The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Tuesday it will make 1,800 layoffs and close 26 of its 350 offices around the world.
The workforce reduction is 300 more than what the organization had announced in early April.
The goal is to reduce its budget for 2023 to CHF 2.4 billion from the initial CHF 2.8 billion.
Inflation – which implies an additional cost of 60 million francs, which the organization had decided to bear without aid – and the difficulties in meeting its treasury needs, in a context of continuously increasing humanitarian aid needs, led the organization to start 2023 with a deficit of CHF 140 million.
Among the representations that will close are those of Mauritania, Kuala Lumpur and Greece, while those of Dakar, Nairobi, Amman, Bangkok, Panama and others will be reduced.
ICRC officials said this decision was very difficult, as the initial budget, which had increased by 0.3% over the previous year, only allowed for a similar level of humanitarian services to last year, when needs increased due to new crises, such as the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, which has led the ICRC to increase its activities in that country.
In addition to the delegations that will be closed, others will reduce their size and activity, particularly in cases where a territory can be covered by another delegation or when other humanitarian organizations can fill the gap.
Source: TSF
