The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) sees China as an important partner in building durable solutions and community resilience in Africa, drawing on China’s experience in poverty alleviation and community development, a humanitarian official said.
Pierre Kremer, deputy regional director for Africa at IFRC, made the remarks in a recent interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the Seminar on Resilient Community Building for Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies under the China-Africa Cooperation Framework in Beijing.
Twenty-six representatives from national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies from 19 African countries, along with representatives of the IFRC, attended lectures, field visits and interactive discussions during the two-week seminar, exchanging experience and learning about China’s practices in disaster risk reduction, community resilience and sustainable development.
Hosted by the Training Center of the Red Cross Society of China and supported by the IFRC, the seminar provides a valuable platform for Chinese and African national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies to exchange expertise, share best practices and strengthen cooperation, said Kremer.
Reviewing past cooperation between African national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies and Chinese partners, Kremer highlighted the Accelerating Malaria Elimination in The Gambia project as an effective example of partnership.
The project was launched to accelerate malaria elimination in The Gambia by strengthening community-based prevention, early care-seeking and case management, alongside the procurement and distribution of seasonal malaria chemoprevention medicines for children under five.
Kremer, who worked in China in 2021, said he had seen firsthand how community health systems could reach people effectively at the grassroots level. “I believe this experience could be valuable in building effective, people-centered and integrated community health workforces and systems in Africa.”
The malaria project also reflects a broader area of convergence between China’s development cooperation in Africa and the IFRC’s approach to humanitarian action: building local capacity and supporting sustainable development.
The IFRC’s Africa Zero Hunger initiative, for example, calls for a shift from short-term assistance toward longer-term resilience, with a focus on durable, locally led solutions that can be sustained and scaled up, he said.
China’s poverty alleviation efforts have offered another source of inspiration for this approach. “China’s experience in building community resilience is even more valuable than funding,” Kremer said, highlighting its know-how, multi-level leadership and consistent implementation.
Looking ahead, the IFRC could provide a multilateral platform to help scale up effective China-Africa partnership programmes while strengthening and streamlining capacity-building efforts, particularly those aimed at developing the next generation of young leaders, he said.
Youth leadership and entrepreneurship are areas where Kremer sees particular potential for cooperation. According to him, the IFRC’s Africa region has around 4 million volunteers, 80 to 90 percent of whom are young people. Many of them work on the front lines of emergencies and take significant risks to serve their communities.
“We want to give back by creating opportunities for them,” Kremer said. “There is strong potential for cooperation with China in this area. We see an opportunity to combine the IFRC’s network with China’s expertise to support youth leadership and entrepreneurship in Africa.”
Digital transformation and renewable energy are other potential areas for cooperation, Kremer underlined.
The IFRC is seeking to accelerate the digital transformation of its 16,000 branches across Africa, but only about 23 percent are currently connected. The goal is to connect all branches, particularly those in remote or conflict-affected areas, to strengthen emergency response and enable them to develop their own community information systems.
“We want them to be fully self-reliant, autonomous and able to make decisions for themselves,” Kremer said.
Solar panels and other equipment are part of the solution, and so is building the capacity of volunteers to collect and use data from their own communities, said Kremer, noting that China could be a valuable partner in this effort, given its experience in community-level digital transformation and its globally competitive renewable energy technologies.
“In the future, we look forward to further cooperation with Chinese partners through IFRC as a multilateral platform to scale up sustainable China-Africa cooperation projects to more countries,” Kremer said.
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