perverse effects and limits of aid

Distribution of NFI in remote areas Giuseppe La Rosa/MSF Interview

Natural Disasters: “Do Something!”

02/17/2012 Rony Brauman

In this interview conducted by Claudine Vidal in 2012 and published in the book Agir à Tout Prix (Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed: the MSF experience), Rony Brauman speaks about emergency humanitarian aid set up following natural disasters. Time constraints, access to victims, cooperation with local institutions, misleading representations of the disasters' effects, controversial assessments of the number of casualties; various topics related to these interventions are discussed and illustrated with specific examples.

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Des réfugiés hutus rwandais attendent dans le camp de transit de Mukungwa. John Parkin Interview

Living through the horrors of genocide: humanitarian workers in Rwanda

01/10/2018 Marc Le Pape Jean-Hervé Bradol

How much is known about the daily experiences of humanitarian workers in extreme situations such as major conflict or disaster? In their new book, “Humanitarian Aid, Genocide and Mass Killings: Médecins sans frontières, the Rwandan experience, 1982-97”, Marc Le Pape and Jean-Hervé Bradol set out to answer some of these questions. The book is also informed by Bradol’s experience of working for Médecins Sans Frontières in Rwanda during the genocide. 

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Couverture de la revue Alternatives Humanitaires Alternatives Humanitaires Interview

Interview with Marc Le Pape: Chronicle of a genocide

07/05/2017 Marc Le Pape

Marc Le Pape, sociologist and member of MSF-Crash Scientific Committee, is interviewed by Boris Martin, Editor-in-chief of Alternatives Humanitaires, about his and Jean-Hervé Bradol's latest book "Humanitarian aid, genocide and mass killings: MSF, the Rwandan experience (1982-1977)".

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Vaccination contre le choléra dans le camp des réfugiés à Nyaragusu en Tanzanie La responsabilité humanitaire Analysis

Humanitarian Responsability

11/01/2001 Rony Brauman

Rony Brauman reminds us that humanitarian organisations cannot evaluate their actions solely by the yardstick of the means they implement, but that they have a responsibility to consider the real consequences of their actions.

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Un homme transporte des sodas dans le camp de réfugiés de Dadaab Spencer Platt Analysis

MSF and the aid system: choosing not to choose

07/03/2014 Rony Brauman Michaël Neuman

We often hear it said within MSF that the aid system is unable to provide effective relief, or that the aid system’s ability to provide aid is in decline. These statements, which suggest that MSF is itself outside the "system", are based on the very real number of people in relief operations who need help but do not receive it, or do not receive enough of it. 

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Distribution alimentaire au camp de Rajo à Mogadishu, en Somalia Yann Libessart Analysis

Somalia: A Humanitarian Crime

09/01/1993 Rony Brauman

In 1993, Médecins Sans Frontières left Somalia and denounced the methods of UN troops who were violating the very humanitarian principles in whose name they intervened.

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Un responsable MSF mène un sauvetage en Méditerranée Francesco Zizola Analysis

The State of the Humanitarian Sector

01/30/2015 Fabrice Weissman

This article is an English translation of an interview of Fabrice Weissman about the State of the Humanitarian Sector, in Revue Internationale et Stratégique (n°98, 2015/2) published by the Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques

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Des réfugiés du Darfour sont installés sous un abri Inconnu Analysis

Humanitarian dilemmas in Darfur

07/01/2008 Fabrice Weissman

With 13,000 humanitarian workers and a hundred relief agencies, Darfur hosts the largest humanitarian operation in the world. The aid apparatus started its full deployment in mid-2004 in a context of acutely high mortality among internally displaced persons (IDPs) gathered in camps and civilians remaining in rural areas. 

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