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Ukraine response: Information management strategy
Operational strategy for information management (IM) activities in ourUkraine and impacted countries crisisresponse.
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Eswatini: How cash and voucher assistance is empowering women to rebuild after calamity
Even before the floods, life for Banele Mamba was hard enough. But then the floodwaters came and the 31-year-old mother of five had to cope with extensive damage to her family’s home.“Water would seep in through the house,” she says. “I was so worried—especially because I live with chronic illness. I didn’t want the children to get sick from flu, cholera or other diseases.”Banele Mambawas able to fix some of those leaks, make other critical repairs and restock her pantry with support that came in the form of cash and voucher assistance provided by the Baphalali Eswatini Red Cross Society.The Red Cross here has been working inpartnership with the IFRC Pretoria Delegation, as part of the EU-funded Pilot Programmatic Partnership (ECHO PPP), to deliver cash and vouchers to people impacted by recent floods.Unlike other forms of relief aid such as food or household supplies, cash transfer and vouchers give people such as Banele the power to decide what her families need most following times of crisis.Delivered through mobile money transfers, both the cash and voucher components are redeemed in cash form. This approach empowers families while also supporting the local economy through increased purchasing at community shops and markets.For Banele Mamba, the flexibility of cash support made a world of difference. She used part of the funds to seal parts of the leaking roof and reinforce the walls to prevent water from seeping in during heavy rains.She also used the cash to buy essential food items and toiletries—products that she previously struggled to afford consistently. In months when the household budget was tight, she was therefore able to avoid borrowing from local money lenders.“We believe that people affected by crises are the best placed to decide their needs,”says Tebukhosi Dlamini, Safe and Inclusive Programming Officer at Baphalali Eswatini Red Cross Society.While the EU provided funding, the IFRC contributed technical guidance and policy review support to the Eswatini National Society during the planning and implementation of the programme. In doing so, the IFRC Pretoria delegation applied a protection- and gender-sensitive lens across all stages of the programmatic partnership.“By applying protection and gender-sensitive principles, we ensure that women like Banele are not only included but prioritized in the selection processes,”Dlamini added.Putting inclusion into practiceWomen-headed households, survivors of gender-based violence, caregivers of orphaned children, and other at-risk groups were given high priority, recognizing people in these situations often face greater risks and barriers to recovery."Focusing on women and other vulnerable groups is not just about fairness—it’s about effectiveness,”says Boitumelo Phihlela, who works as focal person for protection, gender and inclusion, as well as community engagement and accountability, for the IFRC’s Pretoria Delegation.“When we prioritize those most at risk, we strengthen the entire community’s resilience. Women, in particular, play a vital role in family and community wellbeing, so supporting them directly creates a ripple effect of positive change.“This approach also ensures that protection and dignity are central to our response, which is key to building trust and long-term recovery."The process is guided by inclusive criteria co-developed with the communities,which then participates in applying these standards to all aspects of the initiative.Continued learning and improvement: Key lessons learnedThe cash and voucher assistance programme in Eswatini fits in with larger efforts to continually improve the way the IFRC works with, supports and accompanies communities following crisis.The IFRC Pretoria Delegation and its partners, for example, also use this inclusive mindset – along with cash and voucher assistance – to strengthen long-term resilience local farmers in four other countries in southern Africa (Lesotho, Botswana, South Africa and Namibia).The support also comes in the form of seeds and other agricultural inputs—ensuring communities are not only surviving today but are better prepared for the future.Here are a few of the key takeaways from the IFRC Pretoria delegation’s three-year Programmatic Partnership collaboration.Embed protection, gender and inclusion principles throughout all stages of programme design and implementation —ensuring that the unique needs, risks, and capacities of different groups, particularly women, children, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable populations, are considered and addressed.Prioritize proactive, inclusive community engagementwhere feedback mechanisms are not only established but also trusted and accessible to all segments of the population.Strengthen the feedback loop by ensuring community input is used to inform and adjust programming. The use of community feedback is needed to shape programming decisions which helps build trust and ensures greater accountability to target populations. In one farming community, for example, people noted that the seeds initially provided were not suited to their local soil and climate conditions, which affected crop growth. Upon hearing this, the Red Cross programme adapted by sourcing and distributing more appropriate seed varieties, improving harvest outcomes and reinforcing the community’s trust that their feedback leads to real changes.“It’s not enough to have feedback systems—we must make them visible, trusted, and use them to shape decisions,” said the IFRC’s Phihlela. “That’s how we build real accountability.”Read more about cash and voucher assistance at the IFRCLearn more about the Programmatic Partnership
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National Society Preparedness for Effective Response (PER) and Forecast-based Financing
This guidance noteoutlines the connections between theNational Society Preparedness for Effective Responseapproach and forecast-based financing.
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World Disasters Report 2018
In recent years, Governments and aid organisations have made various commitments about ensuring that the world’s most vulnerable people are not “left behind”. But those commitments are not being reached. We estimate in the 2018 World Disasters Report that millions of people living in crisis are not receiving the humanitarian assistance they desperately need. The report identifies five mistakes that can lead to international humanitarian actors inadvertently leaving people behind. It also includes clear and compelling recommendations to overcome these structural problems.
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Flood Resilience Measurement for Communities Brochure
This document by the Flood Resilience Allianceprovides detail on the conceptual framework behind the Flood Resilience Measurement for Community (FRMC) and explains how it is applied practically, including the software used.
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NSIA Annual Report 2024
This Annual Report outlines the activities and progress of the National Society Investment Alliance (NSIA) in 2024. The NSIA promotes the sustainable development of Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies in fragile contexts. The report highlights several emerging impacts towards positive transformation of National Societies and on the local humanitarian situation. The NSIA is a joint investment fund of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
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Drought: Key messages
Key hazard-specific messages for individuals and communities on how to prepare for, and stay safe during, droughts.
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A call for change: A study of National Society Development in fragile, complex, protracted conflict and violence-affected contexts
This study documents the inspiring organisational transformations of six National Red Cross Red Crescent Societies: Afghanistan, Honduras, Mali, Somalia, Ukraine and Yemen. Located in fragile, complex, protracted conflict and violence-affected contexts, each National Society made National Society Development (NSD) investments to strengthen their neutral, impartial and independent services, locally-led principled humanitarian action, and organisational structures. In doing so, they became better able to reach communities that often no other organisations could reach.The study was commissioned by a global task force to better document good practice and the challenges surrounding NSD investments in difficult contexts. The task force, convened and led by the British Red Cross, is comprised the American Red Cross, Australian Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross, Danish Red Cross, German Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).The overall premise of the study was to better understand:which Movement-wide NSD investments and strategies have yielded the highest returns in building organisational characteristics that deliver principled assistance and increase wellbeing in targeted communitieshow sustainable capacities were strengthened to promote neutral, impartial and independent locally-led humanitarian actionhow weaknesses in Movement NSD practices in fragile, complex, conflict and violence-affected environments were addressed, and how strengths were leveraged to overcome them.Scroll down to download the full study report as well as the six individual country case studies.
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World Disasters Report 2013: Focus on technology and the future of humanitarian action
In 2012, fewer people were reported to have died or been affected as a result of disasters than any other year during the previous decade, according to figures presented in this report. While these numbers are positive news, they also reflect the absence of major events like the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008 or the 2010 Haiti earthquake. We have learned from these major disasters. At the same time we must continue to improve and innovate to make disaster preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery more effective and accountable. With these objectives in mind, this year’s World Disasters Report focuses on the rapid spread of technologies, especially information and communication technologies, which is changing humanitarian action and humanitarians, too.
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Speech
IFRC President addresses High-Level conference on food security and nutrition at the African Union
Excellencies, Honorable Ministers, Distinguished Delegates, Red Cross and Red Crescent leaders and friends, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great honor and pleasure for me to be here today, and together with all of you to open this important event on the food security crises that we are facing in Africa. This conference is a unique platform that we, co-conveners, provide to leverage support from the political, humanitarian, and development actors, as well as the international financial institutions. We are particularly honored by the close cooperation of more than a decade with the African Union Commission. Through you, Your Excellency Commissioner Sacko, I commend the leadership of the African Union and pledge our continued commitment as Federation to strengthen our partnership. Yet, while we address the complexity of food security and nutrition, we must equally not forget hearing from those at the frontline of risk and in most marginalized and hard-to-reach communities. I represent the International Federation of the Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies—the world’s largest humanitarian network composed of 192 National Societies constituting 14 million volunteers worldwide—prepared, committed, and ready to respond to disasters and crises at local, national, and regional scale. Our network brings voices from the frontlines of disasters and solutions communities offer. We, the IFRC, champion localization and national ownership in practice on the ground as a necessity across the world. Empowering local actors, such as our Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers, makes us able to save lives and reach more vulnerable people. Our volunteers are part of the local communities, they know the needs and how to better address them. Bringing humanitarian assistance to families who are constantly on the move is one of the greatest challenges aid workers face. For example, our Red Crescent teams in Somalia work closely with nomadic communities and therefore there isnever a question about where to deliver aid. These volunteers come from the communities they serve, and they know how to do it better than anyone else. As a global network we are deeply concerned by the unfolding food insecurity crisis in Africa, where 800 million people are at threat across the continent and 146 million are in acute need of food. Hunger is one of the most undignified sufferings of humanity. The situation is expected to deteriorate into 2023, and we must all be worried, but most importantly mobilise ourselves to prevent any catastrophes. There is no more time to waste! Words and political commitment must be translated in urgent actions. We are also mindful that this crisis is not an African Crisis but a global crisis, triggered by three global factors: climate change, the socio-economic consequences of COVID-19 pandemic and worldwide impact on commodities and prices of the international armed conflict in Ukraine. African National Societies, with the support of the IFRC, have not waited for this situation to deteriorate to act. In 2021, 4.8 million people were supported with cash and food assistance. As the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement we are also aware that we need to scale up our response. The IFRC has launched a regional emergency appeal for 200 million CHF that covers 23 affected countries and is focused on reaching 7.6 million people in 14 priority countries. To break the vicious circle of this food crisis, the IFRC will not only invest in crisis response but will work together with the African Union Commission, and other key partners, on advocating for scaling-up efforts to meet the humanitarian imperative across the continent and address the urgent necessity to also invest in addressing the longer-term needs. We will act in line with AU Agenda 2063, the AU member states response plans, across the continent and the strategic plans of Regional Economic Communities on food security. For us, this a global crisis. We are mobilizing all our 192 members to support actions led by the African National Societies. Here today, we have 15 African National Society leaders, plus representation from Red Cross Red Crescents partners from other continents. We are fully engaged, as one team, to ensure that both emergency response and longer-term solutions to the food crisis are in full alignment with government plans and priorities. As auxiliary to public authorities, our African National Societies are engaged in mobilizing trained volunteers and capabilities and leverage their unique access to and acceptance by affected or at-risk communities. They also contribute to policy frameworks, such as the global zero hunger commitments (SDG1 and SDG2) and the implementation of Paris Agreement ensuring community-centred response for lasting impact. This crisis can not be handled by one agency or organisation alone, not in the short term nor in the long run. Strong partnerships, including with communities themselves, are the foundation for succeeding in our common goal of achieving Zero Hunger - a big ambition for all of us to deliver against the Sustainable Development Goals and Africa Agenda 2063. Collectively, we are also ready to support African-owned and -led longer term solutions to food insecurity challenges. It is in that spirit that we launched our IFRC Pan-African Zero Hunger Initiative, a partnership platform, to address root-causes and to strengthen community resilience through longer term programming. The aim of this initiative is to reach 25% of the most vulnerable people in Africa by 2030 through local, national, regional, and international partnerships. Ladies and gentlemen, we are witnessing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Hunger is a very undignified crisis. Hunger is not just a food crisis. It leads to health crisis. And livestock crisis. It means breaking up neighborhoods and disrupting local communities. It means population movement. An emergency response alone will not end these hunger crises. While addressing urgent needs, it is essential to set the foundation for resilience. More efforts must be made — by governments, private sectors, and humanitarian and development groups — to support long-term food security, livelihoods, and resilience plans. Measures must include investments in strengthening grassroots food systems and investment in community actors to sustainably achieve food and economic security. One of the approaches to consider is anticipatory action for food security, based on forecasts and risk analysis. We, the IFRC, stand ready to do our part with governments and partners. We believe that this high-level event can be a key moment to strengthen our cooperation and save more lives. As we all know, responding late will mean immense suffering for millions and millions of people. And to us this is unacceptable! Thank you.
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Ukraine response: Shelter strategy
Operational strategy for shelter activities in ourUkraine and impacted countries crisisresponse.
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Ukraine response: Mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) strategy
Operational strategy for mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) activities in ourUkraine and impacted countries crisisresponse.
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Press release
Africa CDC, IFRC, and USAU call for equitable vaccine coverage in Africa
Addis Ababa, 23 September 2021 - Today, during a high-level event on COVID-19, on the margins of the UN General Assembly, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the U.S. Mission to the African Union (USAU) called on partners and governments to do more to end vaccine inequity. The event entitled “Saving Lives, Saving Livelihoods: Achieving high-level, equitable, COVID-19 vaccine coverage in African Union (AU) Member States" aimed to follow-up the Global COVID-19 summit convened by U.S. President Joseph R. Biden on September 22, with local African partners. Much of the population of Africa is being left behind, even as other parts of the world begin their path to recovery from this deadly pandemic. The deep inequities in vaccine distribution are also linked to the devastating socio-economic impacts of COVID-19. According to a report released in April 2021, economic disruption is likely to persist in Africa due to COVID-19 restrictions—and the slow pace of vaccine rollouts. Worryingly, Africa has been facing multiple, chronic crises, including poverty and food insecurity, which have been exacerbated by COVID-19. Africa CDC, IFRC and USAU warned that, in addition to slow vaccine rollouts, the presence of several crises, including COVID-19, in many African countries, is resulting in the continued loss of lives and livelihoods. The three institutions also indicated that having the vaccine doses alone won’t be enough. John Nkengasong, Africa CDC Director, said: “As we call for the end of vaccine inequity, we know that the work doesn’t end there. We also need to be able to deliver those vaccines to the communities; ensure that people are prepared to be vaccinated and that the doses are being delivered where they are needed. It is crucial to continue working more closely with communities.” The response to COVID-19 has been made more complex by decreasing perceptions of risk, pandemic fatigue, vaccine hesitancy and mistrust of authorities. The IFRC and member National Societies have been tackling the spread of misinformation by providing educational materials, running radio campaigns and information hotlines for the community. Nena Stoiljkovic, IFRC’s Under Secretary General for Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization—who joined the high-level summit on COVID-19 from Addis Ababa—said: “More than ever, the pandemic is testing our ability to tackle multiple, mutually exacerbating crises, concurrently. COVID-19 has plunged thousands of African families into poverty and exacerbated the vulnerabilities of those already facing multiple threats before this pandemic hit. To minimize its socio-economic impacts, which will be felt for many years to come, we must tackle the pandemic more aggressively. This means more equitable access to vaccines as a priority. It also means investing in local actors, such as National Red Cross Red Crescent Societies, who have been on the frontlines of this crisis since this outset, building community trust and resilience for the future.” The three institutions reiterated the need to do more to bring the pandemic to an end, while preparing to respond to future crises. Ambassador Jessye Lapenn said, “We [the United States] are working with our international partners, investment entities, pharmaceutical companies, and other manufacturers to create the kind of global vaccine production and manufacturing capacity and capabilities that will help the world beat this pandemic and prepare us to respond to future threats.” With increasing concerns that the secondary impacts of COVID-19 could have long-lasting affects across Africa, particularly for those living in poverty, IFRC is increasing its focus on livelihoods support, particularly through cash-transfer programming where appropriate. But the humanitarian organisation warned that the COVID-19 pandemic could not be defeated unless more vaccine doses reached the arms of the most vulnerable on the continent. H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of the Republic of Liberia, delivered a keynote address during the COVID-19 summit today. She said: “Vaccine inequity threatens to reverse the gains we have been making in building trusting global partnerships to tackle global challenges, including the existential threat we all face, namely, climate change and the environmental crisis. There has been a lot of talking, but now we must see these words turned into action. We call upon governments, partners and vaccine manufacturers to pull out all the stops to ensure that everyone has access to COVID-19 vaccines without any further delay.” For more information or to request interviews: Africa CDC: Dr Herilinda Temba (CHWs program): [email protected] Gweh Nekerwon (Communication & media engagement): [email protected] Chrys P. Kaniki (Media engagement): [email protected] IFRC: In Addis: Betelehem Tsedeke, +251 935 987 286, [email protected] In Nairobi: Euloge Ishimwe, +254 731 688 613, [email protected] In Geneva: Teresa Goncalves, +44 7891 857 056, [email protected] USAU: Kelly McCaleb, +251-93-742-9668, [email protected] About IFRC IFRC is the world’s largest humanitarian network, comprising 192 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies working to save lives and promote dignity around the world. www.ifrc.org - Facebook - Twitter - YouTube About Africa CDC Africa CDC is a specialized technical institution of the African Union which supports Member States in their efforts to strengthen health systems and improve surveillance, emergency response, prevention and control of diseases. Learn more at: http://www.africacdc.org About USAU The goal of the United States Mission to the African Union (USAU) is to partner with the African Union in ways that will strengthen democratic institutions, promote peace and stability, support sustainable economic development through increased trade and investment, and improve the lives and health of all Africans. https://www.usau.usmission.gov/
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Americas Shelter and Settlements Roadmap for 2021-2025
The IFRC and our 192 National Societies have provided shelter to disaster-affected populations for many decades. Our shelter and settlementsassistance methods vary greatly depending on the context, type of disaster, local capacities, scale and resources. But they all have a common goal: to save lives and set a path for communities to recover sustainably. This regional roadmap for the Americas provides an overview of National Society shelter and settlements work in recent years. And it provides recommendations, goals and strategic priorities for 2021-2025 so that our Americas Regional Office and National Societies can improve this work.
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Case study: Dengue in Indonesia
This case study shows how community trust enabled early detection of, and response to, a dengue case by Red Cross volunteers in Indonesia. The volunteers were trainedin community-based surveillance (CBS) through the IFRC's Community Epidemic & Pandemic Preparedness Programme (CP3). You can read an interactive version of this Case Study on the Prevent Epidemics website, produced by the Resolve to Save Lives Initiative,here.
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