When aid workers respond to a crisis, one of the greatest challenges is staying in tune with the community as needs and circumstances shift, often rapidly.
In this interview on the sidelines of the 32nd Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in Geneva, Switzerland, Director-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross Yves Daccord examines the challenge of finding the right balance of traditional financing and new, longer-term, funding sources.
As the sector faces an evolution of the traditional concept of an emergency toward embracing a more sustained, protracted engagement from the outset, Daccord told Devex associate editor Richard Jones how the shift is affecting ICRC’s policies, recruitment and its efforts to protect local staff from absorbing all the risk in an organization’s response.
“Most crises don’t start today and end the next day,” Daccord said. “And we’re dealing now with multiple crises at the same time, so the question is how do we contextualize that? The [models for] financing, reporting back and accountability need to take that into account.”
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About the author
Molly Andersmollyanders_dev
Molly Anders is a former U.K. correspondent for Devex. Based in London, she reports on development finance trends with a focus on British and European institutions. She is especially interested in evidence-based development and women’s economic empowerment, as well as innovative financing for the protection of migrants and refugees. Molly is a former Fulbright Scholar and studied Arabic in Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco.