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About us

Who We Are

Learn about our mission, our charter and principles, and who we are.

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How we work

See what triggers an intervention and how supply and logistics allow our teams to respond quickly.

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How we're run

Discover our governance and what it means to be an association. Find a quick visual guide to our offices around the world.

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Reports and financials

Read through our annual financial and activity reports, and find out about where our funds come from and how they are spent.

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What we do

Médecins Sans Frontières brings medical humanitarian assistance to victims of conflict, natural disasters, epidemics or healthcare exclusion.

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Where we work

In more than 70 countries, Médecins Sans Frontières provides medical humanitarian assistance to save lives and ease the suffering of people in crisis situations.

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MSF Websites

A Global Network
Our offices around the world
Our offices around the world
Other Sites
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MSF Association

Our staff “own” and manage MSF, making sure that we stay true to our mission and principles, through the MSF Associations.

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Access Campaign

We set up the MSF Access Campaign in 1999 to push for access to, and the development of, life-saving and life-prolonging medicines, diagnostic tests and vaccines for people in our programmes and beyond.

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Patient blogs

Hear directly from the inspirational people we help as they talk about their experiences dealing with often neglected, life-threatening diseases.

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CRASH

Based in Paris, CRASH conducts and directs studies and analysis of MSF actions. They participate in internal training sessions and assessment missions in the field.

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UREPH

Based in Geneva, UREPH (or Research Unit) aims to improve the way MSF projects are implemented in the field and to participate in critical thinking on humanitarian and medical action.

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ARHP

Based in Barcelona, ARHP documents and reflects on the operational challenges and dilemmas faced by the MSF field teams.

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MSF Analysis

Based in Brussels, MSF Analysis intends to stimulate reflection and debate on humanitarian topics organised around the themes of migration, refugees, aid access, health policy and the environment in which aid operates.

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MSF Supply

This logistical and supply centre in Brussels provides storage of and delivers medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.

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MSF Logistique

This supply and logistics centre in Bordeaux, France, provides warehousing and delivery of medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.

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Amsterdam Procurement Unit

This logistical centre in Amsterdam purchases, tests, and stores equipment including vehicles, communications material, power supplies, water-processing facilities and nutritional supplements.

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Southern Africa Medical Unit

SAMU provides strategic, clinical and implementation support to various MSF projects with medical activities related to HIV and TB. This medical unit is based in Cape Town, South Africa.

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Brazilian Medical Unit

BRAMU specialises in neglected tropical diseases, such as dengue and Chagas, and other infectious diseases. This medical unit is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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MSF Medical Guidelines

Our medical guidelines are based on scientific data collected from MSF’s experiences, the World Health Organization (WHO), other renowned international medical institutions, and medical and scientific journals.

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Manson Unit

The Manson Unit is a London, UK-based team of medical specialists who provide medical and technical support, and conduct research for MSF.

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Epicentre

Providing epidemiological expertise to underpin our operations, conducting research and training to support our goal of providing medical aid in areas where people are affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or excluded from health care.

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Evaluation Units

Evaluation Units have been established in Vienna, Stockholm, and Paris, assessing the potential and limitations of medical humanitarian action, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of our medical humanitarian work.

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LGBTQI+ Inclusion in Health Settings

MSF works with LGBTQI+ populations in many settings over the last 25-30 years. LGBTQI+ people face healthcare disparities with limited access to care and higher disease rates than the general population.

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LUXOR

The Luxembourg Operational Research (LuxOR) unit coordinates field research projects and operational research training, and provides support for documentation activities and routine data collection.

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MSF Academy for Healthcare

To upskill and provide training to locally-hired MSF staff in several countries, MSF has created the MSF Academy for Healthcare.

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Humanitarian Law

This Guide explains the terms, concepts, and rules of humanitarian law in accessible and reader-friendly alphabetical entries.

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MSF Paediatric Days

The MSF Paediatric Days is an event for paediatric field staff, policy makers and academia to exchange ideas, align efforts, inspire and share frontline research to advance urgent paediatric issues of direct concern for the humanitarian field.

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MSF Foundation

The MSF Foundation aims to create a fertile arena for logistics and medical knowledge-sharing to meet the needs of MSF and the humanitarian sector as a whole.

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DNDi

A collaborative, patients’ needs-driven, non-profit drug research and development organisation that is developing new treatments for neglected diseases, founded in 2003 by seven organisations from around the world.

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Arduous and lengthy treatment of tuberculosis

Three questions on worrying COVID-19 surge in Papua New Guinea

Interview25 March 2021

Up until March 2021, Papua New Guinea (PNG) had been largely spared any major COVID-19 outbreak. Within the few weeks, confirmed COVID-19 cases have tripled and increasing numbers of healthcare staff are testing positive, pushing them into home quarantine. The health system in PNG is at risk of collapsing, as health facilities managing COVID-19 are close to capacity and almost too stretched to provide regular basic healthcare.

Ghulam Nabi is the interim head of mission for Médecins Sans Frontières in Port Moresby, PNG’s capital, and describes the difficult situation the Pacific nation is currently facing.

What is the situation like in Port Moresby right now?

The health facilities are struggling to cope with the outbreak. There are significant constraints because a substantial number of healthcare staff have recently tested positive for COVID-19. They have to isolate and can’t go to work. Various healthcare services have been restricted and the remaining staff are concerned as they expect a major disruption to healthcare services.

Rita Flynn hospital is one of the two major hospitals in Port Moresby and we have seen that patients visiting the facility are tested, sometimes after hours waiting in the queue. Almost 40 per cent of people getting tested at Rita Flynn are testing positive for COVID-19. We expect more and more severe cases in the coming days and weeks, with limited capacity for testing and isolation of patients showing severe symptoms of COVID-19.

In general, the public health messages need to be reinforced. The understanding of the current threat among the people needs to be improved. The government has imposed mask-wearing, but most people are not following the guidelines. There are some rumours and general disbelief about the pandemic. People are only scared when they receive a positive test result. This also leads to stigmatisation by their families and communities.

Various healthcare services have been restricted and the remaining staff are concerned as they expect a major disruption to healthcare services. Ghulam Nabi

What is needed to improve the situation?

One of the bottlenecks is testing capacity in the country. There are almost no cartridges left, which are required to test PCR samples, and there aren’t enough healthcare workers to carry out the testing.

Additional personal protective equipment, testing capacity and human resources need to be considered fast to provide assistance to the already-strained healthcare system. MSF is calling on organisations in the region to act quickly and mobilise to increase their support to Papua New Guinea.

The current COVID-19 outbreak in PNG highlights the urgent need for global vaccine equity. Vaccinations need to be made available quickly for frontline healthcare staff and high-risk groups, as recommended by WHO. While it’s too late to contain the current outbreak, we need vaccinations as fast as possible in the country to mitigate the impact of the outbreak on the healthcare system, and prevent, or at least limit, further outbreaks.

The current COVID-19 outbreak in PNG highlights the urgent need for global vaccine equity. Ghulam Nabi

How is MSF responding to the COVID-19 outbreak in PNG?

Our own response capacity is limited. We tested all our staff members working in our regular tuberculosis projects over the last few days, and almost one-third of our local staff members tested positive. They are now in home quarantine and we are monitoring their health.

In October last year, we started supporting the Rita Flynn hospital in Port Moresby with one lab technician and cartridges to analyse samples of PCR tests for COVID-19 infections. We only have enough testing cartridges left to see us through for two weeks, so we are looking to source cartridges internationally.

We are also preparing to partner with Rita Flynn Hospital to manage a makeshift 43-bed COVID-19 treatment facility where we will treat moderately and severely ill patients for COVID-19 from early April.

Up Next
Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic

European Union: more empty promises about global COVID-19 vaccine equity

Project Update 15 September 2021