Good morning, this is Paula. Three months after leaving the presidency of Médecins Sans Frontières, Greek surgeon Christos Christou speaks about his six momentous years at the helm of one of the world’s biggest independent aid groups.
From the Covid-19 pandemic, which struck just months after he began his tenure, until arguably the sector’s biggest rethink after this year’s decimation of USAid, Christos shares how the crises reshaped MSF and its role within a highly interconnected sector. |
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Christos Christou, former president of Médecins Sans Frontières. (MSF)
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In September 2019, Christos Christou, an emergency and trauma surgeon already working at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Greece with migrants, as well as in conflict zones including South Sudan and Iraq, took the reins of the international aid organisation. Little could he have imagined at the time how subsequent global events would shake the humanitarian sector during his six-year tenure.
Months into his presidency, he watched as Covid-19 spread globally before the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. After lockdowns and travel bans were set, the NGO’s logos began appearing in unexpected places, including London and New York, as it deployed relief where needed.
Then, earlier this year, after the administration of US president Donald Trump decimated USAid, triggering an unprecedented financial crisis in the sector, the organisation – though much less reliant than many other aid groups on international funding – realised that its oft-repeated independence from the international community that it frequently criticises had its limits
Read the full story on Geneva Solutions.
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Here's what else is happening
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🇨🇭Swiss lawmakers want international cooperation spending freeze.
The Senate voted on Thursday to freeze aid spending until 2030, proposing to save several million Swiss francs in the next four years while averting steeper cuts proposed by the right.
Keystone-SDA via Swissinfo (EN)
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⏳WTO chair rules out reform deal at next major meeting, document shows.
Norway's WTO ambassador, Petter Olberg, wrote that not enough progress has been made in talks to reform the trade body for ministers to shake hands on a deal in Cameroon next year.
Reuters (EN)
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🇸🇦Saudi Arabia proposes to host WTO meeting in 2028.
The proposal to host the trade ministerial in Riyadh was backed by 22 countries, but no decision has been made yet. Reuters
Reuters (EN)
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🪖Over 1,000 civilians killed in Sudan’s Darfur when paramilitary group seized camp, UN says.
The UN Human Rights Office collected testimonies from survivors of executions and killings in ZamZam camp, allegedly committed by the Rapid Support Forces in April.
Reuters (EN)
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🔎The Kanabi Killings.
Sudan’s armed forces ethnically targeted farming communities amidst a famine in Al-Jazirah state, south of Khartoum, according to a media investigation.
Lighthouse Reports (EN)
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❝What those on the front lines of displacement need from the next UN refugee chief.
As Barham Salih, Iraq’s former president, prepares to take up the post of UN high commissioner for refugees on 1 January 2026, Patrick Wall, co-founder of the Global Strategic Initiatives Group – which is working closely with UNHCR staff through the crisis – writes to the new UN refugee chief about what the organisation’s exhausted workforce and the broader humanitarian community will need from their next leader.
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