Advocacy Analysis Archives | Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF ...

“We are profoundly disappointed”: MSF statement on Canada’s response to our petition to step up humanitarian assistance in eastern DRC

Posted on 21 June 2024 (21 June 2024) by Siena Domaradzki-Kim

The Government of Canada recently issued a formal response to a petition supported by international medical organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) calling on Canada to increase its humanitarian assistance for Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where millions of people are in desperate need as a result of a violent armed conflict and the […]

One of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises is taking place in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Posted on 29 April 2024 (29 April 2024) by Siena Domaradzki-Kim

Amid a daunting number of high-profile international emergencies consuming global attention in recent months, a massive humanitarian crisis has been causing widespread suffering in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the past two years, seemingly out of sight for much of the world. Since March 2022, an estimated 1.6 million people who live near […]

Measles is a humanitarian issue, and its unwelcome reappearance in Canada is a reminder of its importance

Posted on 17 April 2024 (19 April 2024) by Siena Domaradzki-Kim

Adam R Houston, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa and Jason Nickerson, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa As a medical organization, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is no stranger to measles, which has long been a serious and ongoing concern in many places where MSF operates. However, new challenges, such as the disruption of health systems caused […]

A Canadian commitment to assist displaced Rohingya in Myanmar, Bangladesh and beyond is needed now more than ever

Posted on 22 February 2024 (22 March 2024) by Siena Domaradzki-Kim

More than three years since a military coup in Myanmar led to a surge in conflict across the country, the United Nations estimates that almost two million people have been internally displaced by the ongoing violence, while thousands more have fled to neighbouring countries. In Rakhine State – an area in the west of Myanmar […]

Pandemic Preparedness Cannot Forget Existing Tools or Existing Diseases

Posted on 28 November 2023 (4 December 2023) by Siena Domaradzki-Kim

A version of this article appears in Policy Options magazine. The negotiation text of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) proposed Pandemic Treaty, released Oct 30th, contains language around not only equitable access to pandemic products like medicines and vaccines, but sustainable production of these products. Thankfully, Canadian proposals that would have undermined equitable access were […]

MSF calls on governments to use recent TB wins to beat back deadly infectious disease

Posted on 7 November 2023 (23 February 2024) by Siena Domaradzki-Kim

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2023 Global Tuberculosis (TB) Report released today shows that the estimated global incidence of TB in 2022 remains unacceptably high, including for the more difficult to treat form of this disease, drug-resistant TB (DR-TB). With an estimated 1.3 million people having died from TB in 2022, and still only about […]

Equitable access to lifesaving medical products must be prioritized

Posted on 6 November 2023 (8 November 2023) by Siena Domaradzki-Kim

Ahead of 7th meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) for the World Health Organization’s (WHO) agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPR), Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) urged all countries to guarantee that the principles of equity, solidarity, transparency, inclusivity and accountability are at the centre of all future PPR negotiations and […]

Glimpses into the Fight Against Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB)

Posted on 22 September 2023 (8 November 2023) by Siena Domaradzki-Kim

In Mumbai, MSF runs an independent private clinic to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB). India has one of the world’s highest burdens of TB, and Mumbai is a hotspot for the disease. Here, MSF’s clinic focuses on extensive drug-resistant cases, a form of the disease that has limited treatment options. The team uses newer drugs in […]

Will Canada’s Stakeholder Consultations Actually Impact Canada’s Position on the Pandemic Treaty?

Posted on 21 September 2023 (10 November 2023) by Siena Domaradzki-Kim

On Aug. 24, 2023, the Canadian government finally released an outcomes document from the Pandemic Instrument Partner and Stakeholder Engagement Forum it held March 21 to 22, with more than 160 participants from multiple sectors. We both attended representing Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). During the intervening five months, multiple rounds of negotiations of […]

Haiti: How Canada and others can help address some of the country’s many overlapping crises

Posted on 12 July 2023 (19 July 2023) by Siena Domaradzki-Kim

18 MSF team members standing during a debrief at a mobile clinic in Bel Air.

By Michael Lawson, Humanitarian Affairs Officer for MSF Canada “We have no water, we have no food. We have nothing.” That is how one man standing outside a mobile medical clinic run by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, described the situation he and his family had been living […]