On Jan. 28, the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA) hosted a discussion about humanitarian aid in conflict zones and the implications of funding cuts in Canisius Hall at the Rose Hill Campus.
Ruth Mukwana, director of Graduate Programs at the IIHA, moderated the discussion, which was part of the ongoing Conversations with Humanitarians series.
Bernard Wiseman, the international associative coordinator of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, and an adjunct professor with the IIHA, discussed his time at MSF. MSF is an independent humanitarian organization that provides medical aid in over 70 countries, giving millions of people affected by conflict and disasters crucial access to healthcare.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was shut down on July 1, 2025 after terminating funding for around 80% of its programs. The UK, Germany, Canada and other major international donors similarly reduced spending to foreign aid in the last year, presenting an ongoing challenge for humanitarian organizations.
We’ve developed in some of these locations that community acceptance, so people recognize that we’re bringing good work.” Bernard Wiseman, International Associative Coordinator of Médecins Sans Frontières
Although around 95% of MSF’s funding comes from private donors, Wiseman explained how widespread aid cuts and shifting political attitudes toward foreign spending affect humanitarian work regardless of an organization’s financial status. He said that defunding these programs threatens the future effectiveness of humanitarian work by causing it to lose “a lot of institutional memory” and “know-how,” which will make it difficult to rebuild aid programs and international trust. In addition, Wiseman said he has observed a shift toward U.S. ambassadors abroad becoming less likely to advocate on behalf of MSF within the government, delaying the onset of critical projects. However, Wiseman acknowledged, MSF’s private funding and autonomous status differentiate it from programs funded by governments and the United Nations (UN), allowing its operations to remain stable despite cuts.
Wiseman explained that negotiating access to populations is the greatest challenge to providing help; financial independence helps aid organizations establish trust with governments and rebel groups in high-conflict zones. In South Sudan, for example, Wiseman described how MSF’s independence presented them as a neutral party, helping them negotiate with local military intelligence in Juba and Wau to pass through armed checkpoints to reach villages cut off from medical aid.
“We try to distance ourselves from the UN system a little bit … to try to convince individuals that we’re a different organization, that we operate differently,” Wiseman said. “We’ve developed in some of these locations that community acceptance, so people recognize that we’re bringing good work.”
Wiseman also explained how MSF’s autonomy allows the organization to minimize the time between proposing a new aid program and executing it because they don’t need to wait for grants to be approved.
Instead of having to write grants and get funding and getting approval, we can pivot very quickly based upon what we see on the ground. Bernard Wiseman, International Associative Coordinator of Médecins Sans Frontières
“Instead of having to write grants and get funding and getting approval, we can pivot very quickly based upon what we see on the ground, and it allows us to … act faster than corporate organizations, potentially, on some issues,” Wiseman said.
Wiseman also provided insight into his work with MSF in conflict zones, including Ukraine and South Sudan, where providing aid is challenging, yet critical.
He described his work in Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in 2022, where millions of people were displaced by the conflict. MSF sent urgent response teams composed of doctors, nurses and logisticians to set up mobile health clinics. According to Wiseman, Ukraine was able to maintain high-level surgical and operative care, so MSF directed its resources towards the areas of greatest need. In particular, a significant gap in mental health services led to MSF’s collaboration with local teams of Ukrainian psychiatrists. Together, they established practices treating post-traumatic stress disorder that, although they have since been scaled back, remain in place today. MSF also targeted care toward people with chronic illnesses like hypertension who lost access to their medications.
While stationed in Ukraine, Wiseman’s team spent much of their time near the front lines in Kharkiv. Wiseman described how MSF had to be resourceful to convert existing infrastructure to quickly respond to the severely wounded, such as by setting up clinics in subway stations.
“We also did a program connecting the hospitals that were overwhelmed in eastern Ukraine to hospitals that could handle more stabilized care in the west. So we had a train that would convert into a hospital, even one car that would turn into an ICU (intensive care unit), in order to make sure that we could get some war-wounded out of the cities in the east, free up some hospital beds closer towards some of the conflict, and get them towards hospitals that were a little more secure,” Wiseman said.
Wiseman concluded the discussion by encouraging students considering humanitarian careers to find organizations that fit their values.
“Look at mission and vision and really understand where money is coming from and how they use it. Pay attention to how much money is going towards operations versus your headquarters … and see if your values align with that organization or not,” Wiseman said.
The IIHA will be hosting the next iteration of the Conversations with Humanitarians series on March 26 at Canisius Hall at the Rose Hill Campus at 4 p.m.