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
Initial Appeal target 2006-2007: CHF 4,082,136 (USD 3,426,250 or EUR 2,569,780)
Revised Appeal target: CHF 4,257,996 (USD 3,402,682 or EUR 2,663,738)
Appeal budget for 2006: CHF 2,498,073
Appeal budget for 2007: CHF 1,759,923
Related Emergency and Annual Appeals:
- Central Europe Appeal 2006/2007. For details, please go to the website at, http://www.ifrc.org/cgi/pdf_appeals.pl?annual06/MAA66001.pdf
- Programme Update no. 1. For details, please go to the website at, http://www.ifrc.org/cgi/pdf_appeals.pl?annual06/MAA6600101.pdf
- Programme Update no. 2. For details, please go to the website at, http://www.ifrc.org/cgi/pdf_appeals.pl?annual06/MAA6600102.pdf
- More information on Red Cross Red Crescent work in Europe can be found at, http://www.ifrc.org/where/europe.asp
Programme summary:
The Federation Regional Delegation (RD) for Central Europe acts as a resource centre for National Societies (NSs) in areas defined by its proven competence and based on demand from NSs. In 2007, it will offer membership services in the areas of organisational development and capacity building, in participatory approach to community programming, health related activities, advocacy for new vulnerabilities and a regional approach to disaster response.
The initial annual appeal 2006-2007 for Central Europe indicated that the RD will provide technical and financial support to NSs in the following programme areas: Health and Care, Disaster Management, Organizational Development, Participatory Community Development, Humanitarian Values and Population Movement Programme in Croatia.
The RD revised the appeal to better align it with the Federation Global Agenda Goals to contribute to the Federation of the Future process. To do this it conducted a review exercise, in consultation with the relevant NSs, to re-evaluate the expected results and related activities in order to prioritize support. The revised appeal represents a better focusing of the Federation activities in the region on key areas which will further enhance the capacities of the NSs to deliver quality services for the most vulnerable.
The funding environment is also changing rapidly. The traditional funding from governmental sources through Red Cross Societies is diminishing as developmental and relief support for Europe moves further east or towards priorities in Africa. RC Societies in Central Europe are struggling to straddle the gap. While new opportunities are opening up (EU and other civil society / international development funds - World Bank, Council of Europe etc), the NSs have struggled to access them, due to a lack of capacity for filtering the calls for proposal (appropriate ones that fits into their prioritized activities in their long term strategy); language difficulties in terms of translating the calls in relevant local languages so the programme managers can proceed; and limited networking contacts to apply in consortium with other organizations for higher funding range projects.
This programme update provides detailed information on the programme and budget revision and includes programme logframes which explain the improved programme focus.
|
Secretariat Programmes
in support of
Regional Delegation Budapest (revised) |
2007 Initial
Total (CHF) |
2007 Revised
Total (CHF) |
| Organisational development |
274,845
|
313,743
|
| Disaster management |
423,171
|
426,996
|
| Health and care |
362,903
|
339,786
|
| PCD/PM |
355,000
|
437,668
|
| Humanitarian values |
118,984
|
119,036
|
| Coordination & Implementation |
49,160
|
122,695
|
| Total |
1,584,063
|
1,759,923
|
Context
Humanitarian assistance continues to be needed as economic, social and health sector reforms, characteristic of the state-led processes in the countries of the region, have affected the most vulnerable groups in society. For some people, access to health and care networks has diminished following privatization and cost-cutting measures.
The situation for the Federation in the region has changed considerably over the last two years. At the beginning of 2005, the RD stopped providing support to the national Red Cross societies in the new EU countries of Estonia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia. Limited support has continued to Latvian and Polish RC, who had engaged in long-term change processes funded by the Federation's Capacity Building Fund. It was decided that the RD should continue to provide support and guidance to the key change agents in these NSs until the end of the programmes (as foreseen in the RD Strategy 2006-2009, this will be at the end of 2008). The NSs in the new EU countries turned to the RC/EU Brussels office for support in EU issues (funding, policy making/lobbying/advocacy, networking), and to the Europe Department in Geneva for membership services.
In the context of the Federation of the Future process, and the discussion on the essential and fundamental membership services, which should be available to all NSs from its Secretariat, the question of how best to deliver these services to the NSs in the region has been revived. During the leadership meeting in June 2006, bringing together NSs secretary generals and presidents, a clear message from the NSs was to look at alternative ways of providing access to membership services, rather than the current geopolitical coverage by regional delegations. This could be in the form of resource centres, open to a larger geographical area, crossing regions. However it should be available from within a region - not centrally from Geneva. The RD is already moving in this direction, having invited Latvian, Polish and Hungarian RC to attend the leadership meeting - a move, which was highly appreciated. A request was made by those NSs to extend this invitation to other new EU NSs for future meetings.
NSs in the region have been adjusting to changes in the political system over the past decade and a half, from a centralized one where they tended to be part of the state system, often as implementing agencies of the Ministry of Health with full funding, to a system where they have become more independent, but as a consequence often lost financial support from the authorities. This has left them struggling with heavy and expensive structures and traditional programmes which are difficult to fund while new important needs are emerging, requiring from them new skills and approaches both regarding financing and managing their activities and their relations with the authorities. The NSs of the Balkans face the additional difficulty of reconciling their structures in a post conflict situation
During the meeting for NS leaders participants indicated their priorities for the coming years:
- To focus on improving the quality of the programmes and organisations as a basis to scale up quantity and outreach
- To improve the general legal framework of RC law including increasing funding opportunities from regular sources (state, municipality) into this framework.
- To improve skills and knowledge of staff / volunteers in technical programmes
- To move towards greater financial stability through improved, finance management, diversification of funding sources, local/national fundraising
- To improve monitoring, evaluation and accountability of NS
- To improve internal communication - sharing good practice and best use of resources available within one NS
The above mentioned priorities all lead to better performance, increased capacity for providing better services and better image of the NS's which, if contributed enough in fulfilling them, would contribute to meeting better the Characteristics of a Well Functioning National Society.
In general, the leadership is satisfied with the services being provided by the RD. However, a key area of concern is ensuring that in spite of any geo-political changes (more states accessing EU, changing funding situation in Europe), that they will still have access to basic membership services of the Federation, provided as close to home as possible.
For additional information on the achievements of the RD in Budapest Regional programmes in 2006, please see programme updates 1 and 2
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."
1. Reduce the numbers of deaths, injuries and impact from disasters.
2. Reduce the number of deaths, illnesses and impact from diseases and public health emergencies.
3. Increase local community, civil society and Red Cross Red Crescent capacity to address the most urgent situations of vulnerability.
4. Reduce intolerance, discrimination and social exclusion and promote respect for diversity and human dignity.
For further information specifically related to this operation please contact:
In Budapest: Sune Follin, Acting Head of the Regional Delegation, phone: +387 33666009; +38761133492, sune.follin@ifrc.org
In Budapest: Branimir Knezevic, Acting Head of Office, phone: +3620 359 04 31, branimir.knezevic@ifrc.org
In Geneva: Erja Reinikainen, Regional Officer, Europe Department, phone +41.22.730.43.19, fax: +41.22.733.03.95, erja.reinikainen@ifrc.org;
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