January 2024
Contexts of War: Current Situations and Challenges of Grassroots Work
Since the onset of the war on April 15, 2023, Sudanese people have been living in unprecedentedly complex conditions at all levels. The deteriorating humanitarian situation remains the primary challenge facing grassroots and civil efforts in Sudan. This situation is further complicated by the evolving nature of the political conflict that led to this war, which has gradually transformed from a political power struggle between two military forces—one regular and the other irregular—into a broader societal conflict fueled by ethnic, tribal, and regional tensions. These dynamics could, in turn, lead to scenarios of territorial divisions, with different regions and states falling under the control and influence of multiple competing forces seeking power, wealth, and national resources.
In response to these new and evolving challenges, a group of grassroots and civil actors engaged in extensive discussions over several months. These discussions focused on the urgent need to organize and coordinate grassroots efforts undertaken by emergency response rooms in Khartoum State and other states.
As a result of these discussions, the “Grassroots Coordination Council” was established as a mechanism whose primary function is to organize and coordinate humanitarian efforts by linking emergency interventions with grassroots work and local governance. The council operates on the principles of participatory decision-making, transparency, disclosure, and accountability in fundraising and the fair and equitable distribution of resources among emergency response rooms within the same state or across different states. Additionally, the council aims to liberate humanitarian and developmental actions from donor-driven policies and agendas, ensuring independent and locally led decision-making.
Structure of the Grassroots Coordination Council
The Grassroots Coordination Council consists of internal structures that include representatives from localities and administrative units where emergency response rooms and grassroots networks operate. Additionally, the council includes representatives from national and international organizations.
In its current early phase, the council’s organizational and structural framework resembles a localized model of previous local governance councils in Sudan. The council’s role is not limited to organizing and coordinating joint efforts; it also enhances supervisory and oversight functions, making partners accountable to representatives from localities.
Just as local councils were historically responsible for overseeing resource management and expenditure to achieve public benefit—especially in improving service and development conditions—the Grassroots Coordination Council works toward ensuring good governance in financial management by overseeing funds received by national organizations and their allocation as small grants to emergency response rooms.
The council’s foundational charter serves as a reference framework for organizing and coordinating joint efforts among internal structures. It also establishes the institutional performance framework by distributing responsibilities, tasks, and duties among representatives. Furthermore, this charter fosters a participatory and deliberative approach to discussions, ideas, and proposals, laying the groundwork for democratic local practices based on diverse grassroots experiences across Sudan.
Grassroots Strategy: Building from the Bottom Up
The council’s grassroots approach refers to any form of collective action initiated by citizens independently and voluntarily, recognizing them as key actors in their localities and administrative units without political or ideological affiliations or self-serving interests. These actions address humanitarian needs, protect civilians from rights violations, improve basic services, and promote development goals in later stages of joint efforts.
The council’s work is guided by the principle of bottom-up governance, drawing inspiration from this model to reactivate local governance structures and mechanisms in Sudan.
A key aspect of the Grassroots Coordination Council’s experience is its adaptation of the existing local governance structure, despite its historical flaws. Emergency response rooms function as miniature governance units, representing a future model where local governments are directly elected by the grassroots and reflect their interests equitably, without discrimination based on gender, class, ethnicity, or region.
Each emergency response room operates as a localized executive unit responsible for managing and allocating resources, primarily sourced from funding and small grants. These rooms, alongside administrative grassroots networks, form the Grassroots Coordination Council, which organizes, coordinates, and supervises emergency response efforts while ensuring oversight over national and international organizations.
Unlike traditional donor-recipient partnerships, the council’s partnerships are not based on a hierarchy where external donors fund national organizations, which then allocate resources to local entities. Instead, all partners collectively work to expand opportunities for grassroots communities to manage and allocate resources fairly, equitably, and sustainably, while maintaining independence in grassroots efforts and solidarity networks.
The strategic integration of grassroots work with local governance and emergency interventions represents a new model for civil action, directly emerging from solidarity networks created by civilians in conflict zones. These networks are independent and free from political or ideological influences, solely committed to preserving civilian lives and preventing rights violations.
While traditional emergency interventions could have sufficed to address humanitarian needs without an organizational and oversight structure, the council’s establishment by grassroots actors reflects a shift towards sustainable governance and accountability, ensuring locally driven decision-making and self-sufficient crisis response mechanisms.
