Annual report

part of a comprehensive digital and social media 
strategy that aligns with the organization’s over-
all goals and objectives.
In 2022, the IFRC increased the visibility and 
impact of its work to 6 million followers on social 
media and achieved 5.8 million total website 
visits. Some of the unit’s successes in 2022 
included the launch of the new multilingual IFRC.
org; highlighting the humanitarian impact of 
the climate crisis at COP27, and celebrating the 
first Heat Action Day. Continuous support was 
provided to National Societies alongside daily 
coverage of emergencies around the globe.
Strategy and global network
The IFRC coordinates the development, imple-
mentation, and monitoring of the IFRC’s global 
communications plan to support the organiza-
tion’s goals, and position the IFRC as a trusted, 
credible and effective humanitarian organization. 
The IFRC works with National Societies to build 
communications skills, knowledge, and resources 
within the network, focusing on emergency 
communication and the sharing of information 
and assets. It also works to strengthen commu-
nication and coordination within the Movement 
as well as internal communication for the 
global IFRC.
A global roster of trained and skilled Red Cross 
and Red Crescent communications surge per-
sonnel is maintained to support emergency 
operations, and coordinates their deployment 
to support National Society and IFRC positioning. 
Nearly 30 surge communications personnel were 
deployed to support IFRC responses in 2022, the 
majority of which – 23 people – supported the 
Ukraine crisis operation.
Annual Overview 
| About the IFRC 
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The first foundational-level communications 
training was developed and delivered in 2022. In 
addition, a global-capacity assessment tool was 
created and piloted with 20 National Societies. 
The IFRC’s first ever online internal communi-
cation platform was successfully launched in 
October 2022, improving the organization’s abil-
ity to reach and inspire ever-growing numbers 
of people across the network, and facilitating 
strategic content planning, and the smooth 
exchange of communications skills, knowledge 
and best practices.
Media and advocacy
The IFRC works to strengthen media relations 
at global level; coordinate and support the 
media work done at regional and national 
levels, manage reputational risks, and position 
the organization as a key humanitarian actor at 
global, regional and local levels. 
This is achieved through the creation and dis-
semination of robust key messages, reactive 
lines, press releases, press conferences and 
other ways of giving visibility to the work of the 
IFRC and National Societies. The IFRC proactively 
works on the media coverage of its reports and 
events as well as on the positioning of the organ-
ization during emergencies and crises.
This work involves much collaboration and 
information-sharing across the network, with 
social media seen as critical for not only building 
media relations but also for anticipating and 
mitigating possible reputational risks. The global 
IFRC also works to identify potential media 
opportunities and to propose and craft media 
angles and strategies to position the IFRC in the 
global debate and at major international confer-
ences such as UNGA and COP.
The IFRC network’s visibility in the global news 
media increased significantly in 2022.
Since the start of the crisis in Ukraine, the team 
facilitated interviews with IFRC spokespersons 
from the field as well as global leadership with 
CNN International, BBC News, 
New York Times
, 
Voice of America, CBC News Network, Reuters, 
AP, AFP, EFE, ABC News, DW, Al Jazeera and 
many more: a total of over 800k media and 
social media mentions linked to Ukraine and Red 
Cross/Red Crescent/IFRC/ICRC since February.
At COP 27, top mentions included Reuters, AP, 
AFP, Al Jazeera, 
the Guardian
, 
New York Times
, 
Le 
Monde
, 
Washington Post
, VOA, Swiss Info among 
others, with over 1.1k media and social media 
mentions of the Red Cross and Red Crescent 
linked to #COP27.
Community engagement and accountability
IFRC’s 
Strategy 2030
calls for an urgent shift of 
leadership and decision-making to the most 
local level – placing local communities at the 
very centre of change so that actions are effec-
tive, inclusive, and sustainable. Achieving this 
requires the IFRC and National Societies to adopt 
a more systematic, consistent, and high-quality 
approach to how we engage with and are 
accountable to communities.
Stronger engagement with communities also 
improves the quality and impact of IFRC work. 
The recent 2022 World Disasters Report and 
responses to COVID-19, Ebola and in Ukraine 
have shown how critical community trust is to 
the success of all other interventions.
Over the past decade, a vibrant network of 
community engagement and accountability 
practitioners has developed within the IFRC and 
National Societies. 
Movement Commitments on Community Engage- 
ment and Accountability were adopted at the 
2019 Council of Delegates. Since then, continu-
ous work has been done to develop standards 
and technical guidance, and directly support 
practitioners within IFRC, and National Societies 
across all regions and all thematic areas. 
Enabling this work is a robust set of practical 
resources, including the recently revised CEA 
Guide, toolkit, feedback kit, and training packages, 
that support National Societies and external 
stakeholders to strengthen their accountability 
to communities. The work is reflected in IFRC’s 
global surge capacity through the training and 
mobilization of a roster of CEA delegates, of 
which 28 were deployed in 2022.