Annual report

Partnership funded by DG ECHO have included 
epidemic preparedness and response in 
their plans.
A training package on epidemic prepared-
ness in communities – known as EPIC – was 
launched in 2022. Several countries have since 
replicated the training for both trainers and vol-
unteers to support epidemic preparedness and 
response activities.
Also in 2022, a series of webinars on 
Community-Based Surveillance (CBS)
 were 
organized across the global IFRC to further 
promote the tools and share experiences 
from National Societies. A global master-level 
community-based surveillance training package 
was developed, and technical support provided 
to a range of National Societies through the CBS 
technical working group.
Surge personnel and technical support for epi-
demic control measures were provided for the 
Ghana Red Cross to engage with its Ministry 
of Health during that country’s first known 
Marburg outbreak. Also in 2022, the Red Cross 
Strategic Priorities
| Health and wellbeing 
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of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was 
supported during a new Ebola virus disease 
outbreak in Equateur province.
In March 2022, a new website for volunteers and 
managers involved in epidemic risk management 
was launched, providing a peer support and 
resources to inform National Society planning 
and operations on the ground.
The IFRC’s 2022 Guidance on Law and Public 
Health Emergency Preparedness and Response 
outlined how domestic laws, policies and 
plans can support effective preparedness and 
response to public health emergencies – which 
National Societies can use to advocate to 
strengthen 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 to 
provide operational guidance on implementing 
evidence-based interventions. These focused on 
prevention and management of communicable 
diseases, neglected tropical diseases and sex-
ual, reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child and 
adolescent health, non-communicable diseases 
and mental health and psychosocial support 
(MHPSS) in all contexts, including emergency 
situations, protracted crises, and fragile settings.
To improve access to primary health care and 
immunization, the IFRC received funding from 
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2022 to 
support National Societies in Cameroon, Central 
African Republic, Chad, and South Sudan in 
addressing the specific vulnerability of nomadic 
populations through cross-border polio vaccina-
tion programmes.
The IFRC also supported the delivery of a pack-
age of essential health interventions including 
immunization for ‘zero dose’ and conflict-affected 
communities in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central 
African Republic, and DRC. Additionally, immu-
nization services were provided to nomadic 
populations in Cameroon, Chad, Central African 
Republic and South Sudan as part of integrated 
service packages tailored to these communities.
In 2022, the IFRC supported 15 countries on 
the African continent to distribute 60 million 
insecticide treated bed nets to protect an 
estimated 108 million people from malaria, a 
leading killer of children aged under five years in 
African countries.
As part of the IFRC’s efforts to undergo a dig-
ital transformation and improve reporting to 
measure the impact in the quality of health care 
and treatment provided, the Red Cross and 
Red Crescent Health Information system was 
developed and deployed domestically across 
National Societies.
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 (see box for more details 
about One WASH).
In addition, WASH components were included in 
emergency operations such as the hunger crisis 
in Africa, Ukraine conflict and weather-related 
disasters such as cyclones in Southern Africa 
and flooding in Asia.
A notable success in 2022 was IFRC’s innovative 
work in the emergency treatment of wastewater. 
Based on the success of wastewater treatment 
projects utilizing IFRC developed technology, 
German emergency management authorities 
and military are considering the adoption of the 
technology for response preparedness stocks.
The IFRC and network partners are further 
developing the technology to ensure predicta-
ble response capacity is available to the WASH 
sector as a whole. The first commercial sale of 
the technology was completed in late 2022.
Throughout 2022, the IFRC focused on global and 
national level resource mobilization to establish 
a portfolio of preparedness, prevention, and 
coordination programming for cholera elimina-
tion as part of efforts to reduce cholera-related 
deaths by 50 per cent.