NATIONAL SOCIETIES CONSULTATION ON FIRST AID POLICY UNTIL 7th January 2022 – CLOSED. Thank you!

This draft policy was developed together with the First Aid Steering Committee and the First Aid Policy technical working group based on the inputs gathered from the virtual consultations meetings participated by National Societies and IFRC field offices that have expressed interest to contribute to drafting the policy. Your feedback is important and will be considered to produce a final version for its adoption by the IFRC General Assembly in 2022.

Background and supplemental information

First aid is at the core of National Societies activities since the beginning of the Movement. In 2011, during the last General Assembly of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), several National Societies expressed their wish to harmonise first aid policies worldwide in order to make their action more credible and stronger.

Gradually, a global vision that places first aid at the heart of our strategy and that would be accessible to everyone and everywhere is currently developed.

Not surprisingly, first aid will be an important part of the debate at the next General Assembly in 2022 with an updated and ambitious Vision and Policy, made with, for and by the National Societies.

Each year, more than 20 million people are trained and 46 million are reached through key messages on the thematic thanks to the work of the National Societies and the IFRC.

The IFRC First Aid Vision and First Aid Policy will determine the necessary capacity, resources, organizational, structures, support, and partnerships to operationalize our commitment appropriately. 

Those documents are prepared through a Steering Committee and Working Groups composed by representatives from National Societies of each region of the world. They meet approximately every month to discuss the progress of the preparation of the shape of the documents, commitments, and realities of the field and more generally on how to reposition first aid in a constantly changing and complex world to build resilient communities.

Technical working groups have been formed and various themes linked to first aid such as first aid at school, first aid education, commercial first aid, and more are discussed. The Global First Aid Reference Centre team and the IFRC Health and Care department are facilitating that process, with the kind support of Canadian Red Cross.

The outcome of this tremendous work will be promulgated during the IFRC General Assembly mid 2022 (the date and place of which will be communicated shortly).

For any queries regarding this project, please contact the Global First Aid Reference Centre at: first.aid@ifrc.org