Urgent Action Fund Africa’s Feminist Response in Sudan
Summary
In 2024, Urgent Action Fund – Africa committed $70,000 to the Call to Action for Sudan Fund to support human rights and equitable localized responses by the end of 2024, part of the Strengthening Local Humanitarian Leadership Philanthropic Collaborative (LHL) initiative. This initiative committed to contribute $6.5 million to locally led aid in Sudan. The ongoing conflict in Sudan has resulted in one of the largest, overlooked humanitarian crises in the world. Sudanese locally led approaches, mutual aid, and emergency response rooms are the most effective methods to reach those in need. The humanitarian sector is slow to adapt to innovative funding models in access-constrained environments, yet locally led approaches and mutual aid groups can efficiently distribute resources and transfer decision-making power to local groups. This coalition advocates for locally led approaches and mutual aid groups as critical pathways for donors across the aid ecosystem in Sudan and beyond.
Approach
Urgent Action Fund (UAF) – Africa is a pan-African and Feminist Fund responding to Sudan. To date, they have distributed more than $500,000 in grants and accompaniment support to movements in Sudan. Between July and December 2024, UAF-Africa will commit at least $70,000 to movements in Sudan, with connected accompaniment support from program staff. This will be through protection, holistic security, advocacy, and alliance-building grants.
UAF-Africa plays a unique funding role in Africa by providing rapid response grants to at-risk women and LBTQI human rights defenders and by supporting innovative strategies by coalitions of women and LBTQI persons. They aim to uplift and support the leadership of women, girls and LBTQI people and to resource their self-determined priorities across sectors, including crisis preparedness and response, confronting VAWG, disability justice, health justice, civic participation, environmental justice and more.
UAF-Africa will also support innovative enhancements for example creating safe spaces and peace negotiations through womn’s action groups and virtual healing gatherings called “Ubuntu Healing Spaces.”
Action Plan
Background
Urgent Action Fund (UAF) Africa does have an active Sudan Response that is framed by the Policy Brief on Sudan. UAF Africa continues to draw attention to the crisis while providing rapid response grants that infuse concepts and approaches of care, healing justice and holistic protection/wellbeing for Sudanese womn’s rights movements and womn human rights defenders. UAF – Africa grants/response has facilitated and will continue to facilitate movement strategy spaces, safety, relocation, medical services, documentation, strategic communication, and solidarity messaging, stakeholder engagements, awareness raising, and psycho-social support while simultaneously engaging with local movements for lasting change.
UAF-Africa adopts a Healing Justice and Collective Care approach. This approach is grounded in the healing justice framework and centers on healing and interrogating structural roots of trauma, violence, and harm as a radical movement-building and sustainability strategy critical for building resilience and resistance in crises. UAF-Africa believes in the power of feminist approaches to address the root causes of inequity and injustice. In light of the polycrisis in Sudan, they are committed to supporting the response and view it as an opportunity to rekindle the feminist revolution.
Urgent Action Fund Africa is committed to trust-based philanthropy that centers on the expertise of proximate actors such as feminist movements. Recognising that the conflict is transboundary, they will also support Sudanese activists in Uganda, Egypt, and South Sudan.