Opinions

The chances of a person to receive life-saving health care inside Syria today are defined by the side of the front-line in which they happen to be. It is the consequence of deliberate choices made by those who hold the guns, and also of the operational compromises accepted by aid agencies themselves.

Deployment of chemical weapons in Syria has proven to be such a horrific event, it has mobilized the muscle and diplomacy of the most powerful international actors. What will it take to unleash this same determination to come to the aid of the youngest Syrians?

Three years after it occurred, Haiti's cholera epidemic is still in the news.

Syria is certainly the most deadly conflict in the world today and the most underserved in terms of international humanitarian assistance. Exposed to violence and lack of essential services, millions of Syrians, living under the authority of opposition groups, have almost no access to international humanitarian relief. 

The appointment of David Miliband as president and CEO by a major relief agency is another nail in the coffin to claims of humanitarian independence. 

While European Union members are debating the lifting of arms embargo on Syria, populations living in opposition held territories continue to be severed from desperately needed humanitarian aid. Yet, there is a controversy among aid agencies on the best ways to scale up relief activities in Syria.

What do the Syrian National Coalition, a foreign jihadi group, a Gulf State and the Iranian and American governments all have in common? 

Discussions on the merits of remote control management of humanitarian projects have been particularly intense over the last few years. We are pleased to share this contribution published in Humanitarian Exchange Magazine by Joe Belliveau, the operational manager for Somalia in the Dutch section of our organisation.

Last October, the Israeli Minister of Defence resolved under judicial order to declassify documents dating from January 2008. These archives contain the implementation details of the embargo imposed on Gaza in 2007.

John Pringle suggests that MSF, when tackling economy-generated environmental disasters, should not hesitate to question the ‘forces that deny our patients the societal determinants of health'.

On 19th of September, PHAP hosted a discussion on the compromises and negotiations the humanitarian aid community must contend with during crisis situations with Michael Neuman and Antonio Donini.

In this chronicle "Alternatives Internationales", Rony Brauman discusses the return of using community health workers as primary access points for healthcare, in the recommendations of the WHO and practices of some governments.