Financing survival from below: traditional community-led financial governance in war-torn Sudan

Less than one per cent of humanitarian funding reaches local responders in war-torn Sudan. Analysing 47 documents from April 2023 to December 2024, this article examines how communities have fused Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) with Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs) to create traditional community-based financial governance. Drawing on institutional theory [North, D.C. (1990) Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.] and global development finance frameworks, it shows that the Paris Declaration, Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and Dakar Financing Summit erroneously assume state intermediation. Where the state collapses, communities repurpose informal institutions to finance food, security, and health services. Case studies — women-led communal kitchens in Omdurman and a protection fund in Zalingei – demonstrate how trust-based systems driven by women’s economic agency deliver essential services where formal actors cannot. The article translates these findings into a concrete partnership model, arguing that resourcing traditional community-based financial governance is not an alternative to formal recovery, but its essential foundation.