IFRC

Coordinates 191 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies was founded in Paris in 1919, in the aftermath of the First World War, as the League of Red Cross Societies — an initiative of the American Red Cross war committee to turn wartime national relief societies into a peacetime federation focused on public health and disaster relief.

IFRC today coordinates 191 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies from its secretariat in Geneva. Together with the ICRC and the National Societies themselves it forms the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement — the largest humanitarian network in the world, present in almost every country through volunteers rooted in their own communities.

The Federation's Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF) provides rapid, unearmarked financing to National Societies within hours of a disaster; its longer-term programmes focus on community-based disaster preparedness, climate adaptation and public health, including the epidemic and pandemic response infrastructure that National Societies operated in every country during Covid-19.