Médecins Sans Frontières

• "Jennifer, Jeff and I are pleased to continue our tradition of giving to organizations that provide immeasurable benefits to the communities they serve," said Mr.
• Gross, a philanthropist, author and the co-founder of Newport Beach-based, fixed income asset manager PIMCO.
• Gross established the PIMCO Foundation, which has since expanded to three global PIMCO Foundations that have granted more than $49 million to support nonprofit organizations worldwide.
• The following non-profits received donations of more than $1 million from the William, Jeff & Jennifer Gross Family Foundation in 2023:

• On Oct. 17, 2023, news broke that at least 500 patients, staff and people seeking shelter from Israeli bombs had been killed in an explosion at a hospital, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave.
• It amounts to a devastating loss of life during a campaign of bombing that has not spared the frail or sick.
• Insufficiently and poorly resourced for decades, doctors and hospitals also had to contend with the devastating effects of a 16-year blockade imposed by Israel, in part with coordination with Egypt.

A system completely overwhelmed

• Hospitals in Gaza are completely overwhelmed.
• They are seeing around 1,000 new patients per day, in a health system with only 2,500 hospital beds for a population of over 2 million people.
• People maimed in the bombing are being treated for horrific injuries without basics such as gauze dressings, antiseptic, IV bags and painkillers.
• The U.N. estimates this fuel will run out any day due to a complete siege placed on Gaza by Israel.

A century of underfunding

• But Gaza’s health care system was already under stress before the latest bombardment.
• In fact, policies that stretch back decades have left it unable to meet even the basic health needs of Gaza’s residents, let alone respond to the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.
• What each have had in common is that, from my perspective as a global health expert, they invested little in Palestinian health.
• For periods of the 20th century, the health priorities of successive governing bodies appeared focused more on reducing the spread of communicable disease to protect foreigners interacting with the native Palestinian population.

Dying before they can leave

• Since then, chronic underfunding of public hospitals has meant that Palestinians in Gaza have remained reliant on outside money and nongovernmental organizations for essential health services.
• During the passage of the Oslo Accords in the mid-1990s, the Palestinian Authority was established to administer services in the occupied territories.
• The Palestinian Authority received a significant influx of humanitarian aid as it took on civil responsibilities, including health.
• As a result, health indicators for Palestinians, including life expectancy and immunization rates, started to improve in the late 1990s.

Gaza health services after the siege

• This vulnerable health system is now facing unprecedented challenges, staffed by health professionals who have committed to stay with their patients even under hospital evacuation orders and at risk of death.
• It is uncertain what the health system of Gaza will look like in the future.
• Already at least 28 doctors and other health workers have been killed in Gaza, with ambulances and a number of hospitals rendered useless by the bombs.

• NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- WOBI, a major provider of leadership content for the business community, has named Doctors Without Borders as its Social Impact Partner for the upcoming 20th anniversary World Business Forum New York .
• PURPOSE is the principal theme of this year's World Business Forum, being held at Lincoln Center on November 15-16.
• "World Business Forum New York attracts leaders from more than 40 countries each year – as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the World Business Forum we are excited to showcase an organization that has a global impact," said Chris Stanley, WOBI's Managing Director.
• "We're honored to have Doctors Without Borders as our Social Impact Partner, serving as an example of a world-changing organization with purpose as its core mission."

• The Central African Republic (CAR) is one of the poorest countries in the world.
• The nation of roughly 5 million people has been in political turmoil since a violent takeover of power in 2013.
• In an attempt to gain back control, the government unleashed a campaign led by the Russian mercenaries, the Wagner Group, in 2020.
• This is an astonishing mortality rate, in terms of how people are suffering and how wrong the official statistics are.
• While some humanitarian actors are doing their best to respond, the crisis-level mortality rate suggests that the needs in the CAR are largely unmet.

Mortality

• One was in the part of the country within the government’s control (roughly half of the country), and one in the areas mostly outside its control.
• We found that the birth rate was lower and the death rate markedly higher in areas outside government control.
• Only 15% had received food aid distributions in 2022 despite high levels of malnutrition recorded in the country.
• Another cost is that people are forced to make informal and illegitimate payments when trying to get to healthcare facilities.

What next

• Estimates suggest that at least 500,000 of 7 million Rwandans died violently in 1994.
• During Nigeria’s secessionist war in Biafra from 1967 to 1970 between 1 million and 3 million are estimated to have died.
• In particular, are we in the humanitarian community ignoring one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises?