Keeping the Response Alive: Humanitarian Funding Cuts, Organisational Capacity and Sudanese Adaptation During the Civil War

Sammanfattning

Sudan is facing one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces has intensified displacement, food insecurity, service collapse and protection risks. At the same time, the global humanitarian funding crisis has reduced the capacity of the UN-led response, leaving needs to rise while resources, staff and operational space shrink. This thesis examines how funding shortfalls and operational disruption have affected aid delivery during Sudan’s civil war, and how Sudanese humanitarian actors have adapted. It draws on four semi-structured phone interviews with Sudanese humanitarian practitioners, conducted in Arabic in March–April 2026, together with humanitarian response plans, funding data, donor reports and documents on local response. The findings show that funding cuts have weakened organisational capacity through staff reductions, heavier workloads, loss of institutional knowledge and shorter programming. Conflict-related disruption has made delivery harder through insecurity, damaged infrastructure, market instability and supply-route problems. Sudanese actors have adapted through relocation, reduced programming, community donations, local networks and attempts to access funding more directly. These adaptations have kept some assistance going, but they remain fragile. The study argues that Sudanese adaptation should be understood as survival under pressure, not as a sustainable substitute for predictable international humanitarian support.