The Non Governmental Organization’s Dilemma: To Stay Quiet, Or To Speak Up.

Annie Caldwell

Global Economics.

Word Count:649

The Non Governmental Organization’s Dilemma: To Stay Quiet, Or To Speak Up.

In many cases, health organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, are neutral when it comes to conflicts in the countries that they are in. They need to stay neutral, so they can keep receiving the supplies they need, but many feel that it is also important to stand up for human rights. In 1977 a doctor with Doctors Without Borders (also known by the initials of its french name Médicins Sans Frontières) first broke the organizations rule about taking sides by publicly criticizing the Communist Party of Kampuchea and the killing of its people. That goes back to the predicament of staying out of issues, or standing up for human rights. There needs to be a balance between the two, but if that can be achieved, than it is possible to provide aid and humanitarian work.

In the past 40 years, MSF was able to do both because during the cold war 90 percent of the people that were displaced, were fleeing militant socialist governments and so relief groups shared the same ideologies as the western democracies in which they were based. And when the Soviet Union fell, it was looked at as a great opportunity to push for human rights. But as they were doing this, politics got murkier. Instead of being seen as humanitarian relief, aid was seen as serving to a political agenda in nation-building projects. While MSF was trying to stay as neutral as possible, it was found that one side would think of the group as hippies, and the other would think of them as colonial imperialists.

In 2004, MSF left Afghanistan after five of its workers were murdered supposedly by the Taliban and the government did nothing to persecute them. Humanitarian workers were being looked down on from all angles, and so many aid groups thought that opportunities for assistance were quickly dwindling but MSF believed that opportunities were still available, and that they would talk to criminals, and even ignore their wrongdoings if it meant that giving aid would be possible. The best example of this is from 2012 when MSF paid an Al-Qaeda affiliated militia a $10,000 per-project registration fee to keep working in Somalia. Although due to rising attacks and acts of violence with little to no help from the country's authorities to stop these attacks, Doctors Without Borders left Somalia for good in August of this year after twenty odd years of providing aid.

What is surprising is that contrary to what one would believe, knowing about these interactions has made people more understanding, and and the transparency has made it easier to see that there is no hidden agenda. There are groups that are less shy about being political and are not quiet when it comes to advocacy. An example of this would be Oxfam America who’s humanitarian policy manager Shannon Scribner says “We’ll be political when other organizations won’t.” But she says that the organization will always weigh the repercussions. “Are you saving more lives by staying and not speaking out?”

Doctors Without Borders is one organization that almost always stays. It returned to Afghanistan in 2009 and opened a project in one government-controlled area, and one in a Taliban secured area. Neither side vocalized issues with it because they said that it showed their interest in  supporting the local population.

There are different approaches when it comes to knowing when to stand up for something, and when to be quiet. The organization can simply stay out of the business of the country, and can do what it came there to do, which is provide aid for the wounded and sick, or it can speak up about humanitarianism. While the second option can sometimes lead to violence against the organization, a good balance of both speaking up, and being quiet can be very beneficial.

MLA Citation:

retval;}, e(a);return. "The Big Dilemma Facing Doctors Without Borders | Ideas & Innovations | Smithsonian Magazine."History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places | Smithsonian Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2013. <http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ideas-innovations/The-Big-Dilemma-Facing-Doctors-Without-Borders-199042661.html>.

"First MSF Mobile Clinic in Afghanistan | MSF in Afghanistan." MSF Field Blogs | Voices from the field. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2013. <http://blogs.msf.org/afghanistan/2013/07/msf-mobile-clinic-afghanistan/>.

"Doctors Without Borders leaving Somalia after 20-plus years, frustrated - CSMonitor.com." The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2013. <http://www.csmonitor.com/World/2013/0814/Doctors-Without-Borders-leaving-Somalia-after-20-plus-years-frustrated>.