It is one of the largest humanitarian organizations in the world. However, the International Committee of the Red Cross is encountering difficulties. He announced Tuesday to cut around 1,500 jobs for lack of sufficient funds. The board of directors of the ICRC, which employs 20,000 people in more than 100 countries, also endorsed a reduction of 430 million Swiss francs in cost reductions over 2023 and the start of 2024.
“As budgets for humanitarian aid abroad are expected to decline over the next two years, the ICRC will need to more deliberately direct its efforts to programs and places where we can have the greatest impact,” he said. press release from the organization whose headquarters are on the heights of Geneva.
Hiring freeze
The ICRC had initially appealed to its donors for 2.8 billion Swiss francs (about the same amount in euros), but like many charities, it must see that generosity is falling, in particular because of the huge funds spent by its allies to help Ukraine push back against Russia. He revised his budget to 2 billion francs.
Regarding job cuts over the next 12 months, the ICRC wants to limit layoffs as much as possible by introducing a hiring freeze and betting on natural departures. At least 20 of the 350 sites that the ICRC is currently piloting around the world will close, “for example where the area can be covered by another ICRC office or where other humanitarian or development partners can take over”.
“Simultaneous Challenges”
“We will also reduce and close some of our programs,” added the ICRC, without detailing them. “We will first share information about these changes with the people they impact the most, such as affected communities, stakeholders and staff,” the Committee explained.
While the Committee stresses that it is not uncommon for its appeals for funds not to be fully covered at the beginning of the year, it stresses that this year things are a little different. “This year, we are facing simultaneous challenges,” the organization says, citing year-end pledges that fell short of expectations and higher-than-expected cost increases in the last quarter. 2022 because of inflation. “Due to these factors, we started 2023 with a deficit of around 140 million francs,” he said.