Academic literature on the topic 'Doctors Whitout Borders (MSF)'

AbstractThis opinion note explores some aspects of the relationship between humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and extractive industries. Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders, MSF) has endorsed a policy of non-engagement with the corporate sector of the extractive industries, particularly when it comes to financial donations. This is coherent with MSF being first and foremost a medical organisation, and one that adheres to the humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality. For humanitarian actors, the prospect of future environmental disasters and environmental conflicts calls for the anticipation of novel encounters, not only with environmental organisations but also with the extractive sector. Unlike environmental organisations, extractive industries are prone to generating or perpetuating different forms of violence, often putting extractive companies on a par with the parties to armed conflicts. In situations where a dialogue with extractive companies would be needed to optimise care and access to victims, humanitarian organisations should carefully weigh pragmatic considerations against the risk of being co-opted as medical providers of mitigation measures.

Abstract. The article is about OpenStreetMap and Missing Maps Project and their introducing in the remote sensing classes at universities to show potential of geographic information to improve education of people about how to help to solve the disaster and crisis situations in the World. This approach also serves as a real model for learning to interpret satellite imagery in such situations.At the beginning of the article different kinds of disasters are briefly mentioned including their causes and effect on the life of people. Then crisis management is briefly introduced from the point of view selected voluntary projects which are analysed to make process more targeted and efficient. After that Missing Maps project is introduced together with OpenStreetMap and their outputs on the example of non-profit organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) operating in different parts of the World. In the next part the ways how to contribute and improve their activities and how the whole cooperation works are arranged. Next part of the article focuses on Missing Maps mapathons (meetings of volunteers who create open-source maps for MSF) and the way how they are organized in Brno, Czechia. Editing of the OpenStreetMap for the Missing Maps project has been recently introduced to usual remote sensing classes for students of Masaryk University in Brno. Information about this activity is also described.

The turbulent shocks of recent decades—man-made and natural disasters, political instability, pandemics, and military conflicts—highlight the need for psychosocial support for victims. To plan and train those who can provide it, a number of guidelines have been developed at the global and national levels, within international medical organizations that can minimize the impact of the crisis and start the recovery process. The article presents the definition of the concept of Psychological First Aid (PFA), describes the key aspects, structure, time limits, and principles of activity; a description of three leading models of first psychological assistance in the context of international medical organizations: the World Health Organization (WHO), Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF), and the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health Preparedness, USA. The RAPID model of first aid and key competencies for psychosocial workers involved in helping victims are described. The principles and techniques of PFA meet four basic standards: they are based on the results of research of risks and resilience after injury; they are practical and suitable for use in the “field”; they meet the age characteristics of development; they take into account cultural differences. The chronogram of mental reactions to a stressful event and the provision of PFA to victims within international medical organizations is divided into four phases which should be taken into account in the organization of psychosocial support. The RAPID model is based on five aspects designed to alleviate acute stress: Rapport and Reflective listening; Assessment of needs; Prioritization; Intervention; Disposition. If control over bodily reactions, emotions, and thoughts in the victims are restored, the narrative of the event is completed and accompanied by appropriate reactions, emotions are accepted, self-esteem and self-confidence are restored, and a sense of the future appears, we can say that the person has successfully adapted to the traumatic event and is ready to move on.

Are “Doctors Without Borders” (MSF) doctors without a homeland? Based on fifty interviews, statistical data and a participatory observation, this articledescribes humanitarian mission conditions limiting local integration and suggests three forms of attachment: home (“break expatriates”), elsewhere (“multi‑homeland expatriates”) or nowhere (“duty‑free expatriates”). For the latter, MSF plays, until their departure from the organization, the role of substitute homeland. Son los “Médicos sin Fronteras” (MSF) médicos sin patria? Basado en cincuenta entrevistas, datos estadísticos y una observación participante, este artículo describe condiciones de misión humanitaria que limitan la integración local y propone tres formas de apego: en casa (“expatriados paréntesis”), en otros lugares (“expatriados multipátridos») o en ninguna parte (“expatriados duty‑free”). Para estos últimos, MSF desempeña el papel de patria sustituta hasta que dejen la organización. Les « Médecins Sans Frontières » (MSF) sont‑ils des médecins sans patrie ? Basé sur une cinquantaine d’entretiens, des données statistiques et uneobservation participante, cet article décrit des conditions de mission humanitaire limitant l’intégration locale et dégage trois formes d’attachement : chez soi (« expatriés parenthèse »), ailleurs (« expatriés multipatrides ») ou nulle part (« expatriés duty‑free »). Pour ces derniers, MSF joue, jusqu’à leur départ de l’organisation, le rôle de patrie de substitution.

I was hesitant at first to join the Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) volunteer group here at McGill. I thought that I would be committing myself to an organisation whose humanitarian actions were solely medical-related and never crossed over to topics of injustice and human rights violations, which as many people do not realise is just as crucial, if not more, than needles and bandages. It is an honourable thing to save lives, but it is a crime to do it with indifference. With aspirations of becoming a doctor myself, I was not ready to promote healing with a mouth shut. Luckily, I soon found out that in addition to providing medical assistance, MSF's main missions are to raise awareness by speaking out, either in private or in public, as witnesses of the plights suffered by populations around the world. As the world's most important independent medical relief organisation, MSF provides assistance in more than 85 countries, in the wake of armed conflicts, civil war, epidemics, chronic refugees situations, natural disasters and famines, while launching awareness campaigns and publicly denouncing acts that violate humanitarian laws. In fact, it is one of the first non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to have combined medicine with activism. Another important feature is its complete independence from all political, religious and economic influences.

Background:Since 2015, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends immediate initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for all HIV-positive patients. Epidemiological evidence points to important health benefits of immediate ART initiation; however, the policy’s impact on the economic aspects of patients' lives remains unknown.Methods:We conducted a stepped-wedge cluster-randomised controlled trial in Eswatini to determine the causal impact of immediate ART initiation on patients’ individual- and household-level economic outcomes. Fourteen healthcare facilities were non-randomly matched into pairs and then randomly allocated to transition from the standard of care (ART eligibility at CD4 counts of <350 cells/mm3 until September 2016 and <500 cells/mm3 thereafter) to the ‘Early Initiation of ART for All’ (EAAA) intervention at one of seven timepoints. Patients, healthcare personnel, and outcome assessors remained unblinded. Data were collected via standardised paper-based surveys with HIV-positive adults who were neither pregnant nor breastfeeding. Outcomes were patients’ time use, employment status, household expenditures, and household living standards.Results:A total sample of 3019 participants were interviewed over the duration of the study. The mean number of participants approached at each facility per time step varied from 4 to 112 participants. Using mixed-effects negative binomial regressions accounting for time trends and clustering at the level of the healthcare facility, we found no significant difference between study arms for any economic outcome. Specifically, the EAAA intervention had no significant effect on non-resting time use (RR = 1.00 [CI: 0.96, 1.05, p=0.93]) or income-generating time use (RR = 0.94, [CI: 0.73,1.20, p=0.61]). Employment and household expenditures decreased slightly but not significantly in the EAAA group, with risk ratios of 0.93 [CI: 0.82, 1.04, p=0.21] and 0.92 [CI: 0.79, 1.06, p=0.26], respectively. We also found no significant treatment effect on households’ asset ownership and living standards (RR = 0.96, [CI 0.92, 1.00, p=0.253]). Lastly, there was no evidence of heterogeneity in effect estimates by patients’ sex, age, education, timing of HIV diagnosis and ART initiation.Conclusions:Our findings do not provide evidence that should discourage further investments into scaling up immediate ART for all HIV patients.Funding:Funded by the Dutch Postcode Lottery in the Netherlands, Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung (Humboldt-Stiftung), the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in South Africa/Mozambique, British Columbia Centre of Excellence in Canada, Doctors Without Borders (MSF USA), National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health and Joachim Herz Foundation.Clinical trial number:NCT02909218 and NCT03789448.

Cette thèse constitue une monographie de l’organisation non gouvernementale Médecins Sans Frontières. Son matériel de base est une enquête ethnographique menée sur les opérations de cette ONG médicale humanitaire au moment même où elles se déroulent. En observant les membres de MSF en train de proposer des soins médicaux aux migrants dormant dans les rues à Paris ou aux habitants d’un bidonville à Nairobi, ou en train d’évaluer et de planifier leurs projets depuis le siège, nous les voyons bricoler pour faire tenir ensemble les objectifs parfois incompatibles d’une mission humanitaire en apparence simple : l’assistance médicale à des personnes vulnérables à travers le monde. Notre approche pragmatiste nous invite à prendre au sérieux dans l’analyse le fait que c’est l’aide humanitaire elle-même qui doit faire tenir ensemble en situation les ambiguïtés, les ambivalences ou même les contradictions d’une telle mission, tant dans ses projets et ses actions que dans ses effets ambivalents. Pour ce faire, nous nous sommes demandé comment procède MSF pour sélectionner celles et ceux qu’elle cherche à aider autour du monde. Pour répondre, nous avons produit une description fine de l’instrumentation du triage : les processus d’élaboration et l’usage des outils qui soutiennent le choix réflexif des bénéficiaires autour du globe. Nous proposons pour cela trois gestes analytiques, qui nous permettent de contribuer aux discussions actuelles sur la globalité en anthropologie : assemblages globaux, espaces globaux, santé globale. D’abord, nous montrons comment le tracé de frontières, de territoires, d’échelles que ces instruments de triage ne cessent de produire participe à la distribution de lieux humanitaires : l’espace humanitaire, le terrain, les plateformes médicales, le siège de MSF. Ensuite, en faisant porter l’analyse sur la façon dont les instruments de triage débouchent sur une mise en « scripts » ou en scénarios de ceux que les humanitaires prétendent aider, nous montrons comment MSF acquiert la capacité d’agir spécifiquement dans ses relations avec les bénéficiaires humanitaires : tact et tactiques du care, reconnaissance réciproque des bénéficiaires dans leur besoin d’aide et des humanitaires dans leur besoin d’aider, acceptabilité d’une responsabilité envers cette vulnérabilité associée dans le même temps à la tentative de transférer cette responsabilité vers des systèmes des santé publics. Enfin, en rendant compte de ces instruments en termes de technologies humanitaires d’intervention, nous mettons en évidence la façon dont MSF opère des interventions ponctuelles tant dans les organes de gouvernement que dans les corps des gouvernés. Notre description de l’aide en train de se faire et notre analyse des problèmes associés aux lieux, aux bénéficiaires et aux technologies d’intervention humanitaires constituent ce que nous appelons l’aide humanitaire au présent. Par aide humanitaire au présent, nous désignons les manières d’exister de MSF, son extension physique globale, les soins de santé qu’elle accomplit, sa politique non gouvernementale et son éthique de l’attention. Sur ce concept peut se soutenir une approche critique positive de l’aide humanitaire, considérant à la fois la pluralité et l’incompatibilité des bénéfices qu’elle est censée apporter, mais aussi les cas et les instances précis où MSF a échoué à les faire tenir ensemble
This dissertation is a monograph of the nongovernmental organisation (NGO) Doctors Without Borders (MSF). It is based on an ethnographic inquiry into the operations of this medical humanitarian NGO as they take place. Observing members of MSF providing healthcare to migrants in Paris and to inhabitants of a slum in Nairobi, evaluating and planning projects in their headquarters, we see them tinker together the sometimes-incompatible goals of a seemingly simple humanitarian mission: medical assistance to the vulnerable around the world. Our pragmatist approach consists in arguing that analysis of international aid must account for how humanitarians find a way to hold together the ambiguities, and even the contradictions, of this claimed mission in the ambivalent effects humanitarian aid in practice. To this end, we ask how MSF selects those it seeks to assist around the world. Our response entails close description of the instrumentation of triage: the problematic processes of elaborating and using tools that support the reflexive choice of beneficiaries around the globe. We then make three analytical gestures, allowing us to contribute to ongoing discussions in anthropology on global assemblages, global spaces, and global health. First, we show how the processes of bordering, territorializing, and scaling that triage instruments support, participate in producing humanitarian locations: humanitarian space, the field, medical platforms, and headquarters. Second, analysing the ways triage instruments script for those humanitarians claim to assist, we argue that MSF gains humanitarian agency in the ways it relates to humanitarian beneficiaries: the tact and tactics of care, the reciprocal recognition of beneficiaries in their need and of MSF’s need to help, the acceptance of responsibility for this vulnerability coupled with an attempt to transfer responsibility to public health care systems. Third, accounting for these instruments in terms of humanitarian technologies of intervention, we demonstrate how MSF makes timely interventions into governing bodies and the bodies of the governed. Together, our description of aid as it takes place and our analysis of the problems associated with humanitarian locations, beneficiaries, and technologies of intervention constitute what we call MSF’s humanitarian presence. This humanitarian presence indicates the ways MSF exists, in their global physical extension, in the health care they practice, in their nongovernmental politics and their ethics of attention. This concept supports critique by indicating, first, the multiple and incompatible goods that are to inhere in humanitarian aid, and second, those specific instances when MSF has failed to do so

L’objet de ce mémoire est de s’interroger sur la co-construction et la négociation de l’identité organisationnelle par la parole dans les interactions quotidiennes. Cette étude a été menée sur une organisation du monde de l’humanitaire, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) et plus précisément sur une mission réalisée dans la région du Nord- Kivu en République Démocratique du Congo. Les données ont été collectées en employant la méthode du vidéo shadowing, encore appelée vidéo filature, une approche consistant à suivre et filmer des acteurs dans leurs interactions du quotidien, et particulièrement, dans notre cas, le chef de mission. La méthodologie utilisée pour analyser les enregistrements vidéo a, par la suite, été inspirée de l’analyse de conversation et de l’ethnométhodologie. Les concepts phares sur lesquels se base cette recherche sont la « ventriloquie » et la « présentification », deux concepts en communication organisationnelle développés par François Cooren de l’École de Montréal. Plus précisément, nous nous sommes attachés à montrer comment les acteurs de MSF cultivent l’identité et l’image de leur organisation à travers des « conversations identitaires». Nous avons ainsi pu observer et analyser comment les acteurs de l’organisation agissent par le biais de la parole pour construire et établir l’identité de leur organisation, et à travers cela, leur propre identité.
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the co-construction and the negotiation of organizational identity through speech in everyday interactions. This study focused on a humanitarian organization, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and more specifically on a mission carried out in the North-Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Data were collected by using shadowing, that is, by filming MSF actors in their daily interactions, particularly in our case, a head of mission. These data were analyzed, in turn, by using conversation analysis. The methodology used to analyze the video recordings was inspired by conversation analysis and ethnomethodology. The key concepts of this research are « ventriloquism » and « presentification », both developed by François Cooren of the Montreal School of Organizational Communication. Specifically, our analyses show how MSF actors cultivate the identity and image of their organization through « identity conversations ». In other words, it is through these conversations that MSF actors construct and establish the identity of their organization, as well as their own identity.

Ce mémoire de maîtrise porte sur le concept d’identité organisationnelle, appliqué au milieu des organisations humanitaires. Le contexte mondial actuel dans lequel évoluent ces organisations leur impose de revoir certaines de leurs valeurs et façons de faire. En effet, les équipes des ONG sur le terrain sont confrontées à des conflits de plus en plus nombreux et complexes, qui remettent en question l’identité de leur organisation. Cette recherche vise à dresser un portrait du travail des employés de l’organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) lors de missions humanitaires, alors que ceux-ci doivent justifier et négocier la présence de l’organisation auprès de la population et des autorités locales. En nous basant sur le concept de sensemaking développé par Karl E. Weick, nous présentons une analyse narrative des récits de mission de cinq employés de MSF. Cette analyse permet d’étudier comment, au quotidien, les employés d’une ONG le terrain sont impliqués dans des négociations où l’identité organisationnelle est continuellement menacée et remise en question.
This thesis focuses on the concept of organizational identity, applied to humanitarian organizations. The actual international context is forcing these organizations to review some of their core values and procedures. Consequently, their teams on the field are confronted with more and more conflicts and complex situations where the organisation’s identity is at stake. The aim of this research is to produce a better understanding of the work that employees of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) do on the field during a mission, especially when they have to justify and negotiate the presence of their organisation with the local populations and authorities. Based on Karl E. Weick’s concept of sensemaking, we present a narrative analysis of fieldwork stories we collected by conducting interviews with five MSF employees. Not only does this analysis help us understand the roles employees have to play on the field, but it also provides insight into the different situations when organizational identity is being negotiated.

AbstractMédecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors without Borders, was started by a few doctors and journalists in the 1970s. Today, MSF is a humanitarian actor to be reckoned with, with its emergency medicine expertise and its unique interpretation of the neutrality and independence principles. The organization has acted unconventionally in numerous humanitarian crises and criticized peer organizations in the sector. This nonconformity has never harmed MSF; the organization is highly respected by the general public. This chapter analyzes how MSF as a principled provocateur could evolve into a public guardian of humanitarian values. We posit that MSF’s controversial acts have become an integral part of its reputation; it is expected to go against the grain. However, in order to be credible, the organization works hard to uphold its ‘volunteer and humanitarian spirit’ and strives to be an effective and professional organization.

This chapter examines how the Syrian crisis has exposed the limitations of mixing political and humanitarian activities and its damaging impact on the delivery of much-needed assistance to Syrian civilians. Some actors, such as United Nations and some of its agencies, have faced challenges in their ability to provide aid to people on the ground because their political mandate has largely overruled the humanitarian imperative. Other actors, such as Médecins Sans Frontières (or Doctors without Borders; MSF), are compelled to challenge this political frame, even if they face huge difficulties in delivering humanitarian aid in an impartial and independent manner. The chapter considers how the Middle East challenges conventional actors—in particular MSF and the UN—over the limits of their mandates and/or actions. It presents case studies to demonstrate how these limits have influenced the delivery of humanitarian assistance in Syria.