their...

13 June 2012

One Thousand Critical days - Community-based innovative solutions to increased health equity and improved maternal and child health

Mr Bekele Geleta, Secretary General and Madame Goli Ameri, Undersecretary General, Humanitarian Values and Diplomacy, International Federation of Red Cross and Red...

22 May 2012

65th WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY - Prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases

Statement by Dr Ayham Alomari, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Ladies and gentlemen, Distinguished guests, Thank you for the opportuni...

16 May 2012

Statement on the occasion of the International Day against Transphobia and Homophobia

On the occasion of the International Day against Transphobia and Homophobia (17 May), the Red Cross Red Crescent reminds stakeholders all over the world that the value...

10 May 2012

WEF Africa 2012: Ethiopia coming into the light on the world stage

When I was a young boy growing up in a rural village in western Ethiopia, famine gripped my country. In 1984, when I became the secretary-general of the Ethiopian ...

8 May 2012

Joint Statement from the Presidents of ICRC and IFRC

Today, in the Philippines, young people whose lives have been turned upside down by repeated typhoons are planting mangrove trees to protect homes from storm damage an...

24 April 2012

Malaria: Winning the fight. Investing to save lives and sustain gains

It is a story that shows us what is possible when individuals and communities at all level work in partnership to scale up and sustain innovative operational ...

5 March 2012

Learning from Fukushima - One Year Anniversary

By Tadateru Konoe From an early age, tiny Japanese children are taught to put cushions on their heads and burrow under their school desks in the event of an earthquake...

28 February 2012

Syrian Arab Red Crescent response

Statement in support of the SARC by President Tadateru Konoé and Bekele Geleta, Secretary General, IFRC

7 February 2012

From humanitarian aid to conflict resolution in North Kenya

by Alexander Matheou, Regional Representative for East Africa Over forty thousand people have fled their homes in Moyale, northern Kenya. They have fled from raids th...

22 November 2011

The Horn of Africa deserves our commitment even when the drought has passed

Throughout October and into November, good rains have reached much of the arid lands of the Horn of Africa, and it is now possible to talk about the end of the drought.

18 November 2011

Weather extremes and disaster: betting with the odds

Statement from Bekele Geleta, Secretary General, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Poker players like to say that if you 'bet with the...

14 October 2011

Building resilience to drought is key to reducing dependence on food aid

Throughout this autumn, in Addis Ababa, Nairobi and capitals across the world, the Heads of East African governments have committed to eradicating drought emergencies,

13 October 2011

Why the world’s youth are key to reducing the impact of disasters

This year alone, we have witnessed disasters on an unprecedented scale - the tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan, devastating floods in Pakistan and Australia, ...

22 September 2011

A world of hunger amid plenty

Among the ever-widening range of critical issues facing us today, few keep me awake at night more than one of the oldest and most persistent: hunger.

19 September 2011

Prevention is an urgent priority in tackling the global epidemic of Non-Communicable Diseases

With the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, infectious diseases and their impact on humankind have become a major preoccupation for the public, governments ...

7 August 2011

Don’t blame it on the rain

Is the Horn of Africa facing the worst drought in sixty years? Perhaps. Yet, in recent decades, many things have changed in the region, and the underlying causes of ...

27 July 2011

Preparing for Disasters: Our Collective Responsibilities

“It’s not enough to respond to disasters, we must reduce their impact and get people out of harm’s way” says Nilofar Bakhtiar, Chairperson, Pakistan Red Crescent Society

26 July 2011

Horn of Africa: A letter from Turkana, northern Kenya

Aid agencies typically use malnutrition rates of 15 per cent to define an emergency. In parts of Turkana in Northern Kenya, the rates are 37 per cent.

8 July 2011

The birth of a new nation poses challenges for internal and international partnerships

We are on the verge of seeing the birth of a new African nation, one that will have emerged through the will of its people.

5 July 2011

Politics, war, migration: the anatomy of a humanitarian crisis

By Alexander Matheou Another drought has hit the Horn of Africa, but we need to look beyond the lack of rain to find the reasons why these long, dry seasons become...

9 June 2011

AIDS and human rights: a test of a humane society

The international community meets this month to review progress and agree how to continue to tackle the global AIDS response.

3 June 2011

Early warning, delayed response?

Is providing food during a drought always the right course of action? It’s a familiar question to humanitarians the world over, and there’s no clear answer.

13 May 2011

Mediterranean tragedies highlight the need to safeguard the rights and requirements of migrants

Matthias Schmale, Under Secretary General for Development, International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent (IFRC). The International Federation of Red...

10 May 2011

Disasters are not a department: to reduce risk, we must empower communities

“Do something!” This simple message is the first one that governments hear when terrible events such as the earthquakes in Japan and Haiti appear in the news.

22 April 2011

Humanitarian work and technological disasters

For many years, it was said that the next Chernobyl would be Chernobyl. The creaking sarcophagus seemed to be the world’s biggest risk of a civilian nuclear accident.

21 April 2011

Malaria: Real progress through real partnership

By Bekele Geleta, Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) The global community has made real progress in the...

14 April 2011

A challenge to the imagination, an appeal to the conscience

On 11 March, a massive earthquake, measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale, struck Japan’s Sanriku coast. Then came the tsunami, cresting at more than 38 metres high and ...

23 March 2011

Towards a world free of tuberculosis

Tuberculosis kills 15 people every hour. Between now and 2015, more than 10 million people will die from a disease that is both preventable and curable.

Stefan Seebacher, Head of the health department. Photo: IFRC

22 March 2011

The world’s water woes and the urban divide

Water shortages in the world are nothing new, but access to water and improved sanitation has now become one of the biggest challenges for urban settings where 50 ...

12 January 2011

Haiti – paving the road to a better future

Bekele Geleta, Secretary General, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies In Haiti today, one year after a deadly quake struck, as many as 1...

29 November 2010

Move the AIDS issue to the top of the Indonesian agenda

OVER the last five years, Indonesia has seen a sharp rise in HIV prevalence.

29 November 2010

Water: a human right still enjoyed by too few

Clean drinking water is a commodity that many of us take for granted.

29 November 2010

OPINION: Tackling health inequities in the Americas

On the face of it, the people of Latin America are getting healthier.

29 November 2010

Southern Africa's axis of evils

When more than 14 million people faced the threat of famine last year, a pre-emptive intervention with food aid began that by February 2003 had averted mass ...

29 November 2010

Putting principles into practice - the key to legitimacy

The humanitarian ethic is about saving the lives of those in greatest need.

29 November 2010

Why Chinas floods just cant be shrugged off

Statistics tend to put people off.

29 November 2010

World must learn to prepare as well as repair

Disasters discriminate.

29 November 2010

Breaking down the barriers of stigma

In 1984, France and the United States officially announced the discovery of the virus that causes AIDS.

29 November 2010

The changing face of humanitarian aid

How will we know when the world has finally woken up to the real extent of the threat posed by communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS? How many more World Aids Days ...

29 November 2010

Opinion Piece by Jørgen Poulsen

The International Day for Disaster Reduction is an important opportunity to highlight the urgent need for risk reduction to become both a global priority and a ...

26 November 2010

World Aids Day 2010 - Do no harm

Bekele Geleta, Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world’s largest humanitarian network Someone,...

13 October 2010

International Day for Disaster Reduction 2010

This year a number of major disasters have captivated the attention of the public and media: the January earthquake in Haiti, the massive earthquake in Chile one ...

21 September 2010

Is urban the new rural?

For the first time in the history of mankind, more people live in an urban environment than a rural one and in just 20 years, over 60 per cent of the world’s populatio...

1 July 2010

Haiti: “I believe that the long-term legacy of this disaster will be positive.”

The Secretary-General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Bekele Geleta, has held a series of high-level meetings with the ...

12 April 2010

Haiti – the enormous tasks ahead

Recent heavy rains and their mud-soaked aftermath have once again turned the spotlight back onto Haiti.

22 March 2010

Access to water and sanitation should no longer be “all about luck”

Her name is Widline.

21 December 2009

What has the tsunami really taught us?

Five years ago, on 26 December 2004, a massive earthquake off the coast of Sumatra created a tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean.

14 October 2009

Decreasing the Destructiveness of Disasters is our only choice

Today, as Asia Pacific reels from one devastating disaster after another, more than 12 million people have been extensively affected.

25 September 2009

The G20 must lay the foundations for bold action on climate change in Copenhagen

If necessity is the mother of invention, we should be looking forward to a breathtakingly innovative agreement on climate change in Copenhagen in December.

14 August 2009

Are you pandemic-proof?

When catastrophes hit the world - killing people, wreaking havoc, and threatening our way of life - the world responds with its entire means.

17 June 2009

Climate change: the ultimate early warning

To many people enduring its effects worldwide, the global economic crisis must have felt like what we, in the humanitarian sphere, call a sudden-onset disaster.

4 May 2009

Breathing new life into the principle of humanity

How has todays world come to have 2.

23 March 2009

Tuberculosis : lack of information is a killer

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a high cause of mortality throughout the world.

12 February 2009

Cholera soars while funds dry up

At some point in the past three weeks Zimbabwe passed a grim milestone.

30 December 2008

Tsunami response strengthens community coping

In mid November in 2008, a 7.

20 October 2008

‘War, poverty, HIV’ and hope

The time has come for some good news from Africa, says Juan Manuel Suárez del Toro, President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

1 July 2008

The changing humanitarian world

June 30 was the last day of work as Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies for 62-year-old Markku Niskala.

27 June 2008

HIV in Southern Africa: “A disaster by anyone’s definition”

The 2008 World Disasters Report makes a bold statement, one that has been feared and dodged by most.

26 June 2008

HIV and AIDS response failing to keep pace with an evolving disaster

This year’s World Disasters Report is the first to focus on a single condition and for very good reason.

23 May 2008

Twenty-one nights in the rain-swept delta: finding a way to Myanmar’s homeless

With the Myanmar government indicating it may allow aid workers into the country, the task of reaching Burma's remoter regions becomes even more pressing.

24 April 2008

Children keep dying of malaria, unnecessarily

Today, on World Malaria Day, 3,000 children will die of malaria.

22 April 2008

Food prices: Waking up to Africa’s nightmare

Last week’s announcement by the United States government that it was releasing $200 million in emergency aid to alleviate chronic food shortages should be applauded ...

22 January 2008

When saving lives is not enough

“I was only thinking of how to get to the hills that time,” remembered Leni, a young mother of a three year old daughter.

13 December 2007

Addressing discrimination in disasters

Some 142 million people worldwide were affected by disasters in 2006.

28 November 2007

The fight against HIV: there are no short-cuts

In the neighbourhood of Mabopane, a suburb of the South African capital Pretoria, she is known as “Auntie Elizabeth”.

10 October 2007

Reducing the humanitarian consequences of climate change

This year, the world has watched aghast as unprecedented floods have washed across Asia and swamped large swathes of Africa.

28 September 2007

Africa’s flooding crisis will only get worse

Red Cross Red Crescent disasters statistics show a worrying rise in the number of flood emergencies dealt with by volunteers across the African continent.

5 June 2007

What will it take?

This week, representatives from governments, the UN and aid agencies will meet in Geneva to talk about disaster risk reduction, about what needs to be done to ...

9 May 2007

Tapping into the enormous potential of Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers more effectively

Paris, November 1918, Juliette, a French Red Cross volunteer nurse examines a patient with symptoms of Influenza.

6 April 2007

Climate change will take its heaviest toll on the poor and the vulnerable

Climate change is exacerbating extreme weather events and patterns around the world, leading to more frequent and intense disasters.

20 March 2007

Tackling the water and sanitation challenge

The consumption of water and the generation of human wastes are such commonplace aspects of human life that planning for their appropriate use or removal may be ...

14 December 2006

Global generosity after crises must reach people in need

In 2005, as never before, individuals and governments reached out to people in need around the globe.

27 November 2006

Honouring the memory of those lost

A crisis always provides opportunity for change.

27 November 2006

The AIDS epidemic: walking the last mile to make the difference

Year after year, AIDS statistics hit us like a sledgehammer, a forceful reminder of the uphill struggle against one of the worst afflictions of humanity.

3 October 2006

Seizing the opportunity to reach out to Pakistan’s rural communities

Azmat Ulla, Head of the Pakistan Delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

28 June 2006

Eighteen months after the tsunami, recovery and reconstruction are the priorities

It is now 18 months since the tsunami crashed onto shores around the Indian Ocean, the most dramatic natural disaster in modern times.

4 May 2006

Living and dying in northern Kenya

FINDING new ways to convey the horror of hunger in Africa powerfully enough to get people galvanised in support of our East Africa Appeal is a daunting challenge.

30 March 2006

Focus on Africa

A large number of the world’s most vulnerable people live in sub-Saharan Africa.

29 March 2006

Pakistan earthquake: six months on and many challenges still lie ahead

Six months have gone by since a deadly earthquake, measuring 7.

14 December 2005

Learning lessons from the tsunami

This has been a year of natural disasters.

26 October 2005

Allocating resources responsibly when disaster strikes

The unique response to the tsunami triggers questions.

24 June 2005

Sustainable, appropriate reconstruction a must for tsunami-affected communities

Six months have passed since the tsunami crashed through homes, villages and cities around the Indian Ocean, taking the lives of mothers, fathers and children, ...

24 June 2005

More must be done to save lives in disaster zones

"Why didn’t we know?" Seldom has a single question echoed in so many languages around the world as after the tsunami of the 26 December last year.

17 January 2005

Learning the lessons from the tsunami

The outpouring of global sympathy and generous support for victims of the Asian tsunami raises a number of questions for the humanitarian organisations seeking to ...

20 November 2002

Opinion: memories of the past provide hope for the future

Children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic are rightly the focus of much attention on Universal Children's Day.

6 November 2002

Europe's forgotten elderly

Elderly and housebound people dependent on home care in Central and Eastern Europe are being forgotten as economic constraints and cutbacks in state health and care ...

9 October 2002

From repair to prepare - a motto for disaster reduction

Disaster reduction is everyone's business - governments, local communities and the private sector.

26 August 2002

Communities hold the key to sustainable development

The sub Saharan region is threatened by a famine of terrible magnitude, where close to 13 million people in Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Malawi could perish ...

9 August 2002

Youth: our future, our present

"Youth are the future".

2 August 2002

Southern Africa: it's time for action, the lives of millions hang in the balance

21 June 2002

Business or politics?

The aid business has changed tremendously over the past ten years.

12 April 2002

European conference: who cares about migrants?

8 April 2002

Where will those of a working age find a working wage?

5 April 2002

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