Annual report

Partnership reached nearly 4.6 million people 
globally in 2022: 1.9 million with disaster risk 
reduction/disaster preparedness; 1.6 million in 
health; 1.2 million with coordination activities; 
218,000 with protection; and 185,000 under 
multipurpose cash transfers.
Health and wellbeing
remained a vital 
cross-cutting area of IFRC and National Society 
work in 2022, and the IFRC took the lead in many 
innovative approaches to improving and protect-
ing community health and wellbeing. 
These included the promotion of early and 
anticipatory action for hazards related to health 
and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), digital 
health initiatives, and guiding evidence-based 
emergency health and WASH components of 
IFRC response operations. 
One WASH remains the centrepiece of the IFRC’s 
approach to ensuring that vulnerable commu-
nities can access basic water, sanitation, and 
hygiene services as part of cross-cutting work to 
pandemic prevention, climate change mitigation 
and poverty reduction. A notable WASH success 
in 2022 was IFRC’s innovative work in the emer-
gency treatment of wastewater. The IFRC and its 
members are further developing the technology 
to ensure predictable response capacity is avail-
able to the entire WASH sector. 
The IFRC continued to support major ongoing 
initiatives, such as REACH, the African Union’s 
Community Healthcare Workforce programme 
with the African Centre for Disease Control, 
which underlines the vital role played by 
community-based workers in delivering a range 
of critical public health services. 
The humanitarian needs resulting from the 
decrease in global routine immunization cover-
age due to the COVID-19 pandemic did not abate 
in 2022. The IFRC was involved with improving 
routine immunizations for children, and out-
break response for vaccine-preventable diseases 
and rolling out COVID-19 specific vaccinations, all 
of which required risk communication and com-
munity engagement, epidemic control and public 
health interventions, and livelihoods support. 
The IFRC’s 2022 Guidance on Law and Public 
Health Emergency Preparedness and Response 
was launched to help National Societies advo-
cate for strengthening legal frameworks in 
their countries. National Societies were also 
supported through the IFRC’s evidence-based 
Global Care in Communities packages that were 
developed for community health workers.
Community engagement and accountability 
remains at the heart of all IFRC health and 
wellbeing work. A 
Community Feedback kit
 was 
launched in 2022 to support feedback mecha-
nisms in crises including the Ebola virus disease 
response in Uganda, and the cholera response 
in several African countries.
IFRC work in high-level advocacy and rep-
resentation continued with strong contributions 
at the World Health Assembly, World Mental 
Health summit, UN General Assembly and the