Mutual Aid Sudan
Summary
In 2025, Proximity2Humanity (P2H) committed to increasing flexible funding and organizational capacity strengthening to the informal, mutual aid networks responding to the crisis in Sudan. As the largest overlooked humanitarian crisis in the world, Sudan is often left behind by traditional humanitarian actors, and many parts of the country are inaccessible to foreign aid organizations. Over two years, P2H will increase direct funding to locally led grassroots and mutual aid initiatives like Emergency Response Rooms, support civil society organizations with coordination and resource sharing, and advocate for institutional donors to support mutual aid more directly. This commitment aims to increase donor risk tolerance and contribute $8 million to support the needs and rights of populations that have been historically marginalized because of tribal, religious and societal affiliation; gender; age; and disability or self-funded.
Approach
The Sudan crisis presents an opportunity for global philanthropy to act in solidarity in support of mutual aid as an effective tool in humanitarian response. This commitment will shift power and resources to local Sudanese actors, generate evidence to demonstrate the efficacy of the local mutual aid movement, and influence broader donor funding practices and overall humanitarian response. Initiated by the Strengthening Local Humanitarian Leadership Philanthropic Collaborative, funders and other global partners are coming together in this commitment to form the Coalition for Mutual Aid in Sudan (the Coalition) .
This commitment recognizes that mutual aid groups are just one of several locally-led approaches that need support in the humanitarian toolkit, and investment in mutual aid groups will not alone solve the crisis. Proximity2Humanity equally advocates for greater flexible support to formal Sudanese NGOs, themselves under enormous pressure.
Over the next two years, this commitment will promote increased use and investment toward mutual aid groups in Sudan. It will prioritize aid groups that intentionally support the needs and rights of populations that have been historically marginalized because of tribal, religious and societal affiliation, gender, age and disability. Mutual aid groups, which include Emergency Response Rooms or (ERRs) , and Women Emergency Response Room (WERRs) to date, have been primarily self- and diaspora-funded via laterally-provided support and community-donated resources.
The Coalition activities will be implemented via two key methods: financial contributions and technical assistance.
Financial contributions will be provided by commitment partners including: Gates Foundation, Center for Disaster Philanthropy, CORE, Humanity United, Saphira Fund, Urgent Action Fund – Africa, Vitol Foundation, Proximity2Humanity, and Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.
In parallel, support for capacity building, technical support, leadership development, research and evaluation will be provided by partners including: ALNAP, Center for Humanitarian Leadership, GlobalGiving, Humanitarian Leadership Academy, Proximity2Humanity, and Shabaka.
Action Plan
Background
Over two years into the conflict in Sudan, and the drastic reduction in US foreign assistance, the humanitarian response is falling woefully short of the needs in Sudan. Over 25 million people remain in need of assistance, 10 million of them displaced from their homes, and the threat of widespread famine is imminent, particularly in the besieged Darfur Region. Sudan is the largest, overlooked humanitarian crisis in the world. Where international organizations would typically mobilize a sizable, comprehensive response, the ongoing insecurity, access, and regulatory barriers stifled these efforts in Sudan.
In its place, a network of agile, decentralized, and hyper-local mutual aid groups have organically emerged. Many locally-led NGOs as well as mutual aid groups, which include Emergency Response Rooms or (ERRs) , and Women Emergency Response Rooms (WERRs) are providing humanitarian aid and many other forms of assistance and services that straddle the humanitarian-development and peacebuilding nexus in new and creative ways. These mutual aid groups operate somewhat independently, but in a coordinated fashion and are the main mechanism for reaching millions of people in need in Sudan.
Mutual aid groups are currently the most viable, logical and effective vehicles, combining to form a patchwork national network, to scale up life-saving aid as the situation continues to deteriorate. In Sudan, moving money and resources at scale is proving impossible, partly due to security challenges and insufficient funding, but primarily due to strict donor compliance requirements and bureaucratic impediments, attitudes to risk, the unfamiliarity and lack of consensus on the most “appropriate” intermediary pathways to these groups.
Philanthropy has a crucial role to play in proving and documenting the viability and efficacy of the scaling pathways for donors to reach mutual aid groups while obtaining assurances that risks are being managed adequately.