The international humanitarian system is under severe strain, facing politically driven funding cuts, rising needs and uncertainty about its future direction. Although calls for “resetting” and “prioritising” continue, what these shifts mean in practice remains unclear. At the same time, interest is growing in the informal systems and networks through which communities have always supported one another in crisis—often without involvement from the international system.
Mutual aid sits at the centre of these locally led responses. These self-organised, voluntary actions draw on existing relationships, resources and knowledge, yet they remain largely unrecognised and unsupported.
This review explored what happens when international actors support mutual aid by looking across two dimensions:
- Dimension 1 examines the results experienced by mutual aid groups. By supporting mutual aid, can the international system deliver assistance that is more responsive, efficient and grounded?
- Dimension 2 examines the results and adaptations experienced by those providing support. Does supporting mutual aid provide a pathway to transformation?
About the research
This paper is a central output of phase 1 of a two-year research initiative led by ALNAP and Local to Global Protection (L2GP), focused on understanding and strengthening the evidence around supporting mutual aid in crisis-affected contexts.
