How do humanitarian aid workers think and act?
This work focuses on how humanitarian organisations operate, including their members, affiliations, messages, practices and cultures. Aid to refugee, displaced, deported, exiled and interned populations plays a central role in humanitarian action both now and in the past. What types of aid are provided to internees and displaced persons? What kinds of obstacles and dilemmas does it face? What sorts of practical, political and ethical questions are raised by the participation of humanitarian organisations in population displacement and internment policies?
![Djibo Camp - Burkina Fasso](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/2024-06/msb154765_.jpg?itok=dKOuMcwU)
What difficulties does MSF face in the Sahel?
06/24/2024Following a series of coups d'état in recent years in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, the Sahel region is undergoing a major redefinition. In a context of high insecurity, what are the possibilities for accessing populations? What are the conditions under which our teams are operating, and can we do more? This interview with Hamadoun Dicko, who is in charge of access issues in the Sahel for MSF, was originally published association's website of MSF-France.
![Jeddah camp](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/2023-12/msf276498_medium.jpg?itok=hUW3_qCA)
Crisis and Humanitarian Containment
12/19/2023Challenging the idea that humanitarian actors can act free from politics by virtue of their principles, this chapter argues that the politicization of humanitarian aid is in fact the primary condition for its deployment. Humanitarian actors can only act if they maintain a balance between their own interests and those of people in positions of power. This raises a crucial ethical question: At what point do humanitarian organisations consider that deals reached with political powers cross the blurred but very real line beyond which humanitarian assistance does more harm than good?
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/2023-11/photo_jha.jpg?itok=-dWl1Nit)
Journal of Humanitarian Affairs : Volume 5 (2023), Issue 1 (Sep 2023): Humanitarian Numbers
11/23/2023On September 14th, 2023, the Journal of Humanitarian Affairs, the academic journal in open access, hosted jointly by the Crash, The Humanitarian Affairs Team at Save the Children UK (HAT) and the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute at the University of Manchester (HCRI), has published a new issue entitled “Humanitarian numbers”. The latter focuses on the technical aspect of numbers, dealing with two main questions: What datafication means? How well does the quantitative represent reality?
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/2023-10/t1.jpg?itok=AJOA4oYc)
Thinking on and beyond the concept of de-westernization
10/16/2023This interview by Didier Billion and Marc Verzeroli was originally published in the Revue internationale et stratégique. To examine the concept of de-westernization, Rony Brauman describes the current state of international relations, marked by fluid alliances and new power relationships. He states and details his reservations about whether universal values truly exist and how the international criminal justice system functions.
![Cambodia Hep-C](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/2023-05/msf198799_.jpg?itok=vsVRsyB_)
Historicising Humanitarian Action. Synchronicity in Historical Research and Archiving Humanitarian Missions
06/30/2023The central question raised in this discussion relates to two profoundly intermeshed issues for humanitarian practitioners and organisations: the use of history for humanitarian organisations, and the need for them to preserve and maintain archives
![Mental Health support for people affected by the earthquakes in Türkiye](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/2023-06/msb153519_.jpg?itok=p0kqevQT)
“We don’t do mental health”: a review of Médecins Sans Frontières’ first “psy” mission
06/05/2023This article was published on March 27th, 2023 in the journal Alternatives Humanitaires, in an edition focused on mental health.
![illustration la prise en charge de l'enfant douloureux](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/2022-04/MSB115603%28High%29.jpg?itok=KYl1W9lN)
Management of the suffering child: a medical and operational challenge
04/27/2022
Based on the example of the hospital in Moïssala, Chad, the two authors reflect on the management of pain in children at Médecins Sans Frontières. This article was first published on March 25th 2022 in the journal Alternatives Humanitaires.
![cover-reconstructing-lives](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/2022-03/couverture%20mymsf.jpg?itok=pbt7rnc0)
Reconstructing Lives: Victims of war in the Middle East and Médecins Sans Frontières
04/01/2022Reconstructing Lives: Victims of war in the Middle East and Médecins Sans Frontières was published in January 2022 by Manchester University Press. The book is the result of extensive fieldwork, in collaboration with the Crash. It is fully available on our website.
![new HIV program in Ndhiwa sub-county, Homa Bay County Jean-Christophe Nougaret/MSF](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/2022-12/20211114_de_la_possibilite_de_controler_un_foyer_epidemique_de_vih.jpg?itok=D0E_Ivre)
About the possibility of controlling an HIV epidemic hotspot
11/14/2021This article was first released in the 18th volume of the Humanitarian Alternatives magazine. Designed to reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS in a Kenyan district, a Médecins Sans Frontières project successfully exceeded the “90-90-90” target set by UNAIDS. A look back on the results that the authors of this article - Pierre Mendiharat, Deputy director of operations at MSF France and Léon Salumu Luzinga, Program manager at MSF France, interviewed by Elba Rahmouni - believe are encouraging but by no means a guarantee that the epidemic will be over by 2030.