International movement

We are a movement engaging Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff and supporters from all over the world in a shared commitment to medical humanitarian action, supporting people facing crises.

We have six operational centres that directly manage our humanitarian work and decide when, where and what medical care is needed.

MSF sections are offices that support our medical work. They mainly recruit staff, organize fundraising, and raise awareness on the humanitarian crises our teams are witnessing. 

Some MSF sections have opened branch offices to extend this support work further. There are some two dozen sections and more than 15 branch offices around the world.

Additional satellite offices exist to support our work, mainly for logistics, supply and epidemiology.

MSF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999. The judges chose MSF “in recognition of the organization’s pioneering humanitarian work on several continents,” and to honour the medical staff who had already worked in more than 70 countries providing care to tens of millions of people. The proceeds from the prize were used to set up a fund to support neglected diseases such as Chagas, sleeping sickness and malaria – pilot projects for the clinical development, production, procurement and distribution of treatments.

MSF is a private international association. The association is made up mainly of doctors and health sector workers and is also open to all other professions which might help in achieving its aims. All of its members agree to honour the following principles:

MSF provides assistance to populations in distress, to survivors of disasters and to survivors of armed conflict. They do so irrespective of race, religion, creed or political convictions.

MSF observes neutrality and impartiality in the name of universal medical ethics and the right to humanitarian assistance and claims full and unhindered freedom in the exercise of its functions.

Members undertake to respect their professional code of ethics and to maintain complete independence from all political, economic or religious powers.

Members understand the risks and dangers of the work they carry out and make no claim for themselves or their assigns for any form of compensation other than that which the association might be able to afford them.