Sudan is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with over 30 million people in need of humanitarian support, including an estimated 16 million children and around 1 million pregnant or breastfeeding women. The civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) which began in April 2023 has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and massive displacement inside and outside of Sudan.   

Women and girls are disproportionately affected– by violence, extreme food insecurity, lack of access to essential services, and at high risk of gender-based and sexual violence. Conventional humanitarian response activities are hampered by systemic access restriction which block humanitarian workers and supplies from entering most affected zones, security constraints; direct targeting of aid actors; targeting of local responders and the imposition of restrictions on humanitarian work and fundamental funding gaps leave critical programs largely unfunded.

In this context, local women-led initiatives are at the frontlines, providing life saving humanitarian support across the country and, in particular, in hard-to-reach regions where large, international actors struggle to operate. Women-led organizations (WLOs), a term which in Sudan covers a diverse array of formal CSOs, women’s rights organizations (WROs), mutual aid groups, unions and women’s association, diaspora and neighborhood solidarity initiatives, have stepped in to respond to the needs of their communities.  

Despite the critical role that WLOs play in providing life saving humanitarian services in Sudan, these groups lack access to humanitarian funding channels. On average, only 11 percent of country-based pooled funding reaches women-led organizations – in Sudan, these numbers have lagged even further behind. In 2023, only 1.6% of funding, and 3% of funding in 2024 from the United Nations’ Sudan Humanitarian Fund went to women-led organizations. 

To help fill this funding gap, First Response Fund works with a cohort of five women’s and feminist funds actively funding in Sudan: African Women’s Development Fund, Doria Feminist Fund, Global Resilience Fund, MADRE, and Urgent Action Fund - Africa. Together, these funds are supporting over 50 WLOs working in the highest need areas of Sudan. These groups bravely and quickly respond to the gendered needs of women and girls, including: 

• Survivor-led response to conflict-related sexual violence

• Responding to widespread and pervasive food insecurity

• Improving access to health services

• Supporting economic recovery and income generation activities

• Improving access to education in emergencies. 

In practice, this looks like running community kitchens to alleviate hunger. Offering sexual violence survivors access to medical, legal, and psychological support. Creating safe spaces and education access for women and children in displacement camps. Distributing menstrual hygiene and dignity kits to adolescent girls. 

Together, WLOs are responding to urgent needs and ensuring the most marginalized in their communities are able to access life-saving humanitarian aid. Learn more about feminist crisis response in Sudan here.