Since 1979, the Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF) of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has offered immediate financial support to respond to all kinds of emergencies around the globe.
Each time a National Red Cross or Red Crescent Society needs funding to respond to a disaster, it can request a grant from the fund. This way, they can bring relief as soon as possible to the people affected.
The DREF has proved to be the simplest, fastest, and most transparent way for national societies to access reliable international short-term emergency funding. And as a leading humanitarian donor, the EU is one of the top contributors.
In 2023, the EU has signed a €10 million agreement with the IFRC. The aim is to respond to disasters all around the world and provide greater support to local actors and responders in humanitarian emergencies.
This week, the EU has committed its continued support towards the IFRC-DREF for 2024 at the Pledging Conference for donors hosted by the IFRC in Geneva.
So far this year, the EU has contributed 58 times to DREF operations, for a wide diversity of disasters across the world.
Here is a selection of only a few of the actions that received EU humanitarian funding via the IFRC-DREF.
