towards the integration of community-based health programming as opposed to disease-specific initiatives. By improving health care before a disaster, communities will benefit from better health care in a disaster.
Maintain a strong capacity to lead and coordinate major international relief operations in emergency health, water and sanitation.
Advocate and support advocacy on priority humanitarian issues, especially by promoting human dignity in fighting intolerance, stigma and discrimination.
Work with partners to contribute to improve health, economic and social conditions.
Partnerships and alliances
Working together is critical to address the complex health challenges posed by humanitarian crises. The IFRC has partnered with WHO and other humanitarian organizations and agencies, as well as with other organizations that are active in health domains.
The IFRC also works in global and operational alliances which allow partners to share and pool their resources to achieve results that could not be achieved alone.
Examples of the IFRC's partnerships and alliances include: the Global Water and Sanitation Initiative, the involvement in the Global Measles Initiative and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the chair of the Alliance for Malaria Prevention, the participation in the Stop TB Partnership, the involvement in the GNP+ (Global Network of People living with HIV), and the participation in the UN system Inter-agency Technical Working Group on Influenza.
Contributing to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
The Millennium Declaration is the most comprehensive international consensus ever reached on how to improve the lives of the most vulnerable worldwide. While all of the MDGs have implications for community health and safety, the following goals have special importance for the IFRC in the field of health and social services.
Health and social services programmes
Health and social services activities of the IFRC are characterized by their diversity – they range from long standing activities such as first aid, voluntary non remunerated blood donation and emergency services to new programmes such as health promotion, addressing stigma, providing psychosocial support and enabling community empowerment.