The Home Child Allowance is a monthly amount paid out allowance to the international staff member for dependent children who remain in the home country.

It is a gross amount set internationally and implemented by each contracting section as follows:
Originally based on the indemnity level (to provide same amount per child regardless of the level in the salary grid). When the indemnity period was removed, the amounts were set at the existing amounts at the time.
It is capped at 3 children. This means that if the employee has more than 3 dependent children, she/he will not receive a Home Child Allowance higher than the one corresponding for 3 children.
The HCA is not prorated, i.e. it is not available to staff on part-time contracts. However, in the event that a staff member works only part of a month (e.g. ends their contract before the end of a month), the HCA is of course prorated in the same way as their salary.

Definition and official documentation required follow general rules as for dependents children for Family/Dependent Facilities in the field. The HCA is paid, provided that:

• the dependent child is under 18 years of age
• Official documentation is provided (a copy of the birth / adoption certificate or a copy any legal “family” documentation attesting to the composition of the family). NB: payment of the HCA start the month following reception of supporting documentation.

It is provided systematically to employees engaged as vocationers (except when on accompanied assignments) and to staff taking certain long-term assignments,

As mentioned above, the Home Child Allowance is specifically set up by MSF for staff taking on Long Term Assignments generally on unaccompanied postings (by far the most common type of postings in MSF), and not a general family allowance.

As a result, the Home Child Allowance cannot be combined with accompanying dependent coverage within the same assignment. In other words, a person cannot receive a Home Child Allowance for one child while getting the dependent package for other dependents (partner and/or children) in the field, nor the HCA for part of an assignment and then the dependent package for the rest of the assignment (e.g. when dependents join the staff member part way through the assignment).

20kg Extra luggage is covered by MSF on departure and return from mission equal to or longer than 12 months. The extra luggage comes in addition to the normal luggage of 20kg from regular (inter-missioner) assignments, which caps at the total luggage guaranteed for LTAs at 40kg, even if the airline would offer more. All dependents have the same entitlements (40kg per person). The luggage amounts are guaranteed for the full trip (including domestic flights).

It's important to strictly respect the luggage limits because while certain companies may allow higher limits of luggage, others may not, and/or MSF may have planned use the weight (above the extra limit) for accompanied shipments of urgent supplies or mail.

Return Ticket Policy

All International staff are provided with one round-trip ticket per assignment, between their place of domicile and their country of assignment.

Under the conditions presented below, in the "Extra Return Ticket" section, MSF also covers the cost of an extra return ticket for international staff to take paid leave in their country of domicile.

The same rules apply for accompanying dependents.

Extra Return Tickets

Additional returns are provided to staff on certain special packages. Please refer to the section on ‘Travel to and from Country of Domicile’