Vickie Hawkins, Executive Director, MSF UK
The annual MAW Remembrance Day Lecture
Sunday 13th November, 3pm
Imperial War Museum
Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ
This talk looked at some of the challenges experienced by Médecins Sans Frontières, an independent, medical, humanitarian organisation, over the past fifteen years, as it works to provide medical care to populations experiencing humanitarian crisis.
The provision of humanitarian assistance in conflict is a delicate balancing act between principles, drawing on the Geneva Conventions, and pragmatism, requiring negotiations with armed groups and governments that may be responsible for the very need that the organisation is working to mitigate. This balancing act is set against a background of increasing politicisation and co-option of humanitarian assistance as part of state ‘soft power’.
Vickie Hawkins, Executive Director of MSF UK, unpacked how humanitarians are responding to these challenges to try to maintain some humanity in the midst of war.
You can listen here now.