The ICRC endeavours to afford personnel hired and employed locally in the field - its delegation employees - opportunities for career development that are in tune with staff expectations and skills but also with the limits of their status and the organization's constraints.

Greater professionalization

In managing delegation employees, the ICRC must take account of:

• their status and the length of time they have been with the organization, which differ in the case of expatriates;

• its obligations under the country's domestic legislation;

• the employees' strong political and social ties to the setting;

• the fact that the ICRC's presence in the country is by definition limited in time.

For several years, the ICRC has been working to develop the professional qualifications and skills of delegation employees, who can:

• gradually assume responsibilities in the delegation, depending on their experience and performance;

• have access to institutional and technical training programmes;

• carry out ad hoc missions for a limited length of time to ICRC delegations in other countries;

• become expatriates, under the conditions required by the ICRC for the recruitment of applicants for expatriate missions.

In 2003, delegation employees conducted 118 ad hoc missions outside their countries of origin and 15 delegation employees became expatriates.

Decentralized management

The principles underlying the management policy for delegation employees are defined by ICRC headquarters, which guarantees that they are coherent in the long term. The application of the policy is entirely decentralized and conducted only in the field, in the delegations. The delegation is in charge of implementing the ICRC's key principles and adapting them to the local context.