For over 40 years, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has developed a reputation as an emergency medical humanitarian organization willing to go almost anywhere to deliver care to people in need. And yet when questioned about MSF, people in countries where the group works had very different perceptions. One aid recipient thought MSF was an organization based in Saudi Arabia and financed by Muslim charities. Another thought it was a China-based corporation. And yet another believed MSF requires everyone who enters their medical facilities to be armed (quite the opposite, in fact).

These are just some of the surprising answers found in the new book In the Eyes of Others: How People in Crises Perceive Humanitarian Aid published by MSF, New York University's Center on International Cooperation (CIC), and Humanitarian Outcomes. The book is the result of attempts to better understand how humanitarian aid and its principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence are perceived by the people receiving assistance.

We invite you to join us for a panel discussion to mark the English-language release of the book. Panelists will include contributors to the book as well as MSF aid workers, who will share stories from their field assignments reflecting issues of perception and exploring the many facets of humanitarian action today.

Moderator:

• Richard Gowan, Associate Director for Crisis Diplomacy and Peace Operations at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation (CIC)

Panelists:

• Caroline Abu-Sada, Coordinator of MSF’s research unit for humanitarian action in Geneva and editor of In the Eyes of Others: How People in Crises Perceive Humanitarian Aid
• Abby Stoddard, Co-Director of Humanitarian Outcomes and contributing writer to In the Eyes of Others: How People in Crises Perceive Humanitarian Aid
• Dr. Marc Levin, MSF aid worker - assignments in Central African Republic, Niger, and Chad