The Federation's vision is to strive, through voluntary action, for a world of empowered communities, better able to address human suffering and crises with hope, respect for dignity and a concern for equity. Its mission is to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity. It is the world's largest humanitarian organization and its millions of volunteers are active in over 185 countries.
In Brief
Programme Update no. 3; Period covered: 1 October 2006 to 31 March 2007.
This Programme Update incorporates regional health coordination into the Appeal. As a result, the Appeal budget has been revised from CHF 13.96 million to CHF 15.86 million.
Appeal coverage: 40.7%; Outstanding needs: CHF 9.4 million (USD 7.8 million or EUR 5.7 million).
Appeal 2006-2007: http://www.ifrc.org/docs/appeals/annual06/MAA61001.pdf
Programme Update no. 1: http://www.ifrc.org/docs/appeals/annual06/MAA6100101.pdf
Programme Update no. 2: http://www.ifrc.org/docs/appeals/annual06/MAA6100102.pdf
Related Emergency Appeal: Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger: Food insecurity; Appeal no. 05EA015http://www.ifrc.org/docs/appeals/05/05EA01504.pdf
The programmes herein are aligned with the Federation's Global Agenda, which sets out four broad goals to meet the Federation's mission to "improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity":
- Reduce the numbers of deaths, injuries and impact from disasters.
- Reduce the number of deaths, illnesses and impact from diseases and public health emergencies.
- Increase local community, civil society and Red Cross Red Crescent capacity to address the most urgent situations of vulnerability.
- Reduce intolerance, discrimination and social exclusion and promote respect for diversity and human dignity.
Programme summary: The consolidation of the regional health coordination structure commenced in 2006 with the recruitment of a regional health and care coordinator (in June) and a regional water and sanitation coordinator (in November) who are based at the Federation's regional delegation in Dakar. In addition, three health officers were recruited; a regional health officer for the Lagos sub-regional office, a health officer based in Dakar (for countries in the Sahel sub-region) and another officer based in Yaoundé (for the Central Africa sub-region).
Some direct outcomes of improved coordination in the region are the finalization of the Regional Health Strategy 2007-2010, translation of ARCHI 2010 and the Algiers Plan of Action into the regional context, and promotion of an integrated approach to community health priorities. Other achievements include enhanced coordination with the disaster management team, leading to a joint regional training in health contingency planning for National Society disaster management and health staff as well as training of a new group of water and sanitation Regional Disaster Response Team (RDRT) members.To ensure that all coordination activities continue to be implemented effectively, secure longer-term funding for the current human resource structures - at the regional and National Society levels - is necessary. Scaling up of activities will simultaneously require an increase in staffing (such as a regional HIV and AIDS coordinator and HIV and AIDS officers in sub-regional offices), who will follow up to ensure quality programme implementation and reporting. This Programme Update, therefore, increases the appeal budget from CHF 13,960,565 to CHF 15,862,279 to cater for these additional needs.
For further information please contact:
- In Senegal: Alasan Senghore, Federation Head of West and Central Africa Regional Delegation, Dakar; email: alasan.senghore@ifrc.org; telephone +221.869.36.41; fax +221.860.20.02.
- In Geneva: Madeleine Lundberg, Federation Regional Officer for West and Central Africa, Africa Department; email: madeleine.lundberg@ifrc.org; telephone +41.22.730.43.35; fax +41.22.733.03.95
All International Federation assistance seeks to adhere to the Code of Conduct and is committed to the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response in delivering quality and accountable assistance to the most vulnerable. For support to or for further information concerning Federation programmes or operations in this or other countries, or for a full description of the national society profile, please access the Federation's website at http://www.ifrc.org