ReliefWeb

The Europe region is extremely diverse in political and socio-economic terms, in its geography, demography and culture, as well as its public health trends and vulnerability to natural disasters. International Federation membership services and programme support to its member National Societies need to be adapted to their individual needs and national context, and the current planning process has led to a large increase in the number of country-level plans.

Nevertheless, there are also areas of common concern which have been identified as clear priorities by regional and global conferences. There is a compelling need to scale up our work in the areas of health and care, particularly HIV and AIDS, TB and harm reduction, and in developing long-term approaches for working with a rapidly increasing ageing population.

Another key priority area is migration, and stronger advocacy on behalf of all vulnerable migrants1 regardless of their legal status.

Capacities, mechanisms and tools for disaster management coordination will be strengthened, including better contingency planning and legal preparedness (IDRL). Scaling up risk reduction and addressing the challenges of climate change will enable communities to become more resilient.

The larger challenge of ensuring social cohesion in fast-changing and increasingly polarised societies is arguably an area where National Societies and volunteers can make a real and lasting contribution, with concrete action promoting respect for diversity, and fighting against intolerance.

Moving towards a stronger role in coordination and facilitation the Europe zone team is committed to developing strong operational and global alliances, and pilot new tools and approaches for more effective collaboration, peer support, networking and knowledge sharing.

The Europe zone programme priorities for the next two years are closely aligned with the Federation's overall Global Agenda Goals, and with the final declaration Together for Humanity of the 30th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. In addition they are firmly based on the Istanbul Commitments formally adopted by all European National Societies at the recent 7th European Conference. The main components of the programme and selected key outputs to be delivered during the next two years are summarised in the table below. (please see Full Report)

The total programme budget for the two-year period 2009-2010 is CHF 3,125,398 (EUR 1,990,699 or USD 2,856,854).