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Emergency Response Rooms work in Sudan – we could change aid models in other warzones

Chatham House | 2026-06-26 | africa

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English Summary

The Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs) in Sudan demonstrate that decentralized, community-led mutual aid is a highly effective model for humanitarian assistance in collapsed states. Their success hinges on leveraging deep local knowledge and community trust to bypass formal state structures and warring parties, proving that legitimacy derives from social proximity rather than external mandates. Policy implications require the international aid system to abandon centralized control and tightly earmarked grants; instead, funding must be flexible, long-term, and directed at reinforcing existing local networks. This shift challenges the assumption that scale requires centralization, advocating for horizontal coordination and empowering grassroots actors in future conflict zones.

中文摘要

蘇丹的緊急應變室（ERRs）證明了分散式、社區主導的互助模式，是處於崩潰狀態國家進行人道援助的高度有效模型。其成功關鍵在於利用深厚的在地知識和社群信任，繞過正式的國家結構與交戰各方；這證明了合法性來源於社會親近性而非外部授權。政策意涵要求國際援助體系必須放棄中央集權式控制和嚴格指定用途的撥款（earmarked grants）；相反地，資金必須具備彈性、長期性質，並專注於強化現有的在地網絡。這一轉變挑戰了「規模需要集中化」的假設，倡導在未來的衝突地區實行橫向協調，並賦權草根行動者。

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