Learn about our mission, our charter and principles, and who we are.
See what triggers an intervention and how supply and logistics allow our teams to respond quickly.
Discover our governance and what it means to be an association.
Find a quick visual guide to our offices around the world.
Read through our annual financial and activity reports, and find out about where our funds come from and how they are spent.
Visit this section to get in touch with our offices around the world.
Médecins Sans Frontières brings medical humanitarian assistance to victims of conflict, natural disasters, epidemics or healthcare exclusion.
Learn about how, why, and where MSF teams respond to different diseases around the world, and the challenges we face in providing treatment.
Learn about the different contexts and situations in which MSF teams respond to provide care, including war and natural disaster settings, and how and why we adapt our activities to each.
Learn about our response and our work in depth on specific themes and events.
In more than 70 countries, Médecins Sans Frontières provides medical humanitarian assistance to save lives and ease the suffering of people in crisis situations.
Our staff “own” and manage MSF, making sure that we stay true to our mission and principles, through the MSF Associations.
We set up the MSF Access Campaign in 1999 to push for access to, and the development of, life-saving and life-prolonging medicines, diagnostic tests and vaccines for people in our programmes and beyond.
Read stories from our staff as they carry out their work around the world.
Hear directly from the inspirational people we help as they talk about their experiences dealing with often neglected, life-threatening diseases.
Based in Paris, CRASH conducts and directs studies and analysis of MSF actions.
They participate in internal training sessions and assessment missions in the field.
Based in Geneva, UREPH (or Research Unit) aims to improve the way MSF projects are implemented in the field and to participate in critical thinking on humanitarian and medical action.
Based in Barcelona, ARHP documents and reflects on the operational challenges and dilemmas faced by the MSF field teams.
Based in Brussels, MSF Analysis intends to stimulate reflection and debate on humanitarian topics organised around the themes of migration, refugees, aid access, health policy and the environment in which aid operates.
This logistical and supply centre in Brussels provides storage of and delivers medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.
This supply and logistics centre in Bordeaux, France, provides warehousing and delivery of medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.
This logistical centre in Amsterdam purchases, tests, and stores equipment including vehicles, communications material, power supplies, water-processing facilities and nutritional supplements.
SAMU provides strategic, clinical and implementation support to various MSF projects with medical activities related to HIV and TB.
This medical unit is based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Regional logistic centre for the whole East Africa region BRAMU specialises in neglected tropical diseases, such as dengue and Chagas, and other infectious diseases.
This medical unit is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Our medical guidelines are based on scientific data collected from MSF’s experiences, the World Health Organization (WHO), other renowned international medical institutions, and medical and scientific journals.
Find important research based on our field experience on our dedicated Field Research website.
The Manson Unit is a London, UK-based team of medical specialists who provide medical and technical support, and conduct research for MSF.
Providing epidemiological expertise to underpin our operations, conducting research and training to support our goal of providing medical aid in areas where people are affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or excluded from health care.
Evaluation Units have been established in Vienna, Stockholm, and Paris, assessing the potential and limitations of medical humanitarian action, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of our medical humanitarian work.
The Luxembourg Operational Research (LuxOR) unit coordinates field research projects and operational research training, and provides support for documentation activities and routine data collection.
The Intersectional Benchmarking Unit collects and analyses data about local labour markets in all locations where MSF employs people.
To upskill and provide training to locally-hired MSF staff in several countries, MSF has created the MSF Academy for Healthcare.
This Guide explains the terms, concepts, and rules of humanitarian law in accessible and reader-friendly alphabetical entries.
The MSF Paediatric Days is an event for paediatric field staff, policy makers and academia to exchange ideas, align efforts, inspire and share frontline research to advance urgent paediatric issues of direct concern for the humanitarian field.
The MSF Foundation aims to create a fertile arena for logistics and medical knowledge-sharing to meet the needs of MSF and the humanitarian sector as a whole.
A collaborative, patients’ needs-driven, non-profit drug research and development organisation that is developing new treatments for neglected diseases, founded in 2003 by seven organisations from around the world.
In recent weeks, MSF has been rightly challenged on social media and in the media about the use of sensitive photographs in our public communications.
Among the issues highlighted was our decision to publish identifiable photographs of a 16-year-old girl who was the victim of rape in Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo.
We acknowledge that the publication of these images was a mistake, and we are sorry.
We have removed these images and other sensitive photographs from the online article and are taking a series of actions to put better safeguards in place.
This incident has revealed inadequacies in our guidelines on the gathering and use of images, and inconsistencies in how those are implemented across MSF.
We are working to remedy this problem and are grateful to those who have raised it.
As an immediate action, we have added clearer language to our production guidelines to protect minors, defined as anyone under 18.
The revised section requires that we change the name and obscure the visual identity of minors who are victims of abuse, exploitation, or who are suffering from a highly stigmatised condition.
The rules impose additional restrictions on any content featuring minors.
They also clarify that minors cannot provide informed consent on their own.
In the case of the victim in Ituri, she provided consent to the photographer and came forward to share her story, with the support of medical and psychological staff.
As an orphan, she had no parent or guardian to support her.
We recognize that we should have taken additional steps to protect this survivor's identity, considering her status as a minor.
As a doctor, I am very aware of the responsibility we have when it comes to the protection of people in our care.
We often see people at the toughest time of their lives.
We must always avoid exposing, exploiting, or endangering victims of violence and abuse.
And we must ensure that our vital work of bearing witness to suffering and abuse does not cause further harm.
A full review of our audio-visual archives is already underway, and we are also reviewing our content production guidelines to bring them in line with new MSF-wide guidance on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) for communications and fundraising content.
Additional concerns have been raised in an open letter addressed to the MSF International Board highlighting photographs taken at MSF facilities and available for sale on the web platforms of major photo agencies.
Examples cited include disturbing examples of children photographed in states of extreme vulnerability and pain in MSF structures, in some cases available for purchase as an “art print”.
MSF does not hold the copyright for these images, and does not profit from the sale of images from stock agencies.
Nevertheless, we are concerned about the way these images are being distributed and commercialized, and we have begun engaging with key stakeholders in the photo industry to address this problem.
When we authorize or engage with external media or content producers to visit our medical projects, it is in order to share stories from the patients and communities we serve and help amplify important humanitarian issues.
This work may be done with the best intentions, but some of the images collected do not meet adequate standards in terms of dignified representation of patients or communities.
An essential part of MSF's social mission is to highlight the medical needs of communities and help amplify the voices of people affected by conflict and crises.
Since MSF’s creation we have worked alongside journalists and photographers to help us achieve this.
We seek to engage directly with patients and their communities so they can share their own stories.
We have a clear duty to "do no harm”, in line with our medical ethics.
If we fail to respect people's dignity and agency, it is also a failure of our humanitarian mission.
Following a decision in 2021, MSF has recently started a full review of its own audio-visual media database (our entire collection spanning 50 years contains close to 200,000 items).
This review covers many aspects including representation of our staff, patients and communities, attention to the dignity and agency of people portrayed, and possible stereotyping.
We expect to finalise this process by the end of 2022.
As we restrict usage, add warnings or archive images, we will notify the content producers and agencies involved so they can follow suit.
Going forward, we will intensify efforts to ensure compliance with the content production guidelines and EDI guidance by MSF staff, content producers contracted by MSF, and visiting media.
We will also review our contracting policies and procedures with freelancers and agencies.
Earlier this year, MSF launched an internal peer feedback group composed of communications staff as well as EDI experts to provide advice to content producers on campaigns or materials.
We will promote this group and ensure that it is involved in potentially sensitive projects from the outset.
In my view, being challenged internally and externally remains vital for us as practitioners across multiple disciplines, including as medical professionals, humanitarians and photojournalists.
For MSF, our ultimate responsibility is to protect the health and well-being of the people we seek to assist.
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