A complex security crisis has been developing across the Sahel since 2012, due to the emergence and proliferation of armed groups across the region.

People leave their homes for many reasons. Some are fleeing war, others persecution or extreme hardship. Whatever the reason, they usually share a common objective, which is to secure a safe and dignified future.

In 1999, MSF publicly launched the Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, now the Access Campaign, to tackle the policies, and the legal and political barriers, that prevent people from accessing treatment in the communities where we work and beyond. For 20 years, MSF has worked with civil society to ensure that pharmaceutical corporations, governments and others, prioritise people’s lives and health over patents and profits. The access to medicines movement overcame patent monopolies to make way for generic production and competition of antiretrovirals, and prices dropped 99 per cent over 10 years. This and other achievements of the Campaign, including for hepatitis C, malaria, pneumonia, sleeping sickness and TB, are highlighted on the following pages.