How We Work

The Mutual Aid Sudan Coalition was established to address the imbalance between the proven success of informal groups in delivering aid and the direct funding they receive - currently less than 1% of international humanitarian funding. It provides mechanisms for direct, fast, and cost-efficient transfer of funds to support a well-coordinated and highly-decentralized group of Sudanese organizations, according to their humanitarian priorities. 

Once the coalition receives funding, a coalition of Sudanese groups determines a disbursement plan based on urgent needs and pre-existing resources; mutual aid actors such as the ERRs submit activity plans and budgets ($5,000 on average) indicating their intended activities and target achievement and an MOU is signed with them on the basis of this. Funds are then transferred–the aim is in less than two weeks–and local groups begin implementation immediately. When the activities are completed or modified, financial and narrative reports are provided to the coalition, who then share them with donors.

How the Coalition Compares

In the traditional international aid system, funding reaches formalized local groups through an intricate, interconnected web of intermediaries and organizations, governmental and non-governmental. Each pathway that funding takes is important and helpful to increase the aggregate amount of aid, however each intermediate step reduces the total value available for real goods and services. Mutual Aid Sudan Coalition is reducing the expenses lost in these intermediate steps to achieve the same outcomes by providing funding as directly as possible.