Presente e futuro dell’azione umanitaria con Medici Senza Frontiere

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June 12th, 2025
from 18:00

Campus SUPSI Mendrisio, via Flora Ruchat-Roncati 15 (Sala polivalente)

The Centre for Development and Cooperation SUPSI and Médecins Sans Frontières promote an evening on the current and future challenges of humanitarian action. An opportunity to reflect on the mission of saving lives in an increasingly uncertain world with a focus on migration in Central America.

Photo: Migrants in transit in Ecuador, Colombia and Panama ⓒ Juan Carlos Tomasi, Médecins sans frontières, 2023

 

The current geopolitical context is increasingly dictated by uncertainties, wars, epidemics, climate change and the withdrawal of humanitarian efforts by many traditional actors.

How to continue saving lives today? How to reinvent the modalities of humanitarian intervention in a changing world?

The Centre for Development and Cooperation SUPSI and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) present an evening of reflection and discussion on the current and future challenges of humanitarian action. During the event, exceptional speakers will provide an overview of the world of humanitarian action; this will be followed by a round table discussion on migration in Central America as a privileged observatory for exploring the profound global transformations underway.

The event will be held on Thursday 12 June 2025 at 18:00 at the Campus of the Department of Environment Constructions and Design of SUPSI in Mendrisio (via Flora Ruchat-Roncati 15), in the Multipurpose Hall (ground floor).

Event open to all interested persons, in Italian, free of charge, registration here by Monday 9 June. Final refreshment offered.

 

Programme

18:00
Welcome

18:15
Opening speech: Overview of current and future challenges of humanitarian action
Monica Minardi, President Médecins Sans Frontières Italy

18:45
Questions from the audience

19:15
Round table: Migration in Central America as an observatory of global transformations
Nelly Staderini, Reproductive Health and Sexual Violence Advisor, Médecins Sans Frontières Switzerland, and Fabrizio Poretti, Head of International Cooperation (Economic, Social and Migration Development), Swiss Embassy in Tunisia. Moderator: Giacomo Francesco Lombardi, Delegate of Médecins Sans Frontières for Italian-speaking Switzerland

19:45
Questions from the audience

20:15
Refreshment

A general practitioner in Italy and a specialist in emergency medicine in the UK, she has been collaborating with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) since 2000. Her professional interests include emergency medicine, international health, point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS), and medical education.
She has actively participated in MSF missions, spending six months in Angola as the Coordinator of the Paediatrics Department in Kuito, one month in Pakistan as Head of the Emergency Room in Mardan, and one month in Ethiopia with the Emergency Pool in Brussels, where she served as Medical Activity Manager for the Korem project.
From 1995 to 2010, she worked in Italy as a general practitioner and as an emergency services physician. She also gained experience in intensive care, first in Imola and later in the UK. In England, from 2010 to 2020, she worked as an emergency doctor and obtained her specialization in emergency medicine. She was part of the leadership team of the Emergency Department at the Royal Surrey Foundation Trust, serving two years as Deputy Director and one year as Clinical Director.
Over the course of her career, she completed a Master’s in Tropical Medicine and International Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the GIMBE governance curriculum.
Since October 2024, she has been working as a contracted physician in the emergency services of ASL Romagna, in the Faenza area.

Since 2022, she has served as President of the Board of Directors of MSF Italy. Upon her appointment, she stated: “I accept the role of President with emotion, having personally experienced the organisation’s work since 2000 – first as a humanitarian worker, then as a member, and over the last two years as a Board member. I dedicate myself to an organisation that never turns away from the medical and humanitarian challenges arising every day in over 80 countries around the world where we operate. I offer my expertise as a physician with twenty years’ experience in emergency medicine and, more recently, in community medicine, along with my passion for the values of the movement. Together, determined and always listening.”
 

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She is a Reproductive Health and Sexual Violence Advisor in MSF’s Medical Department and heads the MSF Switzerland unit of women and children’s health. 

With a French midwifery and public health background, she has previously worked with various humanitarian organisations, including MSF, in clinical and coordination positions in various contexts. 

She has conducted academic work and is an active member of different advisory boards for research and teaching on sexual violence in humanitarian settings.

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He holds a multidisciplinary Master’s degree from the University of Bern in cultural anthropology, Islamic studies, and geography.
He is fluent in Switzerland’s three official languages and is also proficient in Portuguese, Arabic, Esperanto, Spanish, and English.

He joined the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in 1999 as a Community Relations Officer and Human Rights Observer in Palestine.

In 2001, he returned to Switzerland and worked as a researcher at the Federal Office of Public Health on a study about the perception of influenza and its prevention through vaccination.

In 2002, he joined the SWISSCOY team as a Liaison Officer during the peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.

In 2004, he was selected by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs to serve as Head of Reintegration and Operations for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Afghanistan.

In 2005, he worked with the United Nations Development Programme in Yemen as Chief Technical Advisor for the Disaster Management Programme.

In 2006, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation appointed him as Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Coordinator at the Swiss Embassy in Iran, focusing on Swiss reconstruction projects following the Bam earthquake.

In 2008, as Head of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Morocco, he led a four-year programme addressing migration, economic development, and disaster risk reduction.

From 2012 to 2016, he served as Head of Swiss Humanitarian Aid for Central America, focusing on migration, disaster risk reduction, and climate change.

In 2016, he was appointed Head of Cooperation at the Swiss Embassy’s Directorate for Development and Cooperation in Colombia. In a context of post-conflict peacebuilding and in response to the Venezuelan migration crisis, he coordinated humanitarian activities in Caracas and Bogotá, and toward the end of his mandate, throughout the Americas.

From July 2020 to July 2023, he served as Deputy Head of Mission and Deputy Head of International Cooperation at the Swiss Embassy in Haiti.

Since August 2023, he has been Head of International Cooperation at the Swiss Embassy in Tunisia, overseeing economic and social development and migration initiatives.

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With a background in the humanities, he began his professional career as a journalist during the outbreak of the financial crisis, the Arab Spring, and major waves of refugees—years in which he was deeply engaged with the social, economic, and humanitarian issues affecting Europe and North Africa.

After a brief period in academic research, he transitioned in 2019 to the non-profit sector, where he has worked in communications and, increasingly, in fundraising—an area in which he has developed expertise over the years and which now represents his primary professional focus.

Since 2022, he has been working with Médecins Sans Frontières as Delegate for Italian-speaking Switzerland.
He has lived in Italy, Greece, Tunisia, and Spain. Today, he resides on the shores of Lake Lugano.

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Migrants in transit in Ecuador, Colombia and Panama ⓒ Juan Carlos Tomasi, Médecins sans frontières, 2023

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Migrants in transit in Ecuador, Colombia and Panama ⓒ Juan Carlos Tomasi, Médecins sans frontières, 2023

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Migrants in transit in Ecuador, Colombia and Panama ⓒ Juan Carlos Tomasi, Médecins sans frontières, 2023

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