The notion of resilience, which originated in materials science, is now used in a wide range of fields, including psychology, ecology, physics, and the social sciences. It denotes the ability of individuals, groups, and systems to resist shocks, adapt, and rebuild themselves; its definition varies between a return to normal, adaptation, and transformation. Its use has become so common in so many fields that Time magazine named it the  "Environmental Buzzword of 2013". With its vague contours, the term “resilience” is readily criticized for its contradictory interpretations, how difficult it is to operationalize, and how often it is manipulated, for political purposes, to justify or deny funding.

In this article for the Humanitarian Practice Network, head of the Research Unit on Humanitarian Stakes and Practices (UREPH) for MSF Geneva Françoise Duroch and Crash director of studies Michaël Neuman discuss the implications and reasons behind the growing practice of staff profiling for MSF.

In October 2020, MSF organised a workshop in Dakar on staff profiling in operations in the Sahel. Profiling involves the selection of staff based on non-professional criteria, including nationality, skin colour, gender and religion. As such, it raises a number of ethical and practical concerns. As a result of profiling, US nationals have not been deployed in MSF operations in Colombia because of the risk of kidnapping, and Chadians and Rwandans have been excluded in the Central African Republic and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo respectively, because of regional conflicts. The use of profiling has increased in recent years in West Africa, as the threat of kidnapping of Westerners by radical jihadist groups has intensified.