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Publications

War and humanitarianism, medicine and public health, rights and justice... Discover CRASH publications sorted by themes.

The fact that CRASH publications are written from an aid practitioner's, rather than researcher's, perspective, does not exempt them from the demands of rigorous research methods. We try hard at this, with the help of (volunteer) research professionals. The publications are not the MSF party line, but rather tools for reflexion based on MSF's framework and experience. They have only one purpose: to help us better understand what we are doing. Criticisms, comments and suggestions are more than welcome - they are expected.

Op-ed

Flu: From Uncertainty to Illusion...

07/29/2009 Jean-Hervé Bradol

Based on MSF's experience in responding to epidemics, Jean-Hervé Bradol describes the risks of spending precious time and energy on trying to delay the spread of the epidemic rather than on the case management of large numbers of sick people.

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Camp au Congo Lynsey Addario Opinion

Zones to Protect

03/01/2009 Rony Brauman

Humanitarian law was designed as a normative framework, not as an indictment. With this in mind, Rony Brauman tries to define what constitutes a human shield.

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Outpatient Department in the Bidibidi MSF Health Center - paediatric consultation, Uganda Frederic Noy Book

Humanitarian Medicine

02/01/2009 Rony Brauman

Humanitarian medicine is intented for marginalized people, hit by a crisis or deprived of access to medical care. This book helps us understand how the specificity of humanitarian medicine stems from real-life situations, more than from the medical act in itself.

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Des réfugiés du Darfour sont installés sous un abri Inconnu Analysis

Humanitarian dilemmas in Darfur

07/01/2008 Fabrice Weissman

With 13,000 humanitarian workers and a hundred relief agencies, Darfur hosts the largest humanitarian operation in the world. The aid apparatus started its full deployment in mid-2004 in a context of acutely high mortality among internally displaced persons (IDPs) gathered in camps and civilians remaining in rural areas. 

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Réfugiés en Tanzanie Louise Annaud Cahier

Food aid and the politics of numbers in Ethiopia

05/15/2008 François Enten

This study sheds light on the mechanisms producing the official data used by humanitarian aid decision makers. It views Early Warning Systems (EWS) as tools that facilitate consensus between the decision-makers involved in the allocation of food aid, enabling them to reach institutional agreements. 

 

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MSF distribue du matériel en Afghanistan Tim Dirven Cahier

MSF and protection: pending or closed?

04/01/2008 Judith Soussan

To embark upon a study of this theme is to enter a field strewn with contradictory representations linked to a highly sensitive issue – the limits of our responsibility – that has generated endless disagreements and debates on our “identity” and the existence or nonexistence of a role for MSF “beyond care”. 

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Couverture du livre Niger 2005, une catastrophe si naturelle MSF-Crash Book

Niger: A Not-So Natural Disaster

10/01/2007 Xavier Crombé Jean-Hervé Jézéquel

Twenty years after the charity concerts for the Sahel Nigerien politicians, institutional donors, aid agencies and humanitarian organisations clashed on the nature and substance of the crisis affecting Niger in 2005. Identifying the causes of, and adequate responses to, the situation also gave rise to profound disagreements. Having set up their most ambitious emergency nutrition programme to date, Médecins Sans Frontières found itself at the forefront of these controversies.

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