Thematic Focus for 2025
This year’s main sessions will feature two themes: Children in Conflict and Neonatal Care.
More than 473 million of the world’s children lived in a conflict zone in 2023—nearly 19 per cent of all children, and a doubling of the proportion in the mid-1990s, according to the Peace Institute Oslo. Since its founding, MSF has been committed to addressing the needs of communities impacted by conflict. Within our focus on Children in Conflict, we will draw attention to two specific areas: Trauma and Mental Health.
No Child Left Untreated: Prioritising Paediatric Trauma Care
According to Save the Children’s latest 2024 report: Stop the War on Children-Let Children Live in Peace, the “killing and maiming of children has risen an appalling 31% compared to the previous year. This amounts to an average of 31 children per day”. Children are particularly vulnerable to injury during conflicts due to their physiology, lack of awareness of dangerous places and weapons, and tendency to play outside in groups. It is often assumed that children cannot survive traumatic injuries during conflicts, and this population is frequently forgotten in emergency planning. Injured children can be confronting for both general doctors unused to children, and paediatricians unfamiliar with trauma resuscitations. There is often a lack of technical skills, size-specific equipment and clinical experience available within healthcare teams, compounded by a lack of evidence base for managing physical trauma in this age group.
This year the MSF Paediatric Days will explore trauma management, raising awareness, hearing from experts in the field undertaking the latest clinical research, and exchanging best practices with others engaged in of this important aspect of paediatric care. We aim to improve collaborations and discuss how we can improve advocacy and outcomes for the many children injured by war around the world.
Healing Paediatric Mental Health: Improving Paediatric Care in Conflict Settings
MSF is working in many conflict zones where acute or protracted crises have led to displacement, violence, food insecurity, disruption of health and education systems, and more. Children’s health in these contexts is particularly vulnerable, and surviving is just the beginning as the continuous exposure to distressing environments can have long-term impacts. Without treatment at such a critical time of brain development, there can be devastating consequences on children's mental and psychological health. When we fail to adequately address the mental health of children, we fail to prevent detrimental effects on their capacity to learn, work, and build meaningful relationships. The consequences for children are also compounded when parents and caregivers struggle to provide a nurturing and caring environment due to their own challenges with mental health. With appropriate and timely person-centred interventions, we can change this trajectory, helping build resilience and ensuring these children can not only survive but thrive.
Georges Najjar and Timotaos, psychologists with MSF's mobile medical teams, lead play and drawing sessions with children in southern Lebanon.
Together with experts, MSF project representatives and other actors in the field, we will explore evidence, exchange experience, and discuss best practice. In the panel discussion we will debate collaboration across specialties, integration into other medical activities and overcoming implementation barriers.
Join us at this year’s MSF Paediatric Days to discuss the topics of physical and mental trauma, to improve clinical management and advocacy for children caught up in conflicts worldwide.
Neonatal Care in Humanitarian Settings: Strengthening the Mother-Newborn Dyad
This year’s neonatal sessions will focus on a critical shift in thinking: that quality care for mothers and newborns cannot be separated. In humanitarian settings, where health systems are stretched and lives hang in the balance, the outcomes of one are inextricably linked to the other. Risk factors for poor newborn outcomes often begin before birth, during pregnancy and delivery, and many maternal complications directly impact the health of the baby. Conversely, a sick or unstable newborn profoundly affects maternal well-being, both physically and emotionally.
In our session, we will accompany a mother and her baby through their journey, taking a closer look at three key moments that impact their health. We will explore how to better identify at-risk mothers and babies early—even in settings without formal antenatal care—and how to strengthen clinical reasoning and readiness at the time of delivery. We will also highlight operational strategies that embed the mother-newborn dyad into the daily routines of maternity and newborn units, from Zero Separation to early breastfeeding support and integrated documentation. Through field experiences, practical tools, and open discussion, we aim to support participants in delivering more responsive, joined-up care—where the survival and health of both mother and baby are prioritised as one.
This year in Amman we will discuss many of the ways in which these topics impact children, and proposals to advance child health in these precarious contexts.