In conflict-affected and financially isolated contexts, moving money can be as challenging as delivering aid itself. When traditional banking systems fail, local responders are often left without the resources they need to sustain lifesaving work, even when funding has been approved.
This case study explores how Coala Pay, a payments management platform built by and for humanitarians, enabled direct, transparent payments to community-led responders in Sudan using blockchain-based infrastructure. It examines how alternative payment rails can support faster disbursement, protect grant value, and strengthen locally led humanitarian response in one of the world’s most constrained operating environments.
🤝 Coala Pay enabled local responders in Sudan to received funds directly and reliably using blockchain payment rails despite banking system failures and active conflict. ⚡ Payments were settled within hours rather than weeks, allowing emergency services to continue without interruption. 💸 Transfer values were increased by 30 to 34 percent by accessing more favorable exchange rates for digital currencies and avoiding currency depreciation. 🧾 Onchain proof of payment provided transparent, verifiable records without adding administrative burden for frontline groups.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in a conflict that has disrupted daily life across the country. Fighting between armed groups has displaced millions, fractured essential services, and cut entire regions off from markets, movement, and reliable information. With the country now effectively split in two, more than half the population, an estimated 30.4 million people, requires humanitarian assistance (UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2025). As access for international actors has narrowed, local responders have become the backbone of the humanitarian response. Often referred to as Mutual Aid Groups (MAGs) or Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs), these community-led groups operate kitchens, coordinate medical care, and support displaced families under rapidly changing conditions. Rooted in their communities, they are accountable first to local needs and are often the only actors able to continue operating amid insecurity.
Despite their central role, these local responders face persistent barriers to receiving funds from international donors. Sudan’s isolation from global financial systems makes transfers slow, unreliable, or impossible. Delays, poor exchange rates, and informal workarounds are common, frequently forcing responders to pause operations while waiting for funding. In emergency contexts, these gaps translate directly into missed meals, interrupted care, and increased risk for already vulnerable communities.
(Credit: Norwegian Refugee Council, Sudan)
In response to this increasingly difficult context, Coala Pay partnered with five local responder groups to pilot a new payment pathway for partner payments from international donors - blockchain-based payment rails. Coala Pay supported each group to open a digital wallet and build practical familiarity with managing digital currencies, enabling them to participate without prior technical expertise. Coala Pay also managed due diligence for each partner, using an online form with conditional logic to streamline the data collection process.
Local responders then submitted project proposals through the Coala Pay platform, which were funded by an International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO) using stablecoins. Payments were governed by smart contracts that structured milestone-based disbursements and automated fund release once conditions were met. At the moment of disbursement, a non-fungible token (NFT) was automatically generated as proof of payment, creating a permanent onchain record linked to each project. Funds were received instantly in digital currency and converted into local mobile money through Coala Pay’s off-ramp agent network in Sudan - this process took 24 hours or less.
While these payment rails have existed for years, adoption among donors has been limited by concerns around compliance, custody, and regulatory risk. Coala Pay addressed these barriers through a familiar, easy-to-use payments interface built on blockchain infrastructure by former humanitarians, using stablecoins exclusively to eliminate currency volatility for both donors and local responders. Blockchain-based payments offered a way to move funds quickly and document transactions clearly, since the technical and compliance burden could be handled by the platform rather than frontline actors. Importantly, success was not driven by the platform alone. It depended on teams with deep operational familiarity with humanitarian finance who supported local partners and the INGO to develop practical SOPs for wallet management, ERP reconciliation, and risk controls—highlighting the value of tools built by, and implemented with, humanitarian expertise.
For local responders, the pilot resulted in faster, more predictable access to funding at a time when delays can directly disrupt lifesaving services. By bypassing the traditional Sudanese banking system, payments reached responder groups within hours rather than days or weeks, allowing kitchens to remain open, supplies to be purchased on time, and emergency activities to continue without interruption. Compared to traditional payment routes, responders received between 30 and 34 percent more usable value from each payment, reducing losses from poor exchange rates and intermediary fees. The increased amount of money that made it to the ground was used to feed more mouths or buy more medical supplies.
Local responders also saw benefits from holding stablecoins in a digital wallet and only off-ramping when needed, enabling them to protect the value of their grants against the rapid depreciation of the Sudanese Pound or tracking by conflict actors through the central bank. Additionally, the ability for these digital wallets to move with local responders wherever they went was crucial - one local responder had to quickly flee the country due to fighting. Rather than leaving all the funds behind in a Sudanese bank account they could not access, their funds in their digital wallet moved with them needing only their recovery phrase to reconstitute the wallet - ensuring continuity of support to their community.
Key outcomes included: