Policy Paper: Beyond The State: Rethinking Citizenship Through Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms In Khartoum

This brief begins by highlighting the historical and current shortcomings of citizenship as a status, exposing its discriminatory nature while also shedding light on the historical and political conditions that opened up new avenues for re-conceptualizing citizenship. The seed of this expansion has been the Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs), which emerged as an extension to resistance committees at the outbreak of the war. ERRs rapidly organized and outpaced INGOs in delivering humanitarian aid, while simultaneously creating participatory spaces that deeply engage the communities in decision making, devising solutions and allocating resources, thereby embodying “citizenship in practice.” This reconceptualisation rests on two key parameters; active participation and social capital. ERRs illustrate how political participation extends beyond formal institutions, as local communities are constantly engaged in collective decision making, problem solving and collective organising. In these rooms, citizenship was enacted through lived experiences and practices that asserted agency, fostered new leadership and anchored responsibility within communities. Equally important, these practices also built social capital in three interconnected mechanisms; resource sharing bonding that transform community members into supportive networks; and bridging divides across generations, political affiliations and even former enmities. The brief calls on policymakers and stakeholders to recognize Emergency Response Rooms as an essential site of civic infrastructures, not just humanitarian actors. It recommends institutionalizing their community-led practices, problem-solving, resource mobilization, and decentralized decision-making. In addition to strengthening their capacities through participatory partnerships, context-grounded research, and long-term support that reinforces their role in fostering citizenship.