Public Relations Plan for International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

Introduction

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the most significant humanitarian organization in the, and it is more concerned on the provision of assistance with little or minimal discrimination regarding race, class, beliefs, nationality and political opinions. The organization is more concerned with encouraging and promoting every form of humanitarian activities among countries with the aim of preventing and alleviating those human sufferings, hence maintaining peace and dignity of the humans in the world. The primary purpose of IFRC is to carry out the operations of assisting those victims who are affected by disasters and thus coming up with the developments to strengthen capacities of those National Societies. The organization focuses on promoting humanitarian values, being in involved in disaster preparedness and response and providing community healthcare around the world. It is therefore concerned with supporting the disadvantaged communities in the world. The organization has been working across the globe to alleviate the lives of people in disasters. The disasters range from famine outbreak, Ebola, HIV and AIDS and so on but recently the organization was faced with a public relations crisis or scandal over fraud during its operations in 2014-2016 in West Africa (Smith, 2010).. This paper aims to provide an explanation on the crisis, create specific campaign goals on the scandal and compose an evaluation plan to assess the outcome of the campaign on the public relation crisis that faced IFRC.

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In 2014 and 2016 the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) was faced with Ebola Scandal which was alleged that the organization was involved in fraud or corruption during its operations in West Africa during the Ebola outbreak. This after the Red Cross auditor's discovered that more than US$ 5 million that was meant for Ebola relief had disappeared. The funds disappeared due to fraud, conspiracy and corruption of the IFRC officials involved in that mission during those years of operation in countries hit by the Ebola disaster in West Africa. At the time of the Ebola epidemic, IFRC had been given $ 124 million to handle during the outbreak in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. However, an estimation of $ 1.17 million was missing from the funds that had been allocated in Guinea due to the false billing and overcharging for the clearance of customs. Furthermore, $2.13 million went missing through the collusion of the IFRC staff and those workers that were at the Sierra Leone bank. Also, it was alleged that there was $ 2.7 that was lost through fraudulent overpricing of relief supplies and payment of ghost workers, who were on the payroll but they never existed (World Health Organization, 2014).

The corruption scandal on Ebola epidemic in West Africa could result in the creation of negative publicity on IFRC worldwide. It could create a scenario where the world views the organization as a corrupt organization involved in squandering the charity funds that are supposed to alleviate the lives of those who are involved in the disaster. Also, it could make the sponsors, and the donors of the organization stop funding the operation of the organization and hence can lead to the collapse of the organization thus leaving those who are vulnerable to the services provides by IFRC at risk of losing their lives. It is could also ruin their image whereby, the organization is seen to embezzle the funds that are supposed to save lives through the fight against the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. Furthermore, there was the deployment of the U.S soldiers in the West African countries affected by the epidemic. The corruption claims on IFRC could cause the organization lack support of the United States as it is heavily involved in the humanitarian activities. This was a significant setback to the organization as it will lead to negative public relations if the issue is not addressed very first and very well.

Campaign Goals for the Ebola Scandal on Ifrccombating Corruption through a Corruption Crackdown

This is a policy that will ensure that IFRC can strengthen its efforts on anti-graft and hence be able to crackdown those few workers who were involved in corruption in West-Africa during the Ebola crisis. This will serve as an example for those who may have such intentions elsewhere to stop the practice. This is to ensure that there is zero tolerance for corruption and to those people who have such behavior should be accountable for their actions. This is to provide and to show to the world that IFRC is serious on the scandal and it takes the scandal very serious thus conducting a crackdown on the people or the workers involved be considered accountable for their actions and hence not cost the organization (Cross, 2014). Although corruption is very had to end or can never be eliminated, it can be minimized through such actions as the crackdown. A lot of public procurement is lost through corruption and fraud every year hence putting the healthcare into a vulnerable situation worldwide.

An initiative of deploying auditors to operations

Faster deployment of the auditors to the operations will foster proper usage of funds and in a correct manner. The IFRC workers will not be able accountable, and hence it will reduce fraudulent overpricing of the relief supplies and also the reduction of the ghost workers. The policy will lead to more trust of the organization by the public insignificant as it will be seen that the organization is very serious on combating corruption.

Establishment of a new anti-corruption board and also investigation force by the IFRC

This measure will be able to make sure that every amount of money that is meant for the relief or disaster epidemics is accountable. This is the fight for humanity, and it must be won at all costs. This is to ensure that Codes of Conduct is maintained throughout the operations of the IFRC in response to disasters worldwide, therefore, ensuring that the abuse of poor by the illegitimate workers or groups for their benefits is stopped. It is by the primary purpose of the organization so that its objectives are maintained.

Providing cash spending limits in the vulnerable setting

For instance, in the case of Ebola outbreak in West Africa, there should be the minimum amount of money that is to be put in place. This will reduce corruption as there is monitoring of how the money is used by the top authorities of IFRC. It is a policy that will see improvement in its operations and also win the public trust from. When the public knows how you are spending on an outbreak, it will lead to more support from them hence to more donations coming in and also a lot of volunteers coming up.

Steps to achieve the goals

Putting into practice this goal through the establishment of the new anti-corruption board that is to be very effective its operations. Those individuals who took part in grant activities to be considered accountable and the investigation force to be recruited to assess their actions.

Employment of the auditors who are ready to be deployed faster when a disaster happens. This will make it easier for the activities of auditing to take place. The IFRC workers will, therefore, be on the lookout about spending the funds accordingly to avoid loss of those funds which are for the benefit of the needy people.

Training of the IFRC workers on the importance of the organization and remind them of the core values of the organization and its main purpose to the humanitarian activities. Also, carrying out awareness is a vital factor because the public in large will be able to identify the IFRC workers who are involved in the graft being reported, and hence an action being taken for their acts.

Ask for support from the sponsors and the donors to facilitate these goals. These will ensure that financial assistance is provided for the recruitment of new workers after the honest and competent workers are replacing those who are involved in the corruption activities.

Evaluation Plan

Achievement of the campaign will be through the analysis of the performance of the campaign and assessment of the operation the IFRC. There will include the collection of the data on how the policies and initiatives are performing and hence provide a framework for the performance of the policy.

Behavioral factors will be considered in the analysis of the organization in relations to corruption allegations. Those involved will be punished accordingly with the new anti-corruption board as the investigation force will have done its part already. The policies are to be put into practice as those involved should be arrested and action taken upon them.

Also, the aspiration and the plans of the organization will be put into consideration on how to set into halt such negativity issues that are branded on the organization. The impact of counseling and providing awareness to the workers of IFRC regularly is to be followed on the assessment plan of the organization.

The summative evaluation report is to be submitted to the Director of the organization about the policies and all the stakeholders to be briefed on how it goes. Also, the social media platform which involves Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are to be involved in how the campaign plan is being carried out. This is an effort to make sure that the public is not left in the dark concerning the issue.

The implementation of the campaign will be monitored systematically usually on an on-going basis to be able to assess the completeness of the campaign. Furthermore, it is to ensure that the goals are in line with the outcomes that are set out to be achieved. Also, the progress towards achieving those goals on accurate basis will be assessed accordingly.

Conclusion

Every organization should ensure that it creates a good public relation to achieve its goals. A positive public relations limits yield more support from the public, and hence it will lead to more benefits from the public. The public is the one that determines a lifespan of organizations and hence a lot of negativity leads to the shorter lifespan of an organization.

References

Cross, O. R. (2014). About this report.

Smith, B. G. (2010). Socially distributing public relations: Twitter, Haiti, and interactivity in social media. Public relations review, 36(4), 329-335.

World Health Organization. (2014). WHO: Ebola response roadmap situation report 24 December 2014.