The origins of the 2010 Haiti cholera outbreak
In 2010, just a few months after the earthquake that devastated Haiti and claimed so many victims, the country was hit by a cholera outbreak. It took the United Nations...
Revealing a transnational neglected crisis through interlinked projects in Central America
Migratory flows that exceed the numbers seen in the western Mediterranean, with more than eighty nationalities living side by side in the Central American corridor, mobile and local populations that...
From traumatic stress to stress at work: providing psychological care for Médecins Sans Frontières staff
Over the past thirty years, as the humanitarian sector has become increasingly professional, and society has recognised the importance of psychological well-being, Médecins Sans Frontières’ managers have accepted that an...
“We don’t do mental health”: a review of Médecins Sans Frontières’ first “psy” mission
Leninakan, December 1989. It was a year after the earthquake that devastated Armenia that Médecins Sans Frontières launched its first “psy” mission. The author looks back at the reflections and hesitations...
Ethical considerations around the use of humanitarian imagery
The growth of social media has reduced the world to a “global village” in which images travel fast and far. When they feature vulnerable people, the impact can be disastrous....
Communicating and convincing: a humanitarian perspective on the French response to the coronavirus epidemic
In this paper, the two authors examine certain aspects of the French response to the epidemic in the light of the experience of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in that field,...
Humanitarian discourse and the challenges of migration: the European exception?
Are non-governmental organisations also guilty of double standards? Reviewing humanitarian actors’ approaches to migration in Europe, the author analyses the demands, intentions and dilemmas that drive them.
No Way Out, a multimedia documentary on the 10 years of war in Syria
Published on March 5, 2021 Ten years after the start of the war in Syria, 6.6 million people have been displaced by the fighting and violence tearing the country apart....
Biafra: at the heart of postcolonial humanitarian ambiguities
In short, this is where it all began: history and legend, ambiguities and dilemmas, principles and their limits. Drawing on her recent book on Biafra, Marie-Luce Desgrandchamps looks back at...
Humanitarian implications of a re-assertion of State sovereignty
Whilst there is indeed a trend towards the strengthening of State sovereignty, this concept is more multifaceted and ambivalent than it might appear. The author invites us to take stock...
Engaging with National Authorities: Médecins Sans Frontières’s experience in Guinea during the Ebola epidemic
The Ebola epidemic continues to be instructive. This was indeed the conclusion of the “Focus” on this subject in our inaugural issue: the magnitude of this unprecedented crisis, its failures...
MSF in Grande-Synthe: lessons from an unlikely coalition of actors
Vivid symbol of the migratory crisis, the situation of refugee camps in the north of France gives way to many erroneous representations. Angélique Muller and Michaël Neuman bring forward in...