Grassroots aid is here to disturb the system | Rethinking Humanitarianism

For Fanta Toure, community-led crisis response efforts like mutual aid are not an emergent movement as some in the international aid system see it, but rather a return "to the way things are supposed to be".

Toure, along with Hajooj Kuka of Sudan's emergency response rooms (ERRs) and Bashair Ahmed of Shabaka, joined co-host Christina Bennett to discuss the diversity of grassroots aid efforts, and to challenge the formal humanitarian system to adopt a more humble and supportive position towards locally-led action

"What the system can do is to move from leading by default to actually supporting by design," says Ahmed, who points out that diaspora remittances dwarf foreign investment and international aid combined.

Kuka, meanwhile, offers a picture of a lifesaving network of volunteers who lean on flexibility, solidarity, and even joy to keep each other alive.

"What the ERRs did is showing that if the system collapses, we'll be okay," says Kuka. "The system is not what's holding us together; it's our humanity."

Guests Fanta Toure, CEO of Resilio Fund Hajooj Kuka, External communications officer for Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms Bashair Ahmed, Founder of Shabaka

Key moments [06:35] – Inside Sudan's 800 decentralised mutual aid groups [11:45] – Diaspora remittances are bigger than foreign aid [16:57] – Community-led aid means going back to way things are supposed to be [20:25] – The 'permafrost' of the aid system [32:21] – Flexibility, joy, and dreaming: Lessons from feminist movements [45:44] – When localisation gets co‑opted [58:59] – 'Mutual aid is here to disturb the system' [01:14:50] – What if 20% of foreign aid was given directly to communities? [01:19:00] – 'Move from leading by default to supporting by design'

Got a question or feedback? Email [email protected] or post on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.

This episode was made in collaboration with Start Network as part of a series that explores what really drives change in the humanitarian system, and what it tells us about future efforts to transform the system for the better.