When every hour counts: How Sudan’s front-line fund is saving lives
In Sudan, where conflict, disease and acute hunger collide with alarming speed, life-saving aid often moves slowly. But a local funding mechanism is proving that timely, selected support saves lives.
In recent months, Sudan’s humanitarian crisis has deepened into a perfect storm of emergencies. Cholera outbreaks have swept through states while fierce fighting displaced tens of thousands of people.
A devastating fire tore through a camp for displaced people. Families returned to shattered homes – many in areas littered with unexploded ordnance. And this all unfolded amid crushing funding shortfalls.
Fast funds, faster response
Amid the chaos, one funding tool is quietly rewriting the narrative.
Through a 48-hour rapid-response mechanism, the OCHA-managed Sudan Humanitarian Fund (SHF) is enabling local aid organizations to act with rare speed and coordination.
Designed for precisely these moments – when lives hang in the balance and delays cost dearly – the mechanism aims to release pre-positioned funds to pre-approved consortium partners within 48 hours of a disaster. In a context where bureaucracy and insecurity often grind aid to a halt, this speed is nothing short of life saving.
The rapid-response mechanism is locally driven, with 40 per cent of disbursed funds going directly to Sudanese non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It’s also designed to reach people in places that have been inaccessible.
“The 48-hour response mechanism has transformed the way we respond to crises – bridging critical gaps, empowering local actors like us, and ensuring that life-saving aid reaches communities when every second counts,” said Nada Eltayeb, Health and Nutrition Manager for Al Manar Voluntary Organization, a local NGO.
She said the mechanism also built trust: “Our community now sees us as a reliable lifeline in times of crisis, ready to act swiftly and make a real, visible difference.”
In December 2024, SHF allocated US$12 million to replenish the mechanism. By March, nearly $9.3 million had already been disbursed, supporting 21 emergency interventions across the country. These included nutrition centres, cholera treatments, shelter distributions and clean water deliveries that reached people within days or weeks of crisis.
Mohammed Hamza Alamin, Project Manager for Alight, an international NGO, explained: “Through this rapid response we were able to act immediately when cholera struck Gedaref – saving lives and reaching conflict-affected communities when it mattered most. With other funding mechanisms this urgency wouldn’t have been possible.”
The aid community aimed to reach more than 850,000 people with vital aid in just three months.
Behind each number is a family that received clean water during a cholera outbreak. A child who ate because food arrived in time. A health worker who kept treating patients after the bombs fell. These are the victories made possible by the fund.
Help that comes in time
In Sudan’s White Nile and Blue Nile states, cholera outbreaks threatened hundreds of thousands of people. With the fund’s support, humanitarian partners established treatment centres, restored water sources and provided essential hygiene supplies – reaching 250,000 people in need.
And when flash floods hit White Nile, the fund’s support allowed partners to respond immediately, delivering shelter, and water, sanitation and hygiene assistance to 15,000 people.
In Al Fasher, North Darfur’s state capital, and in Blue Nile State, where renewed conflict has displaced thousands of people this year, SHF partners have provided critical support – including clean water, cooking supplies, clothing, medical care and food – to more than 485,000 people affected by this latest wave of displacement.
This while returnees arriving in Aj Jazirah and Khartoum have found their homes destroyed. Here, more than 160,000 people benefited from restored health services, and mine survey and clearance interventions.
In Gedaref, pre-positioned funds helped 40,000 women continue to receive reproductive healthcare amid a funding gap caused by recent aid cuts.
After a fire ripped through a displacement site in North Kordofan, an implementing partner helped 5,000 people recover from devastating loss – many for the second or third time.
A model that works – when it’s funded
In an era where global crises are growing more complex and protracted, speed, flexibility and local leadership are not optional but essential.
The fund’s rapid-response mechanism proves that donor contributions can go further, faster, when the right systems are in place. But it also reveals a painful truth: without continued and increased funding, even the most effective mechanisms will fall short.
Sudan’s people are facing famine, violence, disease and displacement all at once. Needs are growing, but so too is the opportunity to meet those needs if we act decisively and support what works.
The fund’s rapid-response mechanism is reaching people in some of the hardest places during their hardest moments.
Because in Sudan, when every hour counts, this is what saving lives looks like.