Médecins Sans Frontières

Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) is a global humanitarian movement founded in 1971 in Paris by a group of doctors and journalists. It provides independent, impartial emergency medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and healthcare exclusion, without regard to nationality, politics or ability to pay. Its medical action crosses borders and conflict lines on the basis of need alone.

The movement is governed through a distinctive associative structure of national sections worldwide. Financial independence - secured through private donations from more than seven million individuals - underpins its decision-making and enables témoignage, the practice of speaking out publicly on humanitarian crises observed in the field. Both its impartiality and its public advocacy rest on this funding base and on the principles of independence and neutrality set at its founding.

MSF operates in over 70 countries across Africa, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Americas, employing tens of thousands of staff, including doctors, nurses, logisticians, administrators and other professionals. Its working domains span emergency medicine, humanitarian logistics, epidemic response, public health and healthcare access for excluded populations. The organisation was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.