How to read the map
The map visualizes two different kinds of information.
Our Reach shows what IRC programs reported delivering in FY25.
What’s Possible shows what selected IRC programs could deliver across an ambitious but achievable three-year scale-up.
Each program area uses the metric that best represents reach for that program and purpose. Figures reflect the IRC’s best estimates as of September 2026 and may change as data and assumptions are updated.
Key assumptions and conventions
Reported outputs are not necessarily unique people. Our Reach is based on operational program records, which differ by program and are not always fully deduplicated at the individual level.
Different program areas measure different things. Treatment, vaccination, contraception, learning enrollment, and cash assistance are different kinds of results and should not be compared as equivalent measures of reach.
Our Reach and What’s Possible may use different measures. Measuring what programs delivered and planning what they could deliver at scale are different exercises. Where the best metric differs between the two views, we explain that below.
Our Reach represents annual scale, while What’s Possible represents cumulative reach over a three-year time period. This means their values and map saturation are not like-for-like.
Calculations use precise underlying values before rounding. Visible figures may therefore differ slightly from arithmetic performed using the rounded numbers shown on the map.
Aggregated unit costs are weighted averages. Costs are weighted across modeled program components within countries and across countries according to modeled delivery.
How What’s Possible was modeled
For malnutrition, immunization, and contraception, the IRC modeled an ambitious but achievable scale-up path over roughly three years. The map shows the IRC’s cumulative estimated reach over this three-year span.
The scenario includes countries where high need, existing program capacity, and cost-effective opportunities to grow come together most strongly. These are not necessarily the countries with the greatest overall need, and meaningful scale may also be possible elsewhere.
The model builds on the IRC’s existing programs, relationships, systems, and operating infrastructure rather than assuming programs are created from scratch.
Results depend on many factors, including the size and needs of the population, how quickly programs can grow, achievable coverage, delivery costs, procurement requirements, and operating conditions. These assumptions vary by country and program.
What’s Possible is therefore a planning scenario, not a forecast or commitment.
The displayed unit cost is the modeled average IRC cost per result over this three-year span, not the near-term cost of producing one additional result.
What each programming metric means
Malnutrition
Our Reach
Counts children under five who began treatment for moderate acute malnutrition or outpatient treatment for severe acute malnutrition during FY25.
Children first admitted for inpatient severe acute malnutrition are excluded because many later move into outpatient care and could otherwise be counted twice.
This measures treatment starts, not treatment completion or recovery.
What’s Possible
Counts children treated for moderate or severe acute malnutrition. The model calculates the two forms of treatment separately and combines them into the displayed total.
In many contexts where the IRC works, the specialized therapeutic food used to treat severe acute malnutrition is supplied in kind by UNICEF or other partners, reducing the IRC’s direct treatment costs. The model reflects assumed commodity-supply arrangements, which may change as programs scale.
Immunization
Our Reach
Counts children recorded as receiving their first dose of a vaccine protecting against diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough during FY25.
This is a first-dose measure, not completion of the full recommended vaccination schedule.
What’s Possible
Counts children reached with vaccination at the modeled scale. It should not be interpreted as completion of the full vaccination schedule.
Catch-up vaccination for children ages 1–5 is not included.
Chad’s modeled target population is flagged as unusually low and subject to validation, so its estimate is more provisional than the others.
Contraception
Our Reach
Counts people recorded as choosing a modern contraceptive method for the first time in their lives during FY25.
This is a first-time-use measure, not a count of everyone who received contraception during the year.
What’s Possible
Measures years of contraceptive protection, reflecting that different methods provide protection for different lengths of time.
The map translates this into the lay equivalent of a person protected for one year. For example, 100,000 years of protection represents the same amount of protection as 100,000 people each receiving one year, but does not necessarily mean 100,000 unique people were served.
FY25 and What’s Possible therefore use different measures and should not be read as directly comparable headcounts.
Education
Our Reach
Counts enrollments of children and young people in early-childhood, formal, and non-formal learning programs included in FY25 reporting.
This is an enrollment measure, not a measure of attendance, completion, or learning gains.
What’s Possible
Scale-up modeling is not yet available for education.
This reflects the current scope of the modeling work, not a judgment about education’s scalability, effectiveness, or priority.
Cash assistance
Our Reach
Counts estimated people reached through cash or voucher assistance for essential needs.
The underlying program data count households, which are converted to estimated numbers of people using country-specific average household sizes.
The measure includes multipurpose cash, food assistance, and assistance for essential household items. It excludes cash-for-work, business grants, agriculture or livestock support, stipends, and other transfers outside those categories.
Some overlap may remain where households received more than one included form of assistance.
What’s Possible
Scale-up modeling is not yet available for cash assistance.
This reflects the current scope of the modeling work, not a judgment about cash assistance’s scalability, effectiveness, or priority.
