Annual report

The Capacity Building Fund
The IFRC’s long-established Capacity Building 
Fund provides personalized support to National 
Societies wishing to strengthen their role as local 
humanitarian actors in their contexts.
The fund has been overhauled to better address 
the emerging needs and challenges across the 
IFRC network, and now operates on the princi-
ples of agility and simplicity of process. 
It is open year-round to all National Societies, 
with each proposal being assessed in a 
non-competitive process. There is no limit to 
the number of applications a National Society 
Annual Overview 
| Funds 
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can make if they can demonstrate results from a 
previous investment.
Between August 2021 (when the reengineered 
fund was launched) to the end of December 
2022, five million Swiss francs were disbursed 
to 93 National Societies across four focus areas: 
integrity, transparency and accountability; 
financial sustainability; volunteering and youth 
development, and systems development and 
digital transformation. The maximum funding 
available for individual grants was 100,000 
Swiss francs. 
In 2022, 23 National Societies successfully com-
pleted their first initiatives under the Capacity 
Building Fund. The success stories included:
The Burundi Red Cross trained national and 
provincial committee members in risk man-
agement and set up volunteer coaching and 
learning centres.
The Ecuadorian Red Cross transformed their 
medical centres. This investment enabled the 
National Society to sustain and extend both 
medical services and the services of its local 
branches into marginalized communities, while 
contributing to building trust and credibility in 
these communities. 
The Armenian Red Cross Society sent 20 young 
people to a Youth Leadership Academy, where 
they were trained and supported in proposing a 
community-based project. Fourteen were given 
seed funding to implement their ideas. 
A Capacity Building Fund allocation allowed 
the Benin Red Cross to purchase IT equipment, 
strengthening their financial systems and data 
security. The addition of an accounting software 
at the national office allows all financial transac-
tions to be centralized in one system, reducing 
the risk of fraud and improving transparency 
and accountability.
National Societies highly value the Capacity 
Building Fund’s ability to boost their devel-
opment, with the fund’s agility and flexibility 
specifically being commended in the feedback 
received. The availability of the fund, and the 
support and careful attention provided by the 
IFRC, is contributing to an increased sense of 
ownership and responsibility by National 
Societies for their own development journeys.