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About Us

How we work

See what triggers an intervention and how supply and logistics allow our teams to respond quickly.

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How we're run

Discover our governance and what it means to be an association. Find a quick visual guide to our offices around the world.

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Reports and financials

Read through our annual financial and activity reports, and find out about where our funds come from and how they are spent.

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Accountability

Read the policies, reports, and plans on how we address issues like racism and reduce our carbon footprint, ensuring our actions align with the highest ethical standards.

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What we do

Médecins Sans Frontières brings medical humanitarian assistance to victims of conflict, natural disasters, epidemics or healthcare exclusion.

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Featured Gaza Israel war Conflict in Sudan Surgery & trauma care

Where we work

In more than 70 countries, Médecins Sans Frontières provides medical humanitarian assistance to save lives and ease the suffering of people in crisis situations.

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Featured Palestine Sudan South Sudan

MSF Websites

A Global Network
Our offices around the world
Our offices around the world
Other Sites
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Access Campaign

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.

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CRASH

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.

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UREPH

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.

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ARHP

Based in Barcelona, ARHP documents and reflects on the operational challenges and dilemmas faced by the MSF field teams.

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MSF Analysis

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.

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MSF Supply

This logistical and supply centre in Brussels provides storage of and delivers medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.

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MSF Logistique

This supply and logistics centre in Bordeaux, France, provides warehousing and delivery of medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.

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Amsterdam Procurement Unit

This logistical centre in Amsterdam purchases, tests, and stores equipment including vehicles, communications material, power supplies, water-processing facilities and nutritional supplements.

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Brazilian Medical Unit

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.

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MSF Medical Guidelines

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.

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Epicentre

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.

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Evaluation Units

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.

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LGBTQI+ Inclusion in Health Settings

MSF works with LGBTQI+ populations in many settings over the last 25-30 years. LGBTQI+ people face healthcare disparities with limited access to care and higher disease rates than the general population.

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LUXOR

The Luxembourg Operational Research (LuxOR) unit coordinates field research projects and operational research training, and provides support for documentation activities and routine data collection.

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MSF Academy for Healthcare

To upskill and provide training to locally-hired MSF staff in several countries, MSF has created the MSF Academy for Healthcare.

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Humanitarian Law

This Guide explains the terms, concepts, and rules of humanitarian law in accessible and reader-friendly alphabetical entries.

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MSF Paediatric Days

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.

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MSF Foundation

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.

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DNDi

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.

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MSF Science Portal

Our digital portal dedicated to sharing the latest medical evidence from our humanitarian activities around the globe.

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Noma

Noma is a preventable and treatable neglected disease, but 90 per cent of people will die within the first two weeks of infection if they do not receive treatment.

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TIC

The TIC is aiming to change how MSF works to better meet the evolving needs of our patients.

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Telemedicine

MSF's telemedicine hub aims to overcome geographic barriers for equitable, accessible, and quality patient care.

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Sweden Innovation Unit

Launched in 2012, the MSF Sweden Innovation Unit deploys a human-centered approach for promoting a culture of innovation within MSF.

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MSF Speaking Out

Does speaking out defend, expand, or limit humanitarian access and space?

Tens of thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees, (they all come from the refugee camps of Goma and Bukavu), fleeing the Zairian rebels of Laurent- Desire Kabila, for the last 5 months, hiding in the bush, exhausted, famished, and all waiting to return home, to Rwanda, are in the midst of a new nightmare.
© Sebastiao Salgado

Based on the speaking out case study: The Hunting and Killing of Rwandan Refugees in Zaire-Congo: 1996-1997, this course is an interactive self-study course, which includes a learning journey.

The series of MSF Speaking Out Case Studies (SOCS) learning modules emphasises and expands critical thinking and analysis skills using a two-part approach. These courses are based on MSF's speaking out dilemmas in complex humanitarian contexts. 

Part one of this course is thematics-based and is focused on humanitarian access, space and speaking out. Part two investigates the case study, "The Hunting and Killing of Rwandan Refugees in Zaire-Congo: 1996-1997" and speaking out dilemmas surrounding how MSF was instrumentalised – used as refugee ‘bait.’

Key components of the case study include crimes against humanity, genocide, the ensuing population flight, the refugee crises, and an international community that abandons the population as critical features of the war, which is ongoing until today. Learners are led through a critical reflective investigation of speaking out dilemmas including case study implications, after-action analysis, and trade-offs.

The humanitarian access and space thematic includes an introduction to concepts such as:

  • Tangible and intangible humanitarian space and humanitarian access including negotiated access, limits, and risks.
  • The normative international framework for humanitarian access/space and the laws that protect the act of medical humanitarian aid.
  • External and internal challenges to humanitarian access/space including examples from Afghanistan, Gaza, and Myanmar.
  • Evolution of humanitarian space and access including a spotlight on treating 'terrorists' & counterterrorism.

The Learning Journey

What you need to know before starting the course.

This course is made up of two parts, a quiz, and includes reference materials in the annex.

1.    Thematic concepts Part 1: Humanitarian access and space.
2.    Case Study Part 2: The Hunting and Killing of Rwandan Refugees in Zaire/Congo 1996-1997.
3.    Epilogue.
4.    Quiz.

 

Time to complete this course is approximately 6-10 hours and is self-paced. You do not need to complete the course in one sitting. You can enter and exit the course as many times as needed. 

 

Learners are required to engage with content, apply critical thinking, and reflect on process.

The course focuses on two interworking parts: thematics or humanitarian themes coupled with case studies. Real-life scenarios from MSF’s Speaking Out Case Studies (SOCS) will be used to explore speaking out dilemmas and decision-making.

The methods include: 

  • Diversified approaches
  • Critical thinking challenges
  • Case study methods
  • Audio and video experiences
  • Interactive timelines
  • After-action analysis and reflection
  • Checkpoints and learning journal

All SOCS courses are self-enrolled. All of the SOCS courses are designed for progressive learning. For optimal results, complete modules and courses in order. The recommended learning path, no matter your level of seniority or responsibility, is to first complete the Initial Module on the SOCS HUB, then proceed to the course.
 

The course provides a badge and/or a certificate upon completion of a minimum of 70% on the embedded quiz.

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to:

Knowledge Competencies

  1. Relate the concept of speaking out and speaking out challenges to concepts of humanitarian access, including negotiated access and humanitarian space.
  2. Understand the normative international framework for humanitarian access/space, the laws that protect the act of medical humanitarian aid.
  3. Understand the context and key events of the MSF Speaking Out Case Study. ‘The Hunting and Killing of Rwandan Refugees in the Congo – Zaire 1996-1997.’

Skills Competencies

  1. Identify, compare, and analyse dilemmas highlighted in the case study.
  2. Analyse the limits and risks of humanitarian access and the effects of speaking out. Examine the evolution of humanitarian space. 
  3. Apply knowledge, critical thinking, and leadership skills today’s dilemmas by making connections between the case study and current challenges.
     

How to enrol

All students - internal and external - must register on TEMBO, the MSF learning platform, in order to access courses. Click on the button below to access the platform.

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