Humanitarian medical response is the core of what the International Medical Committee (IMC) does. As the medical committee of the World Organization for Peace (WOFP), IMC provides medical assistance and supports emergency healthcare initiatives for vulnerable populations affected by disasters, conflicts and humanitarian crises.
When a disaster, a conflict or an epidemic strikes, the services people rely on to stay healthy break down just as medical needs rise. The aim is to protect life and health in those conditions, and to restore access to care.
The committee’s humanitarian medical mission sets the standard: timely, dignified care for vulnerable people, whatever their origin, belief or condition.
The work is organized in the areas below, each with its own health problems and its own partners.
The committee’s work also includes clinical and health support during outbreaks of infectious disease.
Emergency healthcare is care under time pressure: treating injuries and acute illness, stabilizing patients, and keeping essential services running when the local health system is overwhelmed.
This is where the committee’s medical capacity is directed; the first phase of a crisis is covered under emergency medical response. It relies on health professionals who can join a response once an emergency is declared, and on coordinating the supplies and transport needed in a crisis.
Crises hit hardest those who already had little access to healthcare. The mission puts them first, and care is offered without distinction of origin, belief or condition.
That priority continues after the acute phase. The committee’s work in community health — vaccination, maternal and child health, primary care — comes from the same commitment.
A response is a process, not a single intervention. It has four stages.
Each situation is assessed on its own terms, and not every stage applies in the same way everywhere.
Needs come first. They are assessed with local authorities and the WOFP network, to find where medical support will be most useful and what resources are already in place.
The committee works with agencies, health authorities, local organizations and the WOFP humanitarian network, including on medical supplies and transport.
Medical teams, supplies and logistics are mobilized toward the affected area, and patients receive care in coordination with local health services.
Care does not stop when the emergency does. Following up on the health of the affected population keeps treatment going, and lets the committee account for its work to partners and donors.
IMC’s medical work is part of the wider mandate of the World Organization for Peace. The committee shares its parent organization’s ethical principles and institutional network, and both see health care as a direct way of building peace.
It is not organized by region, and relies on international cooperation and on WOFP’s network to take its medical response where it is needed.
More on the committee’s role: About the International Medical Committee.
Governments, agencies and partner organizations interested in joint humanitarian health programs can approach IMC and WOFP.
Health professionals who want to contribute can see how on the Medical Professionals page.
How cooperation with IMC can start, and what to include in a first message.
