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Foresight and audacity

The MSF Foundation firmly believes that foresight and audacity are essential to improving the effectiveness of humanitarian medicine in the field. By fostering the collaborative, responsive innovation that is inherent to the start-up generation, The MSF Foundation aims to create a fertile arena for logistics and medical knowledge-sharing to meet the needs of MSF and the humanitarian sector as a whole.

MSF and The MSF Foundation

The Médecins Sans Frontières Foundation was an MSF Association initiative. MSF has always created specialised entities to advance and improve the efficiency of independent, effective humanitarian responses:

  • MSF Logistique, the procurement platform for equipment and drugs (1986);
  • Epicentre, created in 1987 to conduct epidemiological surveys and clinical research in MSF programmes and countries;
  • DNDi (Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative), created in 2003 in partnership with six other organisations, including the Pasteur Institute in Paris that supports research and development into new drugs to help patients with neglected diseases (HIV/AIDS, sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, malaria etc.).

In 1999, an organisation unlike any other in the NGO sector was created within The MSF Foundation: the Centre de Réflexion sur l'Action et les Savoirs Humanitaires (CRASH) which conducts research and examines the challenges, opportunities, constraints and limits – and the consequential controversies – of humanitarian action.

Since 2015, The MSF Foundation has concentrated its action to initiate large scale practice changes. To achieve this goal, its projects focus on three main areas: 

  • Technological innovation : based on technological innovations, we develop solutions to field problems, 
  • Applied medical research : to validate new medical protocols, we support medical research conducted by other institutional actors. These researches, carried out in the field, are chosen for their transformative potential,
  • Humanitarian knowledge : within The MSF Foundation, the CRASH aims to stimulate debate and critical reflection on ground practices and more generally on the humanitarian world.

The Foundation’s Articles of Association

Governance

The MSF Foundation governance includes its philanthropists who form one of the three electoral colleges that make up the Board of Trustees.

  • The Founder’s College, which represents the MSF association and The MSF Foundation’s creators:
    • Dr Mego Terzian, President of MSF
    • Thierry Allafort-Duverger, Executive Director of MSF
    • Denis Gouzerh, President of The MSF Foundation and member of the MSF Board
  • The College of Donors and Philanthropists, which reflects our desire to work closely with our major donors and project initiators to guide the strategy and measure the impact of their actions.
    • Bernard Liautaud, member of The MSF Foundation Board
    • Guy de Panafieu, member of The MSF Foundation Board
    • Geoff Skingsley, member of The MSF Foundation Board
  • The College of Experts, which includes skilled specialists to assist with the technical aspects of humanitarian action and The Foundation’s work.
    • Francis Charhon, Vice-President of The MSF Foundation
    • Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, member of The MSF Foundation Board
    • Bernard Pécoul, member of The MSF Foundation Board
  • The Foundation’s Board of Trustees
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