'Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières)', often in the news, is
- A.a division of World Health Organization
- B.a non-governmental international organization
- C.an inter-governmental agency sponsored by European Union
- D.a specialized agency of the United Nations
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, a non-governmental international organization. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an independent humanitarian group run by doctors and other volunteers.
MSF was founded in Paris in 1971 by a group of French doctors and journalists, and its international office is in Geneva. It sends medical teams to places hit by war, epidemics, famine and natural disasters, and it treats people regardless of race, religion or politics. Most of its money comes from private donors, which keeps it free of government control and lets it speak out about what its teams see. It received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.
A is wrong because MSF is not part of the World Health Organization, which is a UN agency based in Geneva. C is wrong because MSF is not run or sponsored by the European Union or any group of governments. D is wrong because it is not a UN specialised agency; agencies such as WHO, UNESCO and FAO are created by treaties among states.
Exam tip: MSF: NGO, founded 1971 in Paris; Nobel Peace Prize 1999.
Practice Questions
View allWhich one of the following pairs of countries with new names and old names is correctly matched?
New name : Old name
- A.Kingdom of eSwatini : Swaziland
- B.Malawi : Rhodesia
- C.Botswana : Nyasaland
- D.Zimbabwe : Ceylon
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In April 2018 King Mswati III renamed Swaziland as the Kingdom of eSwatini, meaning land of the Swazis. eSwatini is a small landlocked kingdom in southern Africa, bordered by South Africa and Mozambique.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following statements about birthplaces is correct?
- A.Lal Bahadur Shastri was born at Mughalsarai in Uttar Pradesh
- B.Lala Lajpat Rai was born at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra
- C.Sarojini Naidu was born at Chennai
- D.Maharana Pratap was born at Chittorgarh
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Lal Bahadur Shastri was born on 2 October 1904 at Mughalsarai in the Varanasi region of Uttar Pradesh, a town now named Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Nagar; he shares his birthday with Mahatma Gandhi, which is why both are remembered on 2 October.
Read the full explanation →Mother Teresa was born in 1910 at Skopje, which is today the capital of which country?
- A.Albania
- B.North Macedonia
- C.Serbia
- D.Greece
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Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, later Mother Teresa, was born on 26 August 1910 at Skopje, then in the Ottoman Empire and today the capital of North Macedonia.
Read the full explanation →Birsa Munda, the tribal leader of the Ulgulan, was born at Ulihatu, which is now in which state?
- A.Odisha
- B.Chhattisgarh
- C.Jharkhand
- D.West Bengal
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Birsa Munda was born in 1875 at Ulihatu in the Khunti district of present-day Jharkhand, then part of the Chotanagpur region of Bengal and later Bihar.
Read the full explanation →Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, was born at which city?
- A.Amritsar
- B.Nankana Sahib
- C.Patna
- D.Anandpur Sahib
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Guru Gobind Singh was born in 1666 at Patna in Bihar, while his father Guru Tegh Bahadur was travelling in the east, and the gurdwara Takht Sri Patna Sahib marks the site.
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