Centring community knowledge in crisis response.
Who We Are
Shabaka is a practice-oriented research and advisory organisation advancing humanitarian reform that centres people affected by crises. For over a decade, we have supported locally-led mutual aid networks and diaspora groups responding to emergencies, bridging grassroots expertise with institutional decision-making through research, evidence and strategic advice.
People living through crises hold critical knowledge that traditional humanitarian systems too often sideline. We challenge the colonial structures that let Global North institutions control resources and decisions whilst extracting expertise and labour from crisis-affected communities — working instead towards partnerships that genuinely shift power.
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Strategic Context
Three interconnected shifts are creating unprecedented opportunities for locally-led, decolonial humanitarian action
Shifting power to locally-led response
Traditional humanitarian systems, rooted in colonial-era structures, are ill-suited to today's crises. Institutional commitments to localisation, alongside evolving global power dynamics, are opening space for authentic partnerships and Global South-led alternatives that redistribute both power and resources..
Justice and resilience across interconnected crises
Climate breakdown, conflict, economic instability and systemic rights violations fall hardest on communities least responsible for them. Siloed, technocratic responses are inadequate. What is needed are justice-centred approaches that recognise communities, mutual aid networks and diaspora groups as critical actors — and that confront the structural inequalities driving vulnerability.
Recognition of mutual aid and diaspora contributions
As traditional funding declines and institutional approaches strain under rising need, mutual aid networks and diaspora groups are filling gaps and modelling solidarity-based response. Increasingly recognised as essential bridges between crisis-affected communities and global systems, they offer a foundation for redistributing power within the humanitarian architecture.
