Strong national societies

There are 192 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies around the world. Each one faces different challenges because every country is in a different situation.

Organizations change

Almost all national societies have their internal challenges. They grow and evolve, offering new services. They may change leadership, need to cope with financial bottlenecks or find new ways of working with their governments.

Outside influences

National societies also face challenges from outside influences, such as extreme weather events caused by climate change, humanitarian crises and conflicts, social and health inequalities, poverty and vulnerability. But they are the ones who best know the situation on the ground, the local culture, challenges and opportunities.

Help in the field

For the Red Cross, it is a priority to be well rooted in the local community, and this is also part of our work at the Swiss Red Cross. Because it is only when we have strong partners on the ground that we can help the victims in the longer term.
The other national societies are therefore our natural partners: with around 14 million volunteers and 165,000 regional offices, they are well rooted in the local communities, so in an emergency they can provide support even in remoter regions, and reinforce the resilience of the local population.

We strengthen our Red Cross partners in various sectors: organizational development, programme work and volunteer management. This pursues the long-term goal of enabling them to offer their services to people in need throughout the country with appropriate volunteers and staff and to maintain these services for as long as necessary.

Individual cooperation

In concrete terms, this is as individual as the needs of our sister organization. In Lebanon, consolidating our partner involves building up the blood donor system. In Kyrgyzstan, it involves training volunteers, while in South Sudan we are helping the local Red Cross to boost the capacity of its regional offices.

In the context of our long-term strategic partnerships, the SRC provides support for select sister national societies in the following areas:

• Leadership and strategy

• Institutional deployment and response capacities

• Fundraising

• Strengthening volunteer engagement

• Project management

Strengthening partners at all levels

Organizations are complex and there are many different opportunities for strengthening our partners. That is why we distinguish between two different areas:

Why it is so important to strengthen voluntary work

Volunteers are the basis of any Red Cross or Red Crescent organization. They are the ones with access to people living in remote regions and know what concerns them, what help they need and what the opportunities and challenges are.
For this reason, we strengthen the commitment of volunteers in our sister societies. For example, in Kyrgyzstan, where young volunteers are trained to look after elderly people and provide important support in their lives.