27th July 2026
What does real partnership look like in Sudan? The mutual aid response to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan offers a blueprint for rethinking humanitarian partnerships.
In this episode of Fresh Humanitarian Perspectives, Bashair Ahmed, founder of Shabaka hosts an exploratory conversation with key actors in the Sudan response Safaa Dawoud, Project Coordinator at Malam Darfur Peace and Development (MDPD), Taylor Dudley, Director of Coalition Building at Center for Disaster Philanthropy and Federico Motka, Head of Emergencies and Humanitarian at Vitol Foundation. The discussion analyses how Sudan’s ongoing conflict has challenged conventional humanitarian responses and accelerated a shift towards locally led action.
Listen to the conversation now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Buzzsprout + more. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of their organisations.
The third episode in the Eyes on Sudan series offers insight into the evolving role of donors, mutual aid actors, and how localisation can transform to genuine partnership – offering a stronger collaboration between international and local actors, better sequencing of funding, fewer organisational silos and greater trust in community leadership.
About the Speakers
Safaa Dawoud is a humanitarian and development professional dedicated to supporting vulnerable communities across Sudan. Through her work with Malam Darfur Peace and Development (MDPD), she contributes to designing and implementing programmes that address humanitarian needs, strengthen community resilience, and improve access to essential services. Her work focuses on supporting people affected by conflict, displacement, and economic hardship, with particular attention to food security, livelihoods, protection, and community recovery. Safaa is passionate about helping communities rebuild their lives with dignity and creating sustainable solutions that empower people to overcome challenges and achieve long-term well-being.
Taylor Dudley serves as Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP)’s Director of Coalition Building, leading strategic coalition initiatives that elevate philanthropy’s role in equitable disaster recovery. In this role, she provides leadership and coordination on existing coalition efforts and identifies new engagement opportunities for CDP. Over the last two years, she’s been coordinating the group – Funders for Mutual Aid in Sudan.
Federico Motka heads up the Emergencies and Humanitarian portfolio at the Vitol Foundation. A lifelong humanitarian aid worker, he has worked for several European international NGOs across a dozen countries in the Middle East, South / South-East Asia and the Caribbean, implementing responses to rapid-onset natural disasters and complex crises. Since stepping back from direct implementation of aid responses in 2016, his work has focused on supporting efforts to drive more direct funding to local and national organisations, especially in access constrained contexts where the financial services sector has been actively de-risking. The Vitol Foundation supports a number of initiatives that put risk management into practice through pooled / collaborative funds in which Federico has been directly involved.
Bashàïr Ahmed, PhD, is a humanitarian researcher, practitioner, and founder of Shabaka. She is a Research Associate at the Sussex Centre for Migration Research at the University of Sussex and an independent strategic adviser to humanitarian organisations and donors. Bashàïr hosts this episode.
About the Eyes on Sudan podcast series
Humanitarian Xchange Kampala in 2025 had a heavy focus on the Sudan response from the agenda to conversations outside the conference. The moment birthed space to extend the conversation beyond the conference and spotlight first and all responders to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. The conversations are focused on locally led response from the perspective of local responders, the global humanitarian community and donors. The first episode in the series – At the Table or on the Menu questioned what true participation means to first responders on the ground in Sudan. The second episode – From Policy to Practice: How localisation really works in Sudan shifted the focus to how international organisations respond to the humanitarian crisis.
This episode is produced by Nwabundo Okoh, Comms & Marketing Lead