International Agency

ANALYSIS OF MSF INTERNATIONAL AGENCY
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MSF
MSF is an international humanitarian agency that deals with healthcare issues, and was created by journalist and doctors in France in the year 1971. The agency has been providing health care aid to many people in different countries, who are affects by conflict violence, neglect, and malnutrition, exclusion from healthcare and natural disasters. MSF provides its services to all affected people and in dire need of health care services, as an independent and impartial entity. Its operations are carried out during emergencies and after, to provide health care and rehabilitation of health facilities in order to battle epidemics and feeding of malnourished children. The agency also provides sanitation facilities and dispenses clean drinking water since most areas have no such amenities and people are in dire need to improve their livelihood.
All MSF operations are free of any political and religious agendas, and have no any connection to the United Nations body, but they advocate together with the United Nations on common humanitarian and medical care concerns. The operations carried out by MSF are in areas where they find inadequate services to meet the medical needs of a given population (Antonie, et al.). MSF agency has its presence in many countries around the globe particularly in developing countries, with the primary purpose of humanitarian concerns. The objective of this essay is to analyze the activities carried out by MSF with respect to emergence health care.
The core objective of MSF is provision of humanitarian services to save lives, and easing the suffering faced by people in the midst of acute crises. The agency restores the ability of the affected population by rebuilding their lives as they are provided with essential healthcare services (Audet, 2011). MSF conducts its activities in areas that are experiencing armed conflicts, epidemics, malnutrition and natural disasters, in addition to population that are excluded from essential health care services. The role of the agency is essentially focused on provision of clean water and sanitation, food, shelter and health care, as these services are core in mitigating deterioration of refugee settlement.
Structure of MSF
The establishment of MSF mission in a country is determined by the nature of the emergency at hand and the level of safety in a particular refugee camp in order to identify the nature of aid that is needed. The agency has to ensure the mission team has coordinators to head the humanitarian situation of the members and other agencies (Brauman & Tanguy, 1998). These coordinators ensures the analysis of health priority data collected that ensures the cultural background of displacement, and the population of the displaced persons.
The assessment of risk factors related to the main diseases is enhanced, as this ensures that the necessary requirements of both human and material resources are met for the mission to carry out its operations. These measures guarantee the operations of MSF to be effective and efficient in providing humanitarian assistance to the affected persons. Medical volunteers such as physicians, surgeons and nurses operate in medical and nutrition components in the mission, while Logisticians, non-medical volunteers enhance the functioning of the mission by providing all the necessary material needs to the mission. They enhance setting up of health facilities and logistic services to maintain supplies.
Medical component
MSF is largely concerned with providing health services to displaced persons, and therefore, they provide vaccination for communicable diseases such as measles and yellow fever though uncommon, but are prevented through vaccination. The rapid spread of these diseases in refugee camps is evident due to living in close proximity, and this calls for vaccination to prevent any eminent epidemic (MSF, 1998). With respect to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the agency is the largest provider of treatment and education regarding the scourge because opportunistic infections are common in refugee camps due to lack of availability of ARVs.
Hospitals that are within proximity of displacement camps are rehabilitated by MSF through improving of sanitation, provision of drugs and training of local staffs in the hospitals (MSF, Medical Issues, 2013). Only in cases of specialized treatment from endemic diseases and surgery that specialized clinics are initiated, and this initiation of specialized clinics subsequently, increases the ability of local medical staff to run efficiently through training. Psychological support is provided to these people because areas that require MSF have been affected by conflict, natural disaster or endemic diseases to reduce stress among the victims.
Water and sanitation
The top priority given by MSF mission is supply of clean drinking water because poor quality water and lack of proper sanitation increases the degree of epidemics transmission. MSF assesses the existing water sources to ensure temporal use before sinking of wells. It also ensures that drinking water is safe by providing tanks for clean water storage, treatment and distribution to the population as the water quality is enhanced to keep the refugees healthy.
Sanitation is another noteworthy factor in planning managements and disposal of waste in refugee camps (Antonie, et al.). The mechanism of disposing waste and organization of latrines has to conform to the set standards to ensure incidence of diseases and mortality are reduced significantly. Proper sanitation prevent the spread of vector bone diseases, and therefore, the MSF priority is to ensure these measures are adhered to maintain hygiene even after the mission has left the affected areas.
Food and nutrition
The setting up of MSF humanitarian missions is the moderation of malnutrition since the displaced persons are always in dire need for food. Malnutrition is a common phenomenon in refugee camps and largely contributes to deaths ion these camps. Lack of proper nutrients leads to outbreak of deficiency diseases and for this reason, MSF maintains a basic food ration that contains important elements to maintain health among the refugees. MSF assesses the availability and accessibility of food, in addition to it nutritional value so as to benefit individuals at risk from the program (Antonie, et al.). MSF food and nutrition program does not only seek for food needs, but also in regulates the nutrient intake of daily ration. In cases of higher malnutrition level, the feeding programs have advocated for special groups with specific needs to provide supplementary feeding to these vulnerable groups (Horst, 2008).
Site and Shelter
The major factors for transmission of diseases in refugee camps are overcrowding and inadequate shelters in a densely populated camp. MSF has taken the responsibility of shielding people from unfavorable environment through provision of secure living space. The organization of the site facilitates installation of shelters with sufficient space that necessitates infrastructure for providing essential services (Antonie, et al.). The organization in such situations facilitates coordination between the agency and the refugees by enhancing easy assessment of medical needs in anticipation of locally occurring diseases. Control of communicable diseases is improved as any incidence of a particular disease is easily detected and treated. MSF plays a vital role in preventing epidemics because early intervention reduces mortality rate through rapid treatment and mass vaccinations.
Access to Essential Medicare and Drugs
MSF has initiated a campaign that is aimed to increase access to essential drugs and health care to populations that needs these services most. This initiative objective is to ensure availability of essential drugs during its mission, and to increase funding for these drugs. The diseases which are common in developing nations are no longer common in developed nations, and this prompted manufacturers of such drugs to stop producing or decreasing in development of new treatments. This has prompted MSF to go beyond being a healthcare service provider to a human welfare advocate.
People displaced by way of conflict, natural disasters, disease epidemic and exclusion from health care benefit from such services provided by MSF. There are instances where certain groups are excluded from health care because of who they are. This inflicts stigma making this minority groups to be reluctant to seek medical care or are neglected by their health care system (Antonie, et al.). MSF agency has bridged this gap in service provision by making all people from whom they bear responsibility access essential treatments they need. The agency provides medical, social, and mental care to these minority groups affected by their health care negligence by improving access to health care and social acceptance.
Motivation
The objective of MSF is to provide health care to persons that are in dire need, as they are responsible in protecting human rights and vulnerable groups (Kebede-Francis, 2010). Although there are critics complaining of MSF highlighting the same problems and shortcomings that do not capture novelty and ideas, the agency has endeavored to an innovative spirit by extending humanitarian assistance to persons affected to extreme lengths- a considerable perseverance. The work of MSF in the realm of accountability is not meant to seek new ideas and ways with respects to its operations.
MSF focus is on existing practices, policies and norms, which are concerned with detection and correction of deviations and variances from set living standards, and find ways in which operating procedures can be implemented better to improve these standards. It also focuses on incremental improvements through learning at individual groups. MSF has generated a culture of compliance with humanitarian aid relationship that pushes it to deliver in accordance to the defined goals and targets.
The nature of the world and the value cherished are adversely affected by any occurrence of a humanitarian crisis. This has motivated MSF interests to risk in importing trouble and suffering with the highest explicit cost in case of a crisis to mitigate the suffering of affected population (Kebede-Francis, 2010). The agency has relied on the fundamental principles of humanity, neutrality and impartiality to emphasis these interests on others. This is the integral aspect of the agencies action of putting priority to interests of victims to the core of its humanitarian action. The relief provided by the MSF agency has enhanced the relationship between powers, since it re...