Annual report

American 
Red Cross
and CDC Atlanta, this action targeted 
more than 800,000 households.
In 
Yemen
, the IFRC supported the control of 
epidemic outbreaks, including malaria, COVID-19 
and dengue, through training for 160 YRCS 
volunteers, and activities for almost 90,000 
people. In 
Indonesia
, hygiene promotion was 
conducted through hygiene kit distributions, 
reaching more than 10,000. In 
Bangladesh
, the 
National Society reached more than 41,000 peo-
ple with awareness sessions on mental health, 
antenatal, postnatal care, communicable and 
non-communicable diseases.
116
Annual Report 
2022

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SPOTLIGHT
THE REACH INITIATIVE
The REACH (Resilient and Empowered African 
Community Health; Healthy communities, 
resilient Africa) initiative is part of an ambitious 
partnership between the IFRC and Africa Centre 
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that 
aims to strengthen the community health work-
force, and health systems, across the continent.
Africa is home to millions of people who are not 
able to get the help they need to prevent, identify, 
and treat health issues. Disease outbreaks can 
quickly get out of control, and people continue to 
suffer from vaccine-preventable illnesses such 
as measles. People in remote areas must travel 
miles to reach the nearest health facility. For 
others, healthcare is simply unavailable or unaf-
fordable. There is an urgent need to strengthen 
health systems and address the huge shortfall of 
human resources for health in Africa, especially 
at community level.
Addressing these challenges is essential for pro-
gress toward Sustainable Development Goal 3 
to “ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing 
for all at all ages” and to guarantee Universal 
Health Coverage.
In 2017, African Heads of States and Governments 
formally endorsed the two million Community 
Health Workers Initiative, to recruit, train and 
deploy two million community health workers 
across the continent.
Africa CDC, the IFRC and other partners are 
working together to support African Union 
Member States to fulfil these commitments. The 
IFRC network in Africa and participating National 
Societies are the lead operational partners for 
the REACH initiative.
Through the five-year partnership, Africa CDC 
and the IFRC aim to improve health outcomes 
for African communities through the scale-up of 
a strengthened, people-centred and integrated 
community health workforce and systems to 
deliver impact, resilience, and sustainability.
This initiative has the potential to almost double 
the current community health worker density in 
the region and is projected to reach 500 million 
people across the continent.
The initiative was launched jointly by IFRC and 
Africa CDC in October 2022 at the African Union 
headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The IFRC has already achieved significant mile-
stones towards strengthening the auxiliary role 
of National Societies in health and community 
health, a crucial step to enable them to effec-
tively lead progress.
A steering management committee and coordi-
nation group have been established and next 
steps include finalizing partner mapping, devel-
oping detailed country-level implementation 
plans, and mobilizing the necessary resources.