Conclusion
This chapter concludes the research with reflections on efforts to make meaningful change, different ideas about how that could or should happen, and the combination of faith and dismay that appears to shape how employees in OCA and MSF relate to the organisation.
Key Findings
‘Emergency’ shapes what reform initiatives are deemed possible.
The moral appeal to saving lives in an emergency is used to justify the organisation’s structures, and the inherent inequalities they reproduce.
Formal and informal inequalities are interconnected and interact in complex ways – they can’t be addressed separately.
If there is indeed a shift underway, or momentum building, efforts to foster it will need to confront not only the practical obstacles to structural change but also institutional and attitudinal ones.
More radical change may need not only to diversify who carries out MSF’s work, but also give people the power to shape and conceptualise what MSF is fundamentally about.
What's next?
Discussions & Reflections
The research presents many ideas, and to help you engage with its findings you may find it useful to discuss the issues it raises with colleagues. Arranged by chapter, the following questions provide a starting point for your own reflection and discussion.
Emergency Culture
Currencies of Influence
MSF Identity
Filters & Circuit Breakers
Keeping the Flame
Diagnostic Disconnect
Delve deeper
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20. MSF