Negotiating Access to Crisis Zones: 

The Médecins Sans Frontières Experience

Humanitarian negotiations are life-and-death issues for people in need, but they also raise troubling political and ethical dilemmas for the organizations that are engaged in them. In the forthcoming book Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed: The MSF Experience, published by Columbia University Press, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) takes a critical look at how itsteams have negotiated to gain access to people in urgent need of lifesaving medical assistance in the 40 years since MSF was founded, including recent case studies from Somalia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar.

 
Please join us at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies Boardroom for a moderated discussion with one of the editors of this new book, experienced MSF aid worker, Michaël Neuman, and ISIM's own, Dr. Susan Martin. They will discuss the often complicated process of negotiating with governments, armed groups, public health officials, international actors, community leaders, and local officials; as well as the struggle to define what compromises are acceptable in order to run programs in crisis zones.  The discussion will be complemented by short videos featuring MSF field workers and office staff describing their experiences with negotiations.

When

Friday January 27, 2012

12:00-1:30

A light lunch to be served

Where

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies Boardroom