Humbling experience cause they don’t have much but were offering plenty. Why would I leave this?
Mutual Aid
In recent years attention to mutual aid, the spontaneous and voluntary assistance people give to each other in crisis has increased significantly. From the street-level WhatsApp groups that emerged during the Covid-19 lockdowns, to the efforts by Sudanese civilians caught up in the conflict in their country, it is clearer than ever that the first line responders in any crisis are communities and the help we as individuals give each other.
Mutual aid is nothing new, indeed the way communities organise themselves and respond to crises is the very basis on which the “survivor and community led response” (sclr) approach was developed. With the “localisation agenda” continuing to face significant challenges in meeting its goals, and the increasing pressure on the humanitarian system, the formal humanitarian system needs to take a critical look at how it can improve its understanding of and support to this natural human tendency to help one other.
Here we share some recent research and discussion around mutual aid.
Mutual Aid in Sudan: The Future of Aid?
Nils Carstensen & Lodia Sebit, 2023
“Every village & town we passed thru people would come out with their kerkade (hibiscus) juice and cold water for the ‘Khartoum travellers’. Humbling experience cause they don’t have much but were offering plenty. Why would I leave this?” – Tweet, 24 April 2023, @dalliasd
The chaos and destruction of the recent conflict in Sudan has been met by a wave of efforts by ‘ordinary’ Sudanese people to help themselves and those around them. At the same time, traditional humanitarian aid has struggled to mount a response to the crisis.
This recent piece, published by the Humanitarian Practice Network, explores the glimpses of mutual aid we can see through media reporting and social media emerging from Sudan.
Research brief: Community led responses and mutual aid in Gaza
Gaza, Jerusalem & Copenhagen, July 2024
“It’s difficult for me to see all these people suffering, always crying, with no needs met. I have strength, access to some resources, and we need to minimise other people’s suffering. If it’s only by talking with them, this is what I need to do.”
(Female respondent, Khan Younis, Gaza, Palestine)
Volunteer community groups and individuals have led mutual aid and community response efforts in Gaza since October 7th, 2023. As victims, survivors, and first responders to the crisis, volunteers among the civilian population in Gaza have provided immediate and longer-term protection and other assistance where it is most needed: rescuing wounded from the rubble; recovering bodies for burial; providing shelter, food, water, clothing, blankets, medical and psychosocial care, and sharing crucial information as well as cash.
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Read
The feeling’s mutual: the humanitarian sector must help local people and communities to help themselves
Simone di Vicenz (Christian Aid & L2GP), October 2023
The key takeaways from the online practitioner-donor dialogue on mutual aid hosted by ALNAP and L2GP. “Mutual aid is real and big. It works at scale, exists outside the humanitarian system and is crucial to the people affected by crises worldwide.”
From localizing the international system to actually supporting locally-led action
Vijayalakshmi Viswanathan, Alnap, October 2023
“Truly supporting locally-led action means beginning with the existing strengths of that particular crisis-affected ecosystem.” This blog from ALNAP presents examples of mutual aid from different crises and argues for the need for systematic change in how we deliver international humanitarian assistance.
Let Communities do their work’: the role of mutual aid and self-help groups in the Covid-19 Pandemic Response
Nils Carstensen, Mandeep Mudhar, Freja Schurmann Munksgaard, 2021
Group URD
The French think tank is also engaged with research into mutual aid and its potential.
Watch
A practitioner-donor dialogue on mutual aid supporting crises affected communities to help each other
Practitioners from Kenya, Myanmar, Sudan and Ukraine shared their experiences with locally-led response, and donors then reflected on how they are supporting locally-led response and what more they can do.
Frontline Civilian Response in Sudan: Saving lives and the importance of the localization agenda
A conversation with USAID Administrator Samantha Power and frontline Sudanese responders, hosted by USIP. This highlights the crucial nature of the localisation agenda for supporting civilian-led crisis response.
Listen
Rethinking Humanitarianism: How mutual aid in Sudan is getting international support.
“As international NGOs and the UN struggle to access certain areas, decentralised mutual aid networks – known as emergency response rooms (ERRs) – have stepped in to fill the vacuum.”
In this podcast hosts Heba Aly and Melissa Fundira speak to Hajooj Kuka (Khartoum State Emergency Response Rooms) and Francesco Bonanome (UN OCHA Sudan) about shifts in the international humanitarian system to support local mutual aid.