22nd July 2025
على المائدة ام على القائمة؟ المستجيبون الاوائل في طليعة العمل الانساني
البراء البشير و نهال الزاكي في محادثة مع مصعب الهادي و مقدمة قصيرة من نانسي
تُسلّط هذه الحلقة، “على المائدة ام على القائمة؟” ، الضوء على العاملين في المجال الإنساني الذين كانوا في الخطوط الأمامية للاستجابة في السودان.
“لا تأتي إليّ بنهجك الفوقي. بصفتي مُستجيبًا أوليًا أو متطوعًا ميدانيًا، وبصفتي فردًا بحاجة إلى هذه الخدمة، دعني أُريك ما أريده بالضبط.” – نهال الزاكي، منظمة ريما – دنقلا، الولاية الشمالية
تُسلّط هذه المُحادثة الضوء على الأصوات المحلية في صميم الحوار الإنساني. يدور النقاش حول كيفية تنظيم المُستجيبين الأوائل لأنفسهم خلال الأزمة، والتحديات التي واجهوها، وطبيعة الدعم الذي تلقّوه، والقضايا النظامية التي لا تزال تُهمّشهم من دوائر صنع القرار. المُحادثة باللغة العربية مع مُقدّمة باللغة الإنجليزية.
What does true participation mean? What do first responders need to truly lead humanitarian response or change in Sudan?
“Don’t come to me with your top-down approach. As a first responder or as a volunteer on the ground, and as an individual who needs this service, let me show you what I want exactly.“ – Nihal Al-Zaki, Rima Organisation – Dongola, Northern State
This episode “At the Table or On the Menu?” features humanitarians who have been on the frontlines of the response in Sudan.
This conversation is bringing local voices to the center of the humanitarian dialogue. The discussion revolves around how first responders organised themselves during the crisis, the challenges they faced, the nature of support they received, and the systemic issues that continue to sideline them from decision-making spaces. The conversation is in Arabic with an introduction in English. A translated transcript is available on this page and a video transcript is available here.
Listen to the conversation now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Buzzsprout and more!
The views and opinions expressed in our podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of their organisations.
Some key learnings from the conversation are that local responders are effective, though under-supported; and many humanitarian systems are still structurally exclusive – offering little or no space in decision-making for grassroots actors. In addition, funding models, coordination spaces, and leadership pipelines must be reimagined to be locally driven. Lastly, constant exposure to trauma without psychological support causes burnout and stress.
About the Speakers
Nancy Mureti, Head of Regional Centres, Humanitarian Leadership Academy
Nancy holds 20 years of experience in the development and humanitarian sectors. With a background in psychology and leadership, Nancy is passionate about the welfare and wellbeing of others. She is based in Kenya
Nihal Al-Zaki, Secretary-General, Rima Organisation – Dongola, Northern State
Nihal is a humanitarian activist, passionate about supporting and empowering women. With extensive experience in coordinating projects with numerous local and international organisations.
Al-Baraa Bashir, Media and Public Relations Officer, Kassala Emergency Youth Response Room
Al-Baraa is from the Media and Public Relations Office of the Kassala Youth Emergency Room and a member of the Executive Office of the First Responders Coordination Network “RCN”. He is a researcher and advocate for human rights and youth empowerment.
Musaab Alhadi, Coordinator Group Cash Transfer Save the Children, Sudan
Musaab is a CVA Coordinator focusing on Group Cash Transfer interventions and trainer with in-depth knowledge of Sudan. He has supported the development and execution of a strategy to engage and mobilise local actors and stakeholders in support of humanitarian response initiatives in Sudan. He has also conducted data collection, mapping, communication, and capacity-building activities to identify and address the needs of the humanitarian sector. In addition to extensive collaboration with mutual aid groups in different states – including delivering training, facilitating connections with INGOs and donors, assisting in fund proposals, and providing technical assistance and support.
Episode Transcript
Musaab: Fresh Humanitarian Perspectives, a podcast by the Humanitarian Leadership Academy. Hello and welcome to this episode of our special podcast series called An Eye on Sudan, and this episode is called At the Table or On the Menu.
I’m your host Musaab Alhadi, and throughout this series we’ll be exploring what this truly means to center local leadership in humanitarian action, especially in complex crises like the one unfolding in Sudan. Today, we will be joined by someone working at the heart of humanitarian leadership, Nancy, the Head of Regional Centres at the Humanitarian Leadership Academy. Nancy, the mic is yours to introduce yourself.
Nancy: Thank you so much, Musaab. I’m really excited to be a part of this podcast and really honoured and humbled to have responders who are on the front line in Sudan. I mean, this is just amazing because we are here to learn. We are coming with a humble leaning because they know the situation best and they’ve been leading. They’ve been on the frontlines.
I think for the Humanitarian Leadership Academy, it’s about bringing these local voices to international platforms so that they can co-create solutions that they would know are best. So I’m really looking forward to this and hoping it’s part of a whole series of shifting the power and recognizing these really strong capacities. Thank you. And over to you, Musaab.
Musaab: Welcome to today’s episode, “At the Table or On the Menu.” In this episode, we’ll talk about the first responders on the ground, and we’ll explore what’s happening and to what extent they are involved in decision-making. From the beginning of the war, they were the first to respond to the disaster unfolding in Sudan.
In this episode, we’ll discuss what true participation means, how exclusion impacts work on the ground, and what the first responders need in order to truly lead humanitarian response or change in Sudan. This episode includes strong voices from different regions who have stories to share with us. We also want to hear their ideas for change, especially during this significant period of transformation in the world.
We want to see how the first responders on the ground are trying to keep up with these changes and what exactly they are doing. Let’s meet our two guests before we dive in.
Nihal: Peace be upon you. I’m Nihal Al-Zaki, a community activist and the Secretary-General of Rima Organisation in Dongola.
Al-Baraa: Hello, I’m Al-Baraa Bashir, responsible for media and public relations at the Kassala Emergency Room. I’m passionate about human rights and youth empowerment.
Musaab: Thank you Nihal and Al-Baraa—both will be our guests in this episode.
Musaab: Let me start the episode with a question for Nihal. While we were preparing, we discussed how you were among the first responders in Dongola, Northern State. How did that emergency response begin, and how did you organise yourselves as early responders?
Nihal: On April 13, the strike happened at Merowe International Airport. The problem that followed involved injuries among the armed forces, etc. So we were tense—what would happen next? That’s when Rima Organisation for Women partnered with the Youth Peer Education Network to figure out what we could do in response to what was unfolding. Yes, we prepared meals for the armed forces, delivered them to the hospital, and tried to offer them some psychological support—it all happened suddenly.
After the real start of the war with the airstrikes in Khartoum on April 15 and the forced displacement that followed, many people fled Khartoum to Dongola. That pressure made people start asking: what do we do now? Some young people said they’d meet them at the airport in Dongola, and some would walk with them to Egypt. If there were people needing hospital care, the youth would take responsibility. But as the number of arrivals increased—going from a few to around 35–40 daily—the pressure intensified. People kept asking, what can we do?
That was our trigger. We had to set up an emergency room that could respond to all the needs. Teams divided into food security, meal prep, delivery, and reception. After the border closed, we faced a major issue—where would we house these people? The quick response came from youth—using empty schools, unused dormitories, vacant homes. Everything available in Northern State was opened up to host people—it was school holiday time, so schools and centers were used, creating huge pressure on the youth. Other organisations slowly started to realize they had to get involved too.
Then the emergency room initiative took shape. The youth started organising more systematically, and that’s when international organisations began to step in on the ground. Our first intervention was through the NRC (Norwegian Refugee Council), which integrated us into their network. That marked the beginning of properly structured humanitarian response efforts in Northern State.
Musaab: Alright, thank you. I also wanted to focus on the challenges you faced during the response, but you already explained much of it. So we can now move to Kassala, where people also responded at a certain point and faced heavy pressure during that period.
There was mass displacement from many areas. We want to know what kind of support was provided and what kind of challenges you faced. If we categorize them, logistical challenges were the biggest, and then the pressure on the first responders is intense.
We want to know what your psychological state was like while you were responding to the situation, because, for example, people were saying at the beginning that they were shocked, that the situation was too much for them and they couldn’t respond. So, if you could just summarize the challenges you faced during the response, whether they were logistical or psychological.
Al-Baraa: Okay, well, in the beginning, the Kassala emergency room started on April 22, 2023. At that time, there wasn’t enough coordination or experience for this. We started with housing, with the people of Kassala volunteering their empty homes. Someone with two houses would offer one. That was in the first period when we were working on displacement from Khartoum. In the period after that, the numbers became very high. The community support started to decrease. At that point, we were working with what we had; the project involved 5,000 families.
After that, we began to create an organisational structure, a clear one with clear hierarchies, regulations, and policies. The problems we faced can be categorised as logistical, political, and psychological.
Logistically, there was a problem with a lack of transportation—vehicles for materials and so on. Politically, there were also pressures, confusion over classifications—who are these people, what group do they belong to, and so on. Psychologically, the youth who worked there witnessed atrocities. They met people as they fled, heard their traumatic stories, and so on. They would hear about horrible things and also see cases where they were unable to provide full support. Even the support was limited, so this was a problem, and it put a lot of psychological pressure on the youth.
Musaab: Okay, if we also talk about the nature of the support itself, I want to know the type of support you received and what was lacking. People always say that sometimes there is support, but things are missing, whether it’s the quantity or how you even access that support.
Al-Baraa: Well, regarding the support, as I said in the beginning, it was community-based, and then it shifted to support from international and local organizations and others.
The problem was that the first responders couldn’t determine the priorities for the intervention. The donor would specify that, for example, five thousand is for health, and five thousand is to cover another need. So they determine these priorities based on things that are far from the reality that the responders themselves are living in. So the responders are under pressure to try to cover all these needs, without even knowing what the total amount of support will be or over how many months it will be distributed. This is something very important that needs to be coordinated. First responders need to be involved in dividing and allocating these priorities.
Musaab: Okay, so the main issue was that there was support, but the support itself came earmarked. This means you didn’t have a say in what to do with it. At the same time, you could see there were needs in other areas where you were supposed to direct this support, but you weren’t able to.
Let’s go back to the personal and professional level for you. Nihal, if you could answer this for me: what does being a first responder mean to you, personally and professionally? As someone who wakes up in the morning, someone who, for example, has left their job and spends a lot of time on this. How do you carry this situation with you on both of these levels?
Nihal: I always say that wherever you look for me, you will find me. It’s not my destiny to do this thing, to just come and direct individuals, ‘Come do this for me,’ without it coming from within you. But when we got into volunteer work six or seven years ago, it was something internal, from us to us. We really wanted to get on the ground, implement programmes, and work on the details. It was a very good thing. But when we entered the war period, the situation changed. We found ourselves having to be on the front line as first responders and volunteers and so on.
And this, frankly, created a lot of psychological pressure on us in the first period. Many times, it would come to me, and I would say, ‘No, I really want to stop.’ ‘I don’t want to continue with this.’ I mean, I would go to places and come back in a state that was not normal, and I’d say I want to stop. But then, when I see the condition of the people, I say, ‘No, I really have to continue because I can offer something that benefits the community or a group of people who need me, and I have the ability to complete this.’
Al-Baraa: Exactly. There’s now an expectation from the community that we will show up. We don’t have the luxury of burnout. People are relying on us.
Musaab: Okay, let’s move on to the topic of participation. I mean their inclusion in the decision-making process itself. In the beginning, we were talking about how all responders, whether they are individuals or organisations supporting the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, should sit together to be able to respond genuinely and correctly. Have you ever been invited to participate in a humanitarian experiment, event, or a meeting, for example? Or, for instance, when people are writing a proposal to respond in a certain area, do they invite you or include you in that process?
Nihal: As first responders, no, we are not invited by the international bodies or organisations to find out what the humanitarian situation is. Suddenly, you find that a project has been created with other details, and you wonder, ‘Where did these people get their information?’ We are covering a certain area, and you want to cover it too. This brings us to a point of a complete lack of coordination. Even after a while, when each sector was separated, they would hold a meeting every now and then. The organisations became divided into national organisations and international organisations.
The grassroots organisations, bodies, and the emergency room within the Northern State are completely excluded. They put you in a situation where it feels like a competition. If you, as a grassroots body, reach the donor from any country, you become an obstacle to them, and they will try to remove you. Whereas we are the first line of response. Without us, you cannot move forward. And one day, the war must end. You will go back to Khartoum. So when this international donor institution wants to respond, there are no links between it and the grassroots emergency room and the existing grassroots bodies. This is the problem for us here. And no matter how much we try to reach them, there are obstacles preventing us. So this is a huge problem for us.
Musaab: Okay, thank you, Nihal. So, if we talk about what kind of representation would be satisfactory for you? Have you ever proposed a specific form of representation that was then ignored?
Nihal: No, there was never a clear demand from us for clear representation. Because you basically sit in a meeting as a token figure, to complete the picture that ‘we brought the first responders or the local bodies from Dongola and so on, and they were with us.’
We presented reports of their work, saying they did this and that, but for them to take our words into account for the final decision? No, nothing like that ever happens.
Musaab: Have you ever experienced organisations coming into your area and claiming to know your community’s needs better than you?
Al-Baraa: Many times. External actors often arrive with their own blueprints, implementing projects without any meaningful consultation. They assume they understand the context, but their assumptions are frequently disconnected from the reality we live every day.
Musaab: It’s very clear that the process of including first responders is difficult, and people are trying. If you had the power to make decisions, what would you do differently?
Al-Baraa: We’d act based on real-time, lived experiences. We’d save time and resources because we’re grounded in the actual needs of our communities, not operating on assumptions or outdated assessments.
Musaab: Okay, while we were preparing the episode, we also talked about tokenistic participation—that you find yourselves present, but you’re just there to, ‘Okay, come sign your name, you were here.’ Has something like this happened before? Have you ever been included in decision-making, but you weren’t the decision-makers? You were just on the menu, not at the table?
Nihal: In slang, they call it ‘completing the numbers’. Yes, that’s what happens here. In the last period, during one of the disasters in the Northern State, they called us for a meeting between the Social Affairs and the Humanitarian Aid Commission, at the request of the government secretariat, saying, ‘Come and do such-and-such.’ The government doesn’t have the capacity. The Commission doesn’t have the capacity. So they bring in the other bodies.
‘Responders, come and sit down.’ We sat at the table, one, two, three. But they already set a certain vision for something, and they bring us in just to complete it for them.
They don’t want us to participate in the details. So every time, no matter what meetings we go to or what we do, we find ourselves outside the table. It’s just, ‘We brought these people, and look, they are on the ground with us.’ But in the actual decision-making or in the final decision, no, we are not there.
Musaab: For you, what does a real partnership look like—where they bring you to the table, not put you on the menu on top of the table?
Nihal: A true partnership, for me personally, is being part of those who will make the decision with you. In the end, you need me. As they say, one hand can’t clap. It means being part of the planning, decision-making, and implementation. Our input should be respected and reflected in the outcomes, not just collected and ignored.
Musaab: Do you feel that international actors respect your skills and knowledge?
Al-Baraa: Not really. They often view what we bring as “local context” rather than professional expertise. That mindset needs to change.
Musaab: Okay, coming back to you, what is the one thing you wish international actors and donors would understand about you being local responders?
Nihal: That we are not just implementers of what they want. We can be initiators with a clear vision. They should follow our vision, not the vision they came here with or the plan they wrote based on the details they have. We are here, and we see what is happening more than they can from a distance.
Musaab: If the humanitarian system truly centered local responders, what would change?
Al-Baraa: What would change is that the intermediaries… or rather, the local responders would be the ones with opinions. There would be direct action or direct intervention. There would be a saving of time. It will also be under their leadership. This will be very important because the responders themselves are the ones who know the leadership. So there will be an improvement in the level of service provided.
Musaab: If we pause on the word ‘intermediaries,’ Baraa, what is your definition of intermediaries? And what is their role between you and the international community or the donor?
Al-Baraa: The intermediaries could be the actors in the old civil society, the unions, the organisations, the national organisations that play the role of the intermediary between local actors and international organisations.
Musaab: Okay, what form of funding could be most beneficial? And how can we manage it, especially in the coming period, as we see the world is heading towards reducing funding in many areas?
Nihal: Well, I can say that direct, flexible funding would allow us to do more than just be responders to a specific need. Given the global humanitarian situation, funding has decreased and so on. So today, when you come to us as a first responder in emergency situations and deliver the aid, it’s better than having intermediaries in the middle. The portion that the staff and intermediaries in the middle take before the final handful of funding reaches communities becomes a problem. So if they made this flexible for us, so that we have a direct communication channel between us and the international community, it would be better.
This also brings us back to the fact that we have a problem with external coordination between us, the bodies on the ground, and the international bodies.
Al-Baraa: Yes, of course, to do this, we also need to change the contracting policies. We also need to define the role of the international community or these international institutions. It should not be administrative. Not administrative, but an actor or a partner. Here, the first responders would be a central axis in the response process. And it boils down to the fact that there are structures we need to build and structures we need to dismantle.
Nihal: Dismantle them. Let’s break it down a bit. The structures we need to build are structures of trust. Clear communication channels through which we can reach and gain the trust of funders and donors. To be true partners with each other. The things we need to dismantle is the layer in the middle that we cannot… yes, we cannot reach the international community without going through them, or they act as a barrier to the international community or a barrier to access from within Sudan.
Musaab: This is very beautiful talk, and it shows us that, as first responders, we are working regardless of what the situation is like on the ground and the difficulties we face. For a person to go and get that very small grant, it means they have spent a very long time and dismantled many structures to reach it, and people have started building strong structures for this to continue.
Okay, we have talked about many things, and I think that regardless of the negative things happening in the system, there can be good things. I would like to hear from both of you about successful partnerships that have happened before, which made things go excellently and well, and where you felt you were participants in the process.
Al-Baara: Okay, I want to give a simple example. The form of the intervention itself, for instance, might allocate ninety thousand for a state. This simple institution divides it into fives, bringing in a group of responders. Here their role ends, and the area of intervention is determined, for instance, in the health sector. We have excellent partnerships with entities that used to involve us, and still do, in drafting proposals, scheduling implementation, and so on. So these are also very good models. They are ongoing, and we hope they continue.
Musaab: Okay. Nihal, the mic is yours to tell us about the successful partnerships.
Nihal: For me, the most successful partnership was with the Responders Coordination Network (RCN). It was one of the most successful partnerships for us. If we were to define this network, it’s a body that includes a number of members within northern and eastern Sudan. These are the grassroots sections, the feminist emergency room, the emergency rooms present in the two regions. This was a very good thing, that this network was formed just to make the voice of these responders, or our voice in short, reach the places we are able or want to reach.
The partnership started with, ‘Okay, guys, come, we will give you funding, and you show us what you will do.’ The system in the beginning was very rigid. The format of the reports you submit, the format of the project you submit… the details started like that. And after we implemented the first project, they did something very nice. They saw the shortcomings in the reports and proposals, so they addressed them in two parts.
Capacity building for the existing members or sections. They trained them in report and proposal writing. So, for us, this was a very successful partnership between the sections on the ground and the first responders’ network, and I hope it continues.
Musaab: Okay, thank you, Nihal, and thank you, Baraa. I think we have reached the point of defining the role of donors or international organisations, that their role should be supportive and not controlling. Because everything we talk about always shows that there is control over how things should go and how they are handled exactly.
So we want to know, if we were to define the role of donors so that they are supporters and not controllers, what would that role look like.
Nihal: Give us a chance to show what the humanitarian situation is for us. Don’t come to us directly and say, ‘I want this specific project to be implemented in that specific area.’ This puts pressure on us, the idea that people just want to implement projects in that way. So today, when you come and see the humanitarian situation in the area where I am, and you ask the people who are stationed in that place, you can then implement your project or see the project that they want to implement.
Don’t come to me ready with what you have. No, come and ask me, ‘Where are your shortcomings?’ ‘What do you want? And what do you want me to do for you?’ Don’t come to me with your top-down approach.
As a first responder or as a volunteer on the ground, and as an individual who needs this service, let me show you what I want exactly.
Musaab: Okay. Excellent. So, do you see yourself in the decision-making chair, or do you see yourself on the menu?
Albaraa: Of course. On the menu.
Musaab: What gives you hope to continue in this difficult situation?
Al-Baraa: The efforts being made by my colleagues on the ground, in the rapid response networks, emergency rooms, and others. These efforts breathe life into our souls.
Musaab: So, do you see yourself in the decision-making chair or on the menu?
Nihal: It’s between this and that. Sometimes we are on the menu, and sometimes we are in the decision-making part. The decision-making part is when we sometimes exert pressure, insisting our voice must be heard on a certain point. Being on the menu is clear and needs no explanation.
Musaab: I think we have covered everything and we know whether we are sitting in the decision-making chair or on the menu.
Musaab: And I think if there is something to conclude this episode with, it would be to look at your ready steps to get off the menu and sit in the chair. What might your organisational steps be? We know very well that on the ground, there are many forms of organisation starting so that people can be in the decision-making chair and not on the menu.
Al-Baraa: The steps we are taking are to organise our grassroots more, organise our institutions, clarify clear policies with these international institutions, define the intervention, and try to be closer and closer to reality so that we know the priorities and can reflect them well.
Musaab: This was our episode, ‘At the Table or On the Menu,’ and we learned that local responders are at the forefront of humanitarian work, but there is still a very big gap before they are able to lead humanitarian action or be influential in decision-making.
And for their opinions to be respected and their expertise to be valued, or for it to receive significant support and empowerment so they can continue the great things they are doing. We will have many more episodes focusing on Sudan and the current situation in Sudan, and in full support of the responders. Thank you.
Key Phrases & Vocabulary for Non-Arabic Speakers
- First Responders: Locally embedded individuals and groups who are first to act in crises.
- Emergency Rooms: Informal coordination hubs formed by community members.
- Tokenism: Symbolic inclusion of marginalised voices without real influence.
- Donor-driven priorities: Funding and planning directed by donors rather than community needs.
- Coordination Meetings: Spaces where actors align their efforts but where local actors are often excluded.
Recommendations for Humanitarian Agencies & Donors
- Direct and flexible funding should be prioritized to empower local actors and reduce the dependency on intermediaries.
- Capacity strengthening should be based on mutual learning and co-creation—not imposed training agendas.
- Coordination mechanisms must include grassroots actors from the beginning, not as an afterthought.
- Invest in mental health for first responders through peer-support systems and professional care.
- Recognise local knowledge as expertise and compensate community-led insights as professional input.
- Build mechanisms for accountability where local actors can challenge donor decisions when disconnected from the field.
Conclusion
This episode demonstrates that local responders are not only willing but more than capable of leading humanitarian responses, if given the space and resources. The responsibility now lies with the international system to shift its structures, funding practices, and power dynamics to ensure these actors are at the table, not on the menu.
This podcast was recorded with support from Adeela for Arts and Culture, Uganda at HX Kampala – a conference held with support from Google.org and Center for Disaster Philanthropy.
This episode is co-produced by Nwabundo Okoh, Communications and Marketing Specialist HLA