<i>“Things are really not in order here”</i> : Self‑help groups as a community‑led welfare architecture in volatile settings

Self-help groups are well-established mechanisms of mutual support and collective well-being. However, their developmental role in protracted crises remains underexamined. Drawing on qualitative interviews, focus groups, and collaborative vignette analysis in eastern DRC, this study explores how women’s self-help and rotating loan groups function as solidarity networks within developmental social work. The findings highlight self-help groups as a form of crisis governance, rotating loans as both means and ends of sustainable livelihoods beyond mere survival economies, and informal peer networks as emerging sites for accidental counselling. Together, the findings reposition self-help groups as community-led welfare infrastructures, offering a globally relevant alternative to state-centric and clinical models of recovery in protracted armed conflicts and forced displacement.