Annual report

•
Systematic registration of compliance and 
accountability issues in a dedicated DREF 
Issue and Risk Register.
•
Development of Risk Appetite Statement for 
the DREF which is to be formalized in 2023 
(first such strategic document in IFRC).
•
Revision of performance indicators for the 
fund and regular ongoing monitoring.
•
Enhanced collaboration with IFRC Audit and 
Risk Management teams allowing for timely 
information exchange and ensuring due 
diligence.
•
Systematic review of final reports of DREF-
funded operations.
•
Linking DREF compliance data with IFRC risk 
data for risk-informed decision making for 
DREF requests.
•
Development of an Operational Review 
Framework to guide and promote a more 
structured approach to conducting opera-
tional reviews of DREF funded operations.
Also in 2022, the IFRC worked in innovative 
financing to create the DREF Insurance project, 
to reduce the risk of the fund running low 
during periods with unforeseen levels of alloca-
tion requests.
The proposed innovative insurance mechanism 
would expand the capacity of the DREF when 
the fund is most under pressure in high demand 
Strategic Priorities
| Disasters and crises 
93

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years. It would also allow the fund to grow and 
diversify its funding sources. By reducing the 
volatility, it will allow for better planning and 
budgeting, and enable better long-term devel-
opment of Early Action Protocols.
Cash
The IFRC is fully committed to cash as a more 
agile method of providing humanitarian support 
that allows choice and preserves dignity.
In 2022, the volume of cash delivered by 
IFRC humanitarian programmes and services 
continued to grow along with an increase in 
the number of National Societies choosing to 
respond with cash. This progress moves the 
organization closer to its target of delivering 50 
per cent of IFRC humanitarian action through 
cash assistance by 2025.
While the final numbers for the IFRC network’s 
collective cash work were not finalized at the 
time of going to press, cash assistance was 
a crucial element of both the Ukraine crisis 
response and the Africa hunger crisis operation. 
Cash and voucher assistance for the Africa hun-
ger crisis was used alongside food security and 
livelihoods protection.
By the end of 2022, 92 National Societies had 
invested in cash preparedness, benefitting 
from steady delivery of cash training courses in 
various languages. This represents a significant 
increase in cash readiness across the network.
Under the ECHO PPP initiative, 21 National 
Societies in the Africa, Americas, Europe and 
Middle East North Africa regions have included 
a cash component in their workplans.
The counting cash process was streamlined in 
2022 to help National Societies report through-
out the year on their cash programmes, enabling 
them to better share results and connect with 
each other for support.
A new app-based approach to self-enrolment, 
validation, and digital payment was developed 
with RedRose and Moneygram to assist people 
displaced by the Ukraine crisis. The system 
increases ease-of-use and facilitates National 
Society programme and data management.
The development of Cash app allowed people 
fleeing Ukraine to self-register and be verified for 
assistance. This has demonstrated the impor-
tance of innovating our approaches and also 
allowed the IFRC to take the response to scale 
and at speed, in many instances as the leading 
agency in the delivery of cash in the Ukraine 
response. More than 35,000 vulnerable people 
were reached and assisted with over EUR 8 mil-
lion in Romania, for example. The IFRC is working 
to replicate this model elsewhere.
The IFRC signed several Memoranda of 
Understanding with the Government of Ukraine 
to facilitate the large-scale delivery of cash 
through established systems and strengthening 
the linkages between humanitarian action and 
long-term social protection mechanisms.
Surge support
In 2022, the IFRC continued to ensure that 
National Society and IFRC emergency operations 
had the experienced specialist and leadership 
support they needed, when they needed it.
The rapid response system deployed 481 
specialists (53 per cent male and 47 per cent 
female) to emergencies in the five regions. This 
surge support was made possible by 62 National 
Societies who made expert personnel available 
for deployment to disasters and crises affecting 
59 National Societies. The major operations 
benefitting from these deployments were the 
Ukraine crisis (295 rapid response members); 
Pakistan floods (28 rapid response mem-
bers); and the hunger crisis in Africa (29 rapid 
response members).
Operational leadership remains in high demand 
across the network, and the IFRC’s Head of 
Emergency Operations/Developing Head 
of Emergency Operations (HEOps/DHEOps) 
programme continued apace. HEOPs provide 
operational and strategic leadership in the 
IFRC’s largest and most complex emergency 
operations. They also support National Societies