The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
Introduction
Most aid actors, especially among governments in developing countries, refer to None-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and involvement in worldwide humanitarian aid and advancement and partnership. With the dire scarcity of trained health workers around the world, and particularly more so in third world nations, this predicament is a burning issue a fact that acts as a major hindrance in the attainment of the health-related Millennium Development Goals (Vareilles, Pommier, Marchal & Kane, 2017). As a consequence of this, civil society organizations like local organizations (CBO’s) and village associations, environmental conservation groups, bodies advocating for women’s rights, religious organizations, trade unions, co-operatives, and other industrial federations (working on various grounds including dispute resolution, development, issues of human rights, peacebuilding process, emergency relief, and other areas) have been gradually shifting focus on volunteer health assistants with few qualifications for a long time now. One such organization is The Red Cross.
The Movement
For many years, the Movement has been helping people on the streets and across nations around the globe. The Red Cross responds to an assortment of events ranging from infernos, storms, and flooding events, terrorist attacks, et cetera. It has likewise been a pioneer in creating and utilizing its volunteer system to help out in catastrophes. The Movement gets its funding from member states, including Switzerland, where the contributions are deposited, internal national societies, other associations, private corporations, and individuals. All such donations are voluntary.
Strategic Alignment
To meet the donor terms, among other reasons, is the grounds to which strategic alignment is effected in the Red Cross. This alignment is done with the aim of better positioning the organization within the sector and to have the opportunity to allocate their resources in the best possible way. Member enrollment to the organization is open to everybody with no discrimination founded on race, sex, religion, class, political affiliation, or nationality. The Red Cross organizes for crisis alleviation administrations for the casualties of disaster and emergencies, regardless of the cause, and educates the populace on the most proficient method to get ready for and react to calamities. The Movement encourages children and youth to establish its Fundamental Principles of the and International Humanitarian Law with the interest of expanding humanitarian ideals amongst all nations. The principals are critical in the organization’s strategic alignment.
Organizational Balance
In Vienna, Austria, at the Neue Hofburg complex delegates at the 20th International Conference, which took place from 2–9 October 1965, decreed seven fundamental principles be shared by all members of the Movement, which were included in the official acts of the movement a year later in 1986. The procedure in which they came into being in the way that they have is attributable to their permanence and universal endorsement. As opposed to a push to arrive at an understanding, it was a struggle to find what successful operations and organizational units, in recent years, shared for all intents and purposes. Subsequently, the Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent were not uncovered. However, they were found – through a conscious and participative procedure of revelation. These principles are humanity, justice, neutrality, liberty, volunteerism, unification, and inclusivity. These fundamental principles marry the constituents of the Movement – the ICRC, the National Societies, and the International Federation – and are critical to its unique identity. Adherence to these standards safeguards the humanitarian nature of the Movement’s work and carries consistency to the full scope of exercises it undertakes the world over.
Operational Mechanisms
The International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent takes place once every four years and is the chief administrative body of the Movement. It brings together delegations from all national societies and the ICRC and the IFRC, and the countries that are signatory to the Geneva Convention. Implementation and compliance the resolutions reached the conference are supervised by the Standing Commission of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. This commission also oversees the coordination of ICRC and IFRC.
Aside from its headquarters in Geneva, which has a staff member in excess of a thousand, the Movement has offices around the world in over 180 nations. Thousands of specialties and expatriates work in missions across these countries who serve as delegates. Notably, two of its leading administrative organs are the Assembly, whose president is also the president of the commission, which works in hand with the Directorate (made up of a general director and five others), which is also the executive body of the committee. The five other directors take charge of departments dealing with:
- Operations
- Human Resources
- Resources and Operational Support
- Communication
- International Law and Cooperation within the Movement
Technical specifications of the organizational design
The Movement is made up of nine representatives, two from the ICRC and the IFRC, each including the president and five selected by the international conference. The commission gathers every six months with a meeting of the Council of Delegates taking place at least twice between the meetings. The ICRS’ mission is to safeguards the lives of people victimized by internal or global disputes, and that is the main reason why it should remain impartial at all times, avoiding pushing for agendas. It has its statutes as follows:
- Oversee the compliance of opposing parties under the Geneva Convention
- Assist in search of persons missing during armed conflicts
- Safeguarding of member state citizens against dispute wrangles and caring for them
- Mediate between fighting parties
- Arrange for treatment and nursing for the wounded during wartimes.
Aside from its headquarters in Geneva, which has a staff member in excess of a thousand, the Movement has offices around the world in over 180 nations. Thousands of specialties and expatriates work in missions across these countries who serve as delegates. Notably, two of its leading administrative organs are the Assembly, whose president is also the president of the commission, which works in hand with the Directorate (made up of a general director along with five others), which also the executive body of the committee. The five other directors take charge of departments dealing with:
- Operations
- Human Resources
- Resources and Operational Support
- Communication
- International Law and Cooperation within the Movement
The IFRC harmonizes partnership between the national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies worldwide and backs the establishment of new national societies in nations where no official society is present. Internationally, the IFRC arranges for and heads emergency aid missions after crises such as natural calamities, human-made disasters, outbreaks, massive emigration flights, and other emergencies (Coles, Zhang & Zhuang, 2017). According to the 1997 Seville Agreement, the IFRC is the Lead Agency of the Movement in the event of an emergency that doesn’t in the context of warfare. The body works together with the national societies of such impacted nations– which are referred to as the Operating National Society (ONS) – along with the national societies of other states prepared to provide support. Traditionally, these are called the Participating National Societies (PNS).
Deployment of People
Deployment can be defined as troops’ movement to establish a military action. For the company’s case, deployment of people can be defined as the movement of the volunteers and the red cross response actors to the point of disaster to offer their assistance. Deployment of any response unit depends on several factors. The first factor is the magnitude and evolution of the accident. The size of the disaster dictates matters such as how many volunteers will be sent to the disaster location to offer help. It will also dictate how these response actors will move in and out of the disaster location. The second factor considered is the needs of vulnerable people. The elements work to conclude the magnitude of assistance needed for disaster. It also works to dictate how the aid will be given to this population. It is a crucial factor because it separates the efforts of the company to its ability and inability.
It ensures that the humanitarian organization goes to the disaster’s location, knowing its strengths on the issue in terms of the resources. If the red cross-company sees that its capability does not match the catastrophe, in other words, the resources of the company cannot sustain the disaster, they can ask for help from other relief agencies. Requesting for help from these agencies means that the red cross will collectively handle the tragedy, and the people deployed to the disaster will be from the red cross and another relief company. Another factor is the international federation resources available in the disaster location. These services are useful when the company’s capability fails to match up the disaster. With enough of these federation resources, the red cross-company may not require any help from other agencies; the support needed would be taken up by the federations.
Coordination Mechanism
The coordination role of the company is to serve the victims of any particular disaster best. The coordination mechanisms work in guidance to its welfare duties to the victims and the accountability it has upon the donors. The coordination mechanisms were established together with 11 other vital clusters of the company as one of the company’s reforms. The groups were set to work in two primary levels; at a global and a country level. The responsibility of these clusters worldwide is to strengthen the company’s system control and technological capacity in response to emergencies.
The country level’s role was to ensure a more articulate and operative approach to responding to emergencies. The coordination mechanisms’ purpose can be viewed as the role established by the two methods as it is one of the clusters set. The offices of coordination have been said to play a crucial role in promoting the humanitarian system’s coordination in the united nations and beyond. The coordination mechanism plays a vital role in voicing the opinions from the humanitarian issues affecting the company and allocating some of its essential operations to the system. The reason as to why the company engages and works with the coordination mechanisms is to build and create recommendable relationships between the red cross-company efforts and the United Nations efforts plus the efforts of non-governmental organizations.
Principle-based guidance relevant to coordination mechanisms
There are principles and requirements set for coordination mechanisms. The purpose of the coordination mechanisms is to ensure a quality humanitarian response, and this is one of the emphases of the sphere handbook. The sphere handbook records down the guiding issues of the humanitarian interventions, and it is the one that gives the relevant guidance to the coordination mechanisms. The sphere handbooks provide qualitative standards in nature and stipulate the minimum levels required to be reached by the humanitarian responses. The guide gives clear actions and activities needed to be done by the coordination mechanisms to meet the minimum standards dictated by the sphere handbook and also offers gauges of whether the rules were met or not.
Control Mechanism
Internal Control System
The internal control system is ensured and done by making some control regulations and routines. Then the control is done as per these regulations and thus provides the smooth running of the company. The company establishes its control mechanism by first producing several procedures and routine documentation. These documentations are written down the way the company expects the team members to carry out their required duties. The company authorities require and assume all the activities to be done according to these documentations. Thus, all the members are needed to adhere to these procedures. The procedures are supposed to be edited and reviewed often to make changes and include sensitive systems unavailable and remove the unnecessary procedures (PwC, 2014). However, the company usually does not follow-up on the adherence to these procedures; the audits do this. The local reviews also make some rules and requirements for these red cross services, but the follow-up recommendations are not made systematically.
Financial Management Systems
The financial management systems are one of the company’s crucial control mechanisms because they ensure that all the company’s activities are successful. Relief is made possible by the availability of the resources, and these resources cannot be gotten without funds. The financial management systems of the company are appropriately established and integrated. It makes it working a success as the funds are appropriately arranged, and the relief services are then made possible in disaster occurrence. The computers’ financial systems are strictly coordinated, and the company’s IT management is reviewed regularly by the company’s external auditors. Considering the IT systems contributes to the success of not only the financial systems but also other systems since computers mostly control the company systems. All financial information of the company is stored in software called CODA. Another software was closed in 2014 called DRM due to its production of misguided information (PwC, 2014). It emphasizes the role of the internal control system, that is, identifying issues with the system and making amendments.
Reporting and follow up
Reporting and follow up of the company are determined by several company systems that support the procedure such as CODA, Apple, and other policies (PwC, 2014). Through the report and follow-up system, the company gets to globally monitor issues of income, disbursements, and legal obligations. In favor of assessing and overseeing the planning and evaluation systems, they are required to set up several frameworks for monitoring. These frameworks are then applied to every single evaluation system. They may be coordinated by an individual or a department as long as its aim is established.
Audit and Risk Management
The Audit and Risk Management is the system that hands the coordination of the regulation brought up by the local audits. The system is also composed of an audit committee that works as a subcommittee in the finance department. The audit committee is present in the financial department to handle issues of financial risks according to the local audit. The audit committee works by giving reports on the activities, findings, and strategies on matters concerning finance to the finance committee.
Future challenges related to the existing Red Cross organizational design
Social Challenges
Changes are often implemented to make a situation or a service better than before; however, not all changes are taken positively and optimistically by the people affected. Some people view some changes with a pessimistic nature, and when they do so, they fail to support the transition, and some may fight to ensure the difference is not implemented (Ali, 1999). The real changes established by the red cross may encounter such challenges and negativity from people. States have already started to face social challenges and disapproval and marginalization from some groups of individuals. The results of this marginalized disapproval lead to conflicts. The social problems faced by the company today may increase in the future, making the process of change implementation by the red cross a struggle.
Economic Challenges
All changes require the availability of finance to be successful in the turns. Funding comes in when considering the resources needed to actualize the changes. Some changes may require a lot of capital, as some may lead to the reorganization of the company. A majority of changes require significant amounts of cash to implement even today; it is possible that the situation on economic strength may stay the same in terms of being a struggle or also worsen with time.
Fraud
Fraud has been a significant issue in many companies, especially when it comes to change implementation. Several people in the organization may choose to take change establishment in the red cross-company as an opportunity for wealth. Fraud is one of the weaknesses of not only the red cross but also other companies (American Red Cross, 2006). Officials of different company divisions may use the funds left for changes in their department for personal use living the changes unimplemented. Fraud may increase in the future if the company does not make strategies to deal with fraud.
Challenges related to the existing organizational design
The valid concerns The ICRC had on the creation of the League, as a supplementary international Red Cross organization alongside it citing a possible rivalry between the two organizations. This foundation was seen as an attempt to internally undermine the administrative position of the ICRC and hand over most of its responsibilities and proficiencies progressively.
The first statutes of the League from May 1919 had in them acts that gave the five original societies a privileged status and the right to permanently dismiss the national Red Cross societies from the nations of the Central Powers. These nations were Germany, Austria, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Hungary.
All of the League’s founding members were from countries of the Entente or had an association with them Entente, regulations which were divergent to t principles of universality and equality in the Red Cross. These rules further advanced the ICRC’s worries.
Under Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist regime declined any collaboration with the Red Cross during the Abyssinian war, where 29 people died mainly from attacks by the Italian Army while being under the safety of the Red Cross symbol. The goods donated to casualties were; as a result, only delivered to Ethiopia.
References
Ali, A. S., (1999). The future of development work in the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Retrieved from https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/article/other/57jq2t.htm
American Red Cross. (2006). From challenge to action: American Red Cross actions to improve and enhance its disaster response and related capabilities for the 2006 hurricane season and beyond. American Red Cross.
Coles, J., Zhang, J., & Zhuang, J. (2017). Bridging the research-practice gap in disaster relief: using the IFRC Code of Conduct to develop an aid model. Annals Of Operations Research. doi: 10.1007/s10479-017-2488-1
Founding. (2014, July 28). International Committee of the Red Cross. https://www.icrc.org/en/who-we-are/history/founding.
PwC, (2014). Red Cross IRFC review of the internal control systems. Retrieved from https://www.ifrc.org/Global/Documents/Secretariat/Accountability/Sida%20Review%20of%20the%20Internal%20Control%20at%20the%20Red%20Cross.pdf
Vareilles, G., Pommier, J., Marchal, B., & Kane, S. (2017). Understanding the performance of community health volunteers involved in the delivery of health programmes in underserved areas: a realist synthesis. Implementation Science, 12(1). doi: 10.1186/s13012-017-0554-3
