Doctors Without Borders
Doctors Without Borders, known internationally as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), is a prominent humanitarian organization dedicated to providing medical assistance to populations in crisis due to natural disasters, armed conflicts, and epidemics. Founded in France in 1971 by a group of doctors and journalists, MSF operates based on principles of medical ethics, independence, impartiality, and neutrality, advocating for the right to healthcare for all individuals regardless of their background. The organization has expanded significantly since its inception, now employing over 68,000 staff worldwide, including healthcare professionals and support personnel.
MSF conducts operations in more than seventy countries, responding swiftly to emergencies and providing care to marginalized communities, including refugees and those affected by poverty. The organization prides itself on its operational independence, relying primarily on private donations for funding. Notably, approximately 83% of its expenditures are directed towards direct support for its missions. MSF has also been recognized for its advocacy efforts and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 for its commitment to humanitarian principles in challenging environments. Through initiatives like the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, MSF continues to address critical health issues, focusing on diseases that disproportionately affect vulnerable populations.
Doctors Without Borders
Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), is an international and federal nongovernmental organization (NGO) that provides humanitarian aid to people in distress due to natural or human-made disasters in developing countries and regions affected by war or epidemic disease and other medical emergencies. The internationally recognized organization has been providing global medical relief since its founding in the early 1970s.
Brief History
The Parisian Upheavals of 1968 inspired a group of doctors to assist victims of war. These events, along with images of starving children broadcasted on the television, led a group of thirteen physicians and medical journalists to establish Doctors Without Borders in France on December 22, 1971. Its founding principles are medical ethics, independence, impartiality and neutrality, bearing witness, and accountability. These principles continue to be followed and guide the organization, which was created with the idea that everyone, regardless of gender, race, finances, or religious or political affiliation has a right to receive medical care and that people’s needs are greater than respect of borders. The first mission Doctors Without Borders carried out was in Managua, Nicaragua, in the aftermath of the 1972 earthquake that devastated the city and killed between 10,000 and 30,000 people.
In its initial stage, the organization was composed of three hundred volunteers made up of doctors, nurses, and staff. Since then, it has opened centers in over two dozen countries and support offices in more than sixty countries. Every year, the organization provides medical assistance to millions of people in over seventy countries. By 2024, there were over 68,000 Doctors Without Borders employees worldwide, including administrative staff and mental and physical health professionals such as physicians, nurses, technicians, chemists, pharmacists, anesthesiologists, midwives, epidemiologists, and surgeons. Only licensed medical staff with a minimum of two years of experience can carry out medical work for the organizations—due to the medical staff’s workload, they are unable to oversee medical students. Nonmedical staff such as engineers, mechanics, finance professionals, and construction and human resource specialists also serve an essential function within the group. Most of the medical and administrative staff are from the communities in which they are working.
Overview
Doctors Without Borders does not have a headquarters; it has an International office in Geneva, Switzerland, and five operational centers located in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Geneva, and Paris. The organization also has an International General Assembly (IGA), made up of two representatives from each of its partner sections, in addition to two representatives from each Association. Twelve International Board (IB) representatives are chosen by the IGA. The international president, vice president, international treasurer, and operational directors make up the IB, which presides over Doctors Without Borders by ensuring that the shared vision is carried out, and can act and make decisions in the event of conflicts or as necessary. There are also international committees that oversee other aspects such as communications, funding, management, policy, and recruitment.
As an independent organization that is not tied to a government agency or funded privately, Doctors Without Borders relies on donations and volunteers in order to operate globally; 90 percent of its funding comes from private, nongovernmental sources. The group maintains it strives for efficiency in donation management; eighty-three cents of each dollar that was donated between 1995 and 2022 was used directly to support its programs. Doctors Without Borders–USA allocated over 85 percent of its expenditures for social mission programs and public education activities. Ratings, case studies, Form 990, International Activity Reports, and annual reports and financial statements are open to the public and available on the official website. Doctors Without Borders also conducts medical research on a wide variety of general and country-specific topics. The publications are peer-reviewed and published on its official website.
Doctors Without Borders is independent, neutral, and has no religious ties. Thus, the organization is able to provide nonpartisan assistance in war-torn regions that other international organizations, such as the United Nations or the Red Cross, may have more difficulty accessing. In addition, the group’s independence allows the freedom necessary to act and respond rapidly, including in areas that are remote, rather than based on political, economic, or religious factors. However, the organization is vocal regarding its efforts and opposition of political situations, which has resulted in expulsion from some regions, including sections in Darfur, Sudan, and Myanmar. At times, Doctors Without Borders has been the only health care provider in a region from which they were expelled, thus leaving people in dire conditions without their presence. Such was the case in Panama, where the group provided health care to migrants at the end of a well-traveled and dangerous route that crossed the jungles of Columbia and Panama, where many women reported being sexually assaulted by armed men. After Doctors Without Borders repeatedly spoke out about the violence and reported data it had gathered from migrants regarding a significant spike in attacks in early 2024, it was forced to leave the region.
In addition to the assistance it provides to alleviate the outcomes of armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, and poverty, Doctors Without Borders also takes action to provide relief and emergency medical care during earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, cyclones, and other natural disasters. The group also assists marginalized groups that do not have access to adequate basic health care. Such groups include refugees, migrants, people of color, prisoners, sex workers, drug users, people with HIV/AIDS, unemployed individuals, and street children, among other people who may be otherwise excluded from access to health care.
Doctors Without Borders had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize various times before the organization finally won the prestigious award in 1999. James Orbinski, founding member of Doctors Without Borders in Canada and president of the International Council in 1999, delivered the acceptance speech. Orbinski appealed to the Russian ambassador who was present to end the bombing of Chechnya and also outlined the organization’s humanitarian and political responsibilities. The $960,000 in Nobel Peace Prize money was used to set up the Neglected Diseases Fund, which supports the treatment of diseases, such as Chagas or American trypanosomiasis, kala azar, sleeping sickness, and malaria. These diseases have few treatment options and mainly affect people of limited financial resources. In order to create medicines and care for victims of disease outbreaks, the organization Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) was created in 2003 via the collaboration of Doctors Without Borders and six partnering organizations.
Bibliography
Bortolotti, Dan. Hope in Hell: Inside the World of Doctors Without Borders. Buffalo: Firefly, 2004.
Brown, Doug. "Doctors Without Borders." Encyclopedia of Crisis Management. K. Bradley Penuel, Matthew Statler, and Ryan Hagen, eds. Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 2013.
Callahan, D. "Doctors Without Borders." Commonweal 136.2 (2009): 10–11. Print."Doctors Without Borders" Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2015. Web. 15 June. 2015
"Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative." Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative. Web. 15 June 2015.
Fox, Renee C., and Project Muse. Doctors Without Borders: Humanitarian Quests, Impossible Dreams. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2014.
"Our History." Medecins Sans Frontieres | Doctors Without Borders, www.doctorswithoutborders.org/who-we-are/our-history. Accessed 22 May 2024.
Rasool, Sabahat, and Omar S. Akhtar. "Doctors Without Borders." International Journal of User-Driven Healthcare. 3.4 (2013): 92–95. Print.Redfield, Peter. Life in Crisis: The Ethical Journey of Doctors Without Borders. Berkeley: U of California P, 2013.
Turkewitz, Julie. "Sexual Assault of Migrants in Panama Rises to Level Rarely Seen Outside War." The New York Times, 4 Apr. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/04/04/world/americas/migrants-sexual-assault-darien-gap.html. Accessed 22 May 2024.