Médecines Sans Frontiéres: Structure & Governance Case Study

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Updated: May 7th, 2024

The international organization, Médecines Sans Frontiéres (MSF), translated directly to Doctor Without Borders, is aimed to provide medical services to patients in countries suffering from conflict or endemic disasters. Worth (2020) outlines the basic principles of the structure and governance used in this organization that compares to the common practices of INGOs.

Even though MSF is considered by many to be an INGO, the organization claims to be more of a movement rather than an NGO (Worth, 2020). Therefore, MSF incorporates both features of centralization like NGO and decentralization of operation, similar to the movement. MSF has an international board that oversees its activity, providing cohesion. At the same time, each mission is quite independent and flexible enough to meet the region’s demands.

The scale of operation and the need for some decentralization make accountability and transparency more complex and challenging. However, MSF accomplishes this goal up to international standards. MSF is transparent when it comes to funds distribution and spending. As for political statements, the main principle of MSF is impartiality, according to Worth (2020). MSF must not make a definitive stance, as it is aimed to provide medical help regardless of the details. This fact shows that accountability and transparency in NGOs can be complex depending on their mission. At its core, MSF’s mission is medical service provision and advocacy. Moreover, MSF remains an NGO with a high impact internationally. According to Worth (2020), Crutchfield and Grant highlighted two main criteria for this high impact: substantial and sustained results and influence on the whole system.

Therefore, it is clear that MSF’s mission of providing medical help worldwide and standing up for people’s health and lives is consistent with the ideas of a high-impact organization. Furthermore, MSF’s results and accomplishments support this conclusion, as it managed to assist multiple people in over 70 countries and continues to expand its operations.

Table 1: Notes and Critical Analysis Narratives

Issue	Analytic Reaction
The use of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) campaigns and programs to promote the private company remains the most prominent. In this case, the company exploits the CSR concept to revitalize its PR image to attract more customers while ignoring the true purpose of CSR.	According to Sharma (2019), this is the main issue of CSR programs in developed countries that perpetuates harmful corporate practices instead of eliminating them. These private entities are not NGOs like MSF and, thus, seek profit, continuing their socially irresponsible behavior. The only solution to this problem is for the governments to create and lead CSR campaigns, set social goals for the companies, and monitor compliance.
The prevalence of short-term thinking in implementing CSR campaigns is an issue of governments prioritizing short-term economic benefits over long-term social gains.	According to Sharma (2019), setting up a government-led CSR campaign is difficult due to corruption and a lack of administrative resources in developing countries. This fact goes against the CSR program’s potential to raise more governmental funding and citizens’ quality of life. Even in developed counties, politicians often prefer economic gains from the companies over CSR programs, like in the case of South Korea, where big corporations mostly drive the GDP.
The issue of accountability and transparency persists in NGOs across the world.	Compared to the case of MSF (Worth, 2020), some NGOs worldwide were implicated in corruption, making the issue of transparency and accountability highly important. This phenomenon leads the donor, volunteers, and everyone participating in the cause to be distrustful and hesitant to continue helping. In turn, it may negatively impact the whole existence of NGOs as they struggle to secure funding.
The services that NGOs provide can crowd out the necessary governmental projects.	This issue happens mostly in developed countries, as they struggle to establish their governmental services, facing competition from NGOs. Therefore, like MSF (Worth, 2020), NGOs need to be careful about their scope of work, limiting to emergencies.

References

Sharma, E. (2019). A review of corporate social responsibility in developed and developing nations. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 26(4), 712-720. Web.

Worth, M. J. (2020). Nonprofit management: Principles and practice. CQ Press. Web.

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