2020 International
first aid Guidelines
About the Global First Aid Reference Centre
The IFRC Global First Aid Reference Centre was established in 2012 as a Centre of Excellence. The Reference Centre is hosted by the French Red Cross and collaborates with 192 Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies as well as scientific bodies, academic institutions and private sectors.
The Reference Centre aims to reduce the number of deaths and the severity of injuries by supporting National Societies to scale up and improve the quality of first aid education and services. It works closely with National Societies to facilitate knowledge sharing and to promote good practice.
To ensure the IFRC first aid is evidence-based and remains relevant to national and local contexts, the Reference Centre works with National Societies’ first aid, medical and education experts, the ICRC, and participates in numerous studies and research. The IFRC International first aid and resuscitation guidelines 2020 is a key outcome of such an effort.
Number of people reached
In 2018 at least 20 million people were trained in first aid by Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies according to the 2018 survey carried out by the Reference Centre. 100 out of 192 National Societies responded to the survey. Around the globe there are more than 1,650,000 active first aid trainers (See Appendix 1 for data: Global survey 2018 data on first aid).
Every year more than 100 Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies participate in the World First Aid Day on the second Saturday of September. During this event, more than 900,000 volunteers and staff are mobilised and reach out to millions of people through social media and public events. With all those initiatives, more than 46 million people are reached by Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies with first aid and preventive health information.
Top Topics
What's new
Implementation
Structure of the guidelines
Explore the guidelines
First aid
Explore the first aid recommendations for more than 50 common illnesses and injuries. You’ll also find techniques for first aid providers and educators on topics such as assessing the scene and good hand hygiene.
First aid education
Choose from a selection of some common first aid education contexts and modalities. There are also some education strategy essentials to provide the theory behind our education approach.
About the guidelines
Here you can find out about the process for developing these Guidelines, and access some tools to help you implement them locally.