The report gathers data from 190 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies worldwide, and offers insights into humanitarian and societal trends such as spontaneous volunteering; how volunteer numbers rise and then stabilize following a major disaster, and how National Society “per million” indicators are affected by socio-demographic factors such as population size and the Human Development Index.

Moreover, for the first time, the IFRC can show the full strength of the support given and received between National Societies worldwide. The data shows more than 800 documented collaborations between the 190 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies as givers and receivers of aid and support worldwide.

The FDRS data tells us that in 2016, of the 142 National Societies for which data is avail- able, 116 reached people in their country with disaster response and early recovery pro- grammes and 118 reached people with long-term services and development programmes; 92 National Societies did both. All National Societies that provided data are providing some kind of service to their populations. Forty-eight National Societies were not able to provide this data – but most of these are certainly providing services too. So in most, if not all, of the countries in the world, National Societies were supporting people with at least some humanitarian services. The grey gaps on the map illustrate the need to have the most comprehensive data possible in the FDRS to be able to best capture and present National Society performance and successes.

What the FDRS does

• Provides National Societies, IFRC staff, partners, researchers and other stakeholders with immediate and engaging access to data about National Societies worldwide.
• Allows better understanding of the true scale and scope of Red Cross and Red Crescent humanitarian assistance.
• Promotes greater awareness of the capacities, services, and potential of National Societies, to boost their self-development and external profile.
• Facilitates monitoring and reporting of National Society performance in a consistent, transparent and accountable manner.

Supporting National Societies with data collection

Collecting data which is disaggregated e.g. by sex, can be very complicated. Many National Societies asked for help. The IFRC’s Technical Note on Counting People Reached (2017) responds to this kind of problem, helping volunteers and staff to improve the way they capture and report disaggregated data. This Note was piloted in two phases in 2017 in Asia Paci c region (including Philippine Red Cross, Bangladesh Red Crescent, Australian Red Cross, Nepal Red Cross, Myanmar Red Cross and Singapore Red Cross). Speci c challenges were identified such as harmonising paper-based forms across many branches. The Technical Note is being shared more broadly to achieve better quality data capturing and reporting in the National Societies.

Read the Everyone Counts Report 2018