Medecines sans Frontieres (MSF) is an independent International organisation providing humanitarian medical aid in the countries where poverty, diseases, natural disasters and emergencies occur. It is primarily sponsored by private individuals therefore impartiality is the main characteristics of MSF charter.
Currently MSF have missions in over sixty different countries. Most recent ones include MSF missions in Libya, Ivory Coast, South Sudan, Japan to name a few.
One of the other aspects of the MSF charter is advocacy. From the very beginning of the mission the idea was to ‘speak out of the plight of the victims’ when a group of French doctors and journalists in 1971 helped victims of civil war in Nigeria. Today using advocacy MSF mobilises volunteers and doctors across the world.
Some may argue that public diplomacy is irrelevant to the work of the organisation. Considering that it does not carry any political agenda with its missions being independent and impartial and that its primary goal is to relief pain and suffering of people. However some academics as, for instance, Gregory argues that PD is a tool in the hands of state and non-state actors. Although not backed by government authority MSF has legitimacy and credibility to be part of global governance- actions towards shared values and therefore be part of public diplomacy process (Gregory B. 2008).
MSF workers may be called a citizen diplomats because they bring culture and most importantly the knowledge ( often Western standards) that create certain perceptions of Western culture in the recipient countries.
The following example may demonstrate that NGOs such as MSF play a vital role in international relations and some decisions of the organisation may affect people’s life.
MSF mission in Turkmenistan has been on the ground for 10 years. It has provided trainings for local doctors and nurses, supplied medical equipment and medical drugs and was about to launch a Tuberculosis Treatment Program however did not receive approval by the Turkmen government. After scraping the mission MSF has published a report describing the very poor condition of Turkmenistan Health care system and describing non-cooperation of local authorities with the MSF workers.
That has led to a little improvement in Turkmenistan Health care system. The president Gurbanguly Muhammedov has started a reform and rehabilitation of hospitals and clinics in the country. Nevertheless the changes are cosmetic. This example shows that although MSF has international recognition and credibility in some cases it has not enough power to change government policies.
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/article.cfm?id=4363&cat=special-report
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