Essays & analysis

International balance sheet 2021 – 2022

The war in Ukraine clouds everything

October 2022

First it was the COVID-19 global pandemic, and then the impact of the new fall of Afghanistan into the hands of the Taliban, now it is the war in Ukraine that has captured the world's attention.

Essays & analysis
Humanitarian practice

Trends in Humanitarian Financing

September 2022

Humanitarian financing in the context of rising global need. In 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic continued to overlay other preexisting and emerging crisis risks, driving need and complicating response. Following the rapid rise in demand for humanitarian assistance in 2020, needs remained at historically high levels in 2021.

Essays & analysis
Humanitarian practice

Ukraine: The war of humanitarian double standards

Five examples

September 2022

The war in Ukraine, ongoing in 2022, has led to intense levels of suffering for the population, including civilians wounded and killed, families trying to flee to safer areas, and highly vulnerable persons staying in areas amongst heavily destroyed infrastructure and little available services.

Essays & analysis
Humanitarian practice

Crisis in northern Mozambique

Cabo delgado exhausted after 5 years of conflict

October 2022

The displaced families on Maganja beach in Palma district had been waiting for two years to return to Mocimboa de Praia. Since Mocimboa was taken over by a group now calling itself Islamic State in the Province of Mozambique, these families had been living on a strip of beach a few dozen metres wide.

Essays & analysis
Humanitarian practice

Tigray, the unending wound

An example of impunity in the face of attacks on the medical mission

October 2022

This article aims to outline the risks to which medical humanitarian action in conflict zones, in particular Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), is exposed. Tigray is a painful and open example of the risks we face.

Essays & analysis
Humanitarian practice

Decolonial and anti-racist approaches to humanitarian action

October 2022

After decades of post- and decolonial studies, their critiques of the international system have gained weight in recent years.

Essays & analysis
Humanitarian practice

Introducing 'for profit' initiatives and actors in humanitarian response

Preliminary analysis of facts, trends & concerns

February 2018

The private sector is increasingly involved in multiple aspects of humanitarian action, and not only as financial contributor. This research maps practices, identifies likely future scenarios regarding the privatisation of the response in emergency contexts and flags concerns regarding practices and trends.

 

Essays & analysis
Aid environment

The moral relativism of subordinating civilians to terrorists

MSF reflections after a tragic year of hospital bombings

June 2017

Comparative analysis of three tragic hospital bombings (in Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria) that looks beyond their specificities and points to a global climate in which the fight against terrorism has resulted in the subordination of the protection of civilians.

Essays & analysis
Attacks against medical mission