How donations to MSF were spent in 2020

MSF’s medical humanitarian work is rooted in responding to emergencies and crises, but there is no way we could have completely prepared for the largest global public health crisis in recent history.  

COVID-19 presented our medical teams around the world with several daunting challenges in 2020. 

Within several weeks of the outbreak, it became clear that healthcare systems and healthcare workers were going to need as much support as possible, especially in under-resourced settings. But not even the world’s wealthiest countries could sustain the high-level medical care needed to avoid massive and devastating loss of life. As a result, our teams rendered assistance not just in low-income countries, including 28 countries in Africa, but we also intervened in cities in Italy, Belgium, Spain and the US. 

To date, MSF has provided support to COVID-19 patients in 80 countries on five continents and our interventions are ongoing during 2021.

Our second challenge was maintaining medical care for our existing patients in regular programmes worldwide as restrictions on the movement of staff, and medical supplies threatened our action. Of particular concern was ensuring that our HIV and TB patients could continue receiving treatment without risk of exposure to COVID-19 infection at health facilities and in communities. 

Thirdly, while for some, it felt like the world had come to a standstill, it felt like it was spinning rather uncontrollably for millions of vulnerable people. Conflicts raged – people were wounded, people continued to be displaced, babies were born. Last year, two devastating conflicts erupted in northern Mozambique and Ethiopia – reminding us just how unpredictable war can be, even in a pandemic. 

We are reminded daily why the work of MSF is so important. We go where we are needed most to provide life-saving medical care to people affected by conflict, disasters, epidemics and exclusion from healthcare.
 

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However, there would be no access to patients at all without your continued support that keeps our operations going year after year, crisis after crisis. 

It is thanks to your generosity – in the midst of an unprecedented global crisis – that our medical teams were able to conduct over 9.9 million outpatient consultations across 499 projects, worldwide in 2020.