Programmes and appeal 2008-2009

Humanitarianism is a retail trade

True humanitarianism must work at all levels in society, from global to local communities throughout the world. And yet, the real implementation of that humanitarian ideal of caring for our fellow people takes place between individuals.We can offer renewed hope to many, but it happens on a one-to-one basis.

You may hear about the impressive number of people rescued from the rubble following an earthquake, or saved from a raging torrent after a flood, but behind each of those figures lies a precious individual life.

Humanitarianism is therefore a retail affair. There are no wholesale solutions. In order to reach people in need of humanitarian help, we need to become a part of the community. We need to be either there already, or negotiate collapsed bridges, non-existent roads and steep mountain paths. A humanitarian organization that is a permanent part of the community – and that has the ability to scale up quickly to a global level of policy – is in the best possible position to deliver help where it is most needed. It is also best placed to make sure that the action taken is properly balanced and in proportion to the real needs on the ground.

Having trained volunteers living in vulnerable communities is a resource that few organizations possess. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is fortunate to have that presence in even the most remote locations of the world. Today, the International Federation is focusing on building community-level preparedness and resilience as the best way to prevent and alleviate vulnerability. It is at the community level that Nature’s disasters and epidemics truly strike home; and so the key to success in addressing these issues has to be at that same level.

Everything we do, from global to national to local level, is aligned to support action in communities and is planned to best support a community’s ability to be prepared and to respond. As each community prepares better, so the building blocks for a strong national response to disaster are put in place. In this way, a national structure of preparedness and response is formed from strong, well-organized and well-supported community–level action. This readiness for action can only work when built from the ground up, rather than being imposed from a national or global level. The alternative result in a weak, disorganized and badly supported structure; top-heavy constructions are always unstable.

In 2008, the International Federation will work more closely with communities than ever before. We have moved the core of our coordination capacity to seven zone offices in Budapest, Kuala Lumpur, Amman/Doha, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Dakar and Panama City.These zone offices, together with our decentralized disaster management units in Panama City, Kuala Lumpur and the rest of the world (to be consolidated ), are now empowered to steer and synchronize the many different elements of Red Cross Red Crescent work in their own area.

The target for our work is each individual beneficiary. Logically, therefore, our ability to act depends on each individual Red Cross Red Crescent volunteer. Each level of our structures, programmes, practices and policies are designed to support the ability of one single volunteer to help make one single beneficiary less vulnerable. When we get this basic element right, we multiply, scale up and broaden our coverage. This simple formula is the key to our success.

Of the 100 million Red Cross Red Crescent employees, members and volunteers in 186 countries, around 13.5 million people form the component that is active on a day-to-day basis. As a global humanitarian organization, we are only as effective as the combined strength of our skilled people.

The year 2009 will mark the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Solferino, where the seeds of what later became the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement were sown. Since that starting point on the 1859 battlefield, our central tenet of neutral humanitarian assistance has remained constant, underpinning the multitude of tasks and duties we perform today to help people in need. This work has been, and continues to be, possible only thanks to the generous funding we receive from our donors, some of which have been working with us for more than a hundred years.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is making an appeal for 326 million in Swiss francs for 2008. A separate update, one year from now, will revise the 2009 figure. This money is vital to ensure that our programmes continue to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable people on our planet.

Markku Niskala
International Federation Secretary General