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International Red Cross announces 1,500 layoffs

The nonprofit will lay off 7.5% of its global workforce. The measure is part of a plan to save $470 million.

Montaje de las camas instaladas en Turís

(Cruz Roja Española / Flickr).

Published by
Rosana Rábago Sainz

The International Red Cross announced Monday that it is laying off 1,500 people. The nonprofit will let go of 7.5% of its worldwide workforce. The measure is part of a plan to save $470 million. The decision was announced by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). It did so in a press release that was accessed by the EFE.

In the document, the largest humanitarian organization explained that the downsizing will take place worldwide. As a result, 1,500 of the NGO's 20,000 employees in almost 100 countries will be laid off. These layoffs will be implemented over the next 12 months. The nonprofit expects to save $470 million.

The move will result in the closure of 20 of the 350 International Red Cross offices worldwide. According to the ICRC, those most likely to close are those located in areas close to another office or where other humanitarian entities operate or specialize in development work.

This decision comes after attempting to raise a total of more than $3 billion in contributions this year. However, the organization did not manage to raise this amount which led to having to lay off part of its staff, according to the committee:

It has been a difficult decision in view of the fact that the central ambition of our appeal to donors for 2.8 billion euros in contributions by 2023 was to maintain the same level of services to communities as last year.

The amount, EFE reports, is the highest amount the International Red Cross has requested until now. However, it is only a 0.3% increase in the funds compared to what it had requested in 2022. Furthermore, this money was going to be used to deal with new critical situations, such as all the economic consequences brought on by the war between Russia and Ukraine:

This modest increase hid the tough decision it had already made to absorb 160 million francs ($175 million) of projected additional costs due to inflation.
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