The ICRC and AFD Join Hands: Coordinating Humanitarian Aid and Long-Term Development
published on 19 November 2019
Protracted armed conflict, chronic violence, post-conflict struggles: the road between urgent humanitarian aid and long-term development is invariably uphill. That’s why the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Agence Française de Développement have joined forces to improve coordination.
Two organizations devoted to development and humanitarian aid are teaming up to maximize impact. AFD, a public institution that implements France’s development policy has entered into a partnership with the ICRC, an independent humanitarian organization whose mission is to protect victims in armed conflict.
AFD and the ICRC share a common vision of the need to strengthen coordination between emergency humanitarian action and development assistance in countries marked by conflict and post-conflict crises.
In areas where AFD and the ICRC both operate, this agreement aims to coordinate their responses to the needs of populations caught up in armed conflict, internal violence and crisis, by drawing on the complementary expertise of each body.
The partnership between the two parties will aim to:
• Facilitate the transition between humanitarian aid and development assistance by taking a medium or long-term development approach to the projects implemented, in line with local public policies
• Help build and sustainably strengthen local and national capacities in countries affected by situations of crisis and vulnerability
• Rehabilitate, strengthen and sustainably develop basic public services in conjunction with national and local public policies
• Strengthen the sustainable and equitable access to basic services particularly during conflict and post-conflict and in periods of chronic crisis
• Increase the sharing of expertise, methodology and lessons learned between institutions that strengthen the humanitarian-development link
The partnership between AFD and the ICRC will feature:
• Joint activities within the scope of their respective geographical and sectoral mandates
• Staff exchanges to share expertise and improve the mutual knowledge of each organization
• An annual meeting on the sidelines of the France-ICRC strategic dialogue, to assess joint activities and manage the partnership
