The sourcing of diverse and talented staff remains a key objective of the ICRC’s cooperation with National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Like the ICRC, they are part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and they share its fundamental principles. In virtually all its spheres of operation, the ICRC interacts with National Societies as privileged and natural partners. The diverse experience of National Society staff is highly valued by the ICRC, and welcoming such qualified and motivated staff is a concrete manifestation of partnership and solidarity within the Movement at an organizational level. At the operational level, creating a diverse and competent workforce enriches the ICRC and further enables it to support people affected by armed conflict and other situations of violence.

Since the mid-1990s, the ICRC has been working with a range of National Societies around the world through staff secondments. The primary form of collaboration is “staff on loan”, whereby National Societies provide the ICRC with qualified and trained generalists and specialists, who share key experience and skills that complement those found within the ICRC’s own workforce.

By partnering with the ICRC, National Societies supply between five and ten per cent of the ICRC’s total mobile workforce in roughly 90 countries worldwide. Staff on loan remains the main form of human resources (HR) partnership between National Societies and the ICRC. It provides a valuable opportunity to match the ICRC’s HR needs in an increasingly complex humanitarian environment with National Societies’ interest in contributing to ICRC operations. It also gives National Societies the chance to grow their own staff base through experience gained from ICRC operations.

In Sweden, cooperation in the field of recruitment means that the National Society process all applicants who are nationals of or resident in that country. For more information on recruitment through a National Society, click here.