Sudan

  • Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan
  • From: 01/01/2024 to: 31/12/2024
  • Published: 21/12/2023
  • Coordinated by: OCHA

Protection

3.7.1 General Protection

PEOPLE IN NEED
7.7M
PEOPLE TARGETED
3.6M
REQUIREMENTS (US$)
64.1M
PARTNERS
32

SUMMARY OF NEEDS

The protection environment in Sudan has grown increasingly dire, marked by a stark disregard of civilians’ safety and civilian infrastructure. This deterioration is linked to urban warfare in Khartoum, the spreading conflict in Darfur with ethnic dimensions, complex fighting in South Kordofan, and ongoing strife in Blue Nile - all set against a backdrop of rising criminal activity across the country. Many civilians remain trapped in conflict zones with many internally displaced to safer areas requiring psychosocial support and individual assistance to respond to rising protection needs. Persons with specific needs require specialized support amid severe economic hardship and rising inflation.

RESPONSE STRATEGY

The Cluster commits to addressing and mitigating protection risks and empowering affected people to assert their rights and dignity. This will be achieved through individual protection assistance and case management. Based on a community-based approach and mechanism, the Cluster will foster relationships with affected communities to enable self-identification of protection needs and risks, supporting multipurpose community centres where community activities and projects will be implemented through inter-cluster engagement. The cluster will adopt an area-based approach through inter-cluster collaboration, utilizing static facilities, mobile outreach units, and community committees to ensure sufficient access and a tailored response to address protection needs.

TARGETING & PRIORITIZATION

The cluster will prioritize localities with the most acute protection needs, guided by cluster severity analysis and hotspot mapping. The cluster focuses on the most vulnerable segment of the population, based on vulnerabilities of specific groups. This includes children and women at-risk, older persons without community support, and people with disabilities. To ensure programme sustainability, a community-based approach is prioritized and complemented by targeted individual protection services for the extremely vulnerable caseload. This strategy seeks to assist 3.6 million people.

PROMOTING QUALITY & INCLUSIVE PROGRAMMING

The cluster commits to advocating for equal rights of all individuals, irrespective of their gender, age, disabilities, or marginalized status. The cluster emphasizes the importance of involving people in decisions and actions that directly affect them and their communities. Women, girls, and people with disabilities are provided with access to platforms to express their concerns, to shape the response and course correct. In partnership with the AAP Task Team, the cluster commits to strengthening feedback and complaints mechanisms, focusing on secure and accessible reporting of SEA. In collaboration with the PSEA Task Force and in-country networks, the cluster will contribute to the survivor support programme, rigorous accountability, and thorough investigations. By embracing community-driven initiatives, it is vital to actively engage communities in formulating, implementing, and overseeing projects related to AAP and PSEA. This approach ensures that these initiatives effectively address both prevention and response aspects.

COST OF RESPONSE

The Protection Cluster requires $64 million to assist 3.6 million people, which reflects a reduction of 32 per cent compared to the revised 2023 HRP due to the robust prioritization exercise. Protection activities predominantly involve service provision, which inherently makes them human resource intensive. Additionally, a significant portion of humanitarian infrastructure was either destroyed or badly damaged in conflict-affected areas, making the transportation of supplies a more expensive endeavour.

3.7.2 Child Protection Area of Responsibility

PEOPLE IN NEED
6.2M
PEOPLE TARGETED
3.0M
REQUIREMENTS (US$)
81M
PARTNERS
40

SUMMARY OF NEEDS

Escalating conflict, insecurity, pre-existing crises and deep-rooted child protection concerns have severely impacted children and their families, with potentially long-lasting harmful effects. Protracted displacement, loss of assets, physical and psychological trauma, fractured societal structures and chronic issues negatively impact children, families as well as child protection organizations and their ability to deliver assistance.

Joint assessments in multiple regions highlight pressing child protection needs, family separation, GBV, child exploitation and abuse, including child recruitment, which are among the many risks identified. Boys and girls face long-term, damaging consequences from conflict-related risks, including emotional trauma, nightmares, and psychological distress due to loss and upheaval. Many children are separated or unaccompanied, due to various factors like parental deaths, disappearances, and abductions. The destruction of essential infrastructure, including schools and health facilities, attacks on service points, such as child-friendly spaces and schools, and limited child protection resources further hinder children's access to critical services.

Over 3,150 child rights violations and at least 64 child protection concerns have been reported by credible sources since mid-April. Sexual violence against women and girls is on the rise, with 165 reported cases. Casualties among children have markedly increased during the past six months, with nearly 75 per cent of verified reports of violations involving killing and maiming of children, followed by child recruitment and sexual violence against children. Explosive ordnance (EO) presents an imminent threat to children, resulting in numerous reported fatalities and grave injuries.

RESPONSE STRATEGY

The Child Protection Area of Responsibility targets 3.0 million people (59 percent girls) out of an estimated 6.2 million people in need of assistance (51 per cent girls), with a funding requirement of $81.8 million. The CP AoR will be guided by the following objectives:

  1. Acutely vulnerable children and their caregivers’ needs are addressed through specialized child protection interventions, including multi-cluster case management services.
  2. Child protection risk factors are addressed, and protective factors that bolster the well-being of children, families, and communities are promoted through primary and secondary prevention approaches.
  3. Improved well-being and protective environment of girls and boys through the provision of psychosocial support, life skills, parenting skills, and advocacy, in addition to mobilization of communities and duty-bearers.

The priorities for improving child protection services are threefold. First, enhancing community-based child protection through community structures and psychosocial first aid. Second, expanding and enhancing specialized services for the most vulnerable children who have experienced violence, exploitation, or abuse. Third, reinforcing preventive programs for vulnerable children at risk of significant harm. Cluster members will invest in these priorities in a protective and inclusive environment to achieve cluster goals. Strengthening the child protection workforce, generating evidence on child protection issues to inform programming and advocacy, and promoting the use of global standards are some of the key strategies to support these three priorities.

Capacity-building strategies delivered through face-to-face training in accessible areas and remote approaches to reach local partners in hard-to-reach locations while local government and civil society engagement in child protection coordination will enhance localization and access to funding.

TARGETING & PRIORITIZATION

Based on the 2023 response monitoring data and through careful consultation with sub-national coordinators, the CP AoR considered access constraints and partners’ capacity when developing its targeting and prioritization. Priorities were given to localities with cluster severity three and above as well as hard-to-reach areas with severity five and overlapping inter-cluster severity levels four and five. The CP AoR will require an additional $20 million to target people with critical needs in hard-to-reach areas with high severity where IHL violations, including grave child rights violations, are reported, should access to such areas improve.

PROMOTING QUALITY & INCLUSIVE PROGRAMMING

The CP AoR will engage organizations representing persons with disabilities to establish systematic and mutuallyreinforcing collaboration to reach other marginalized groups. It will also enhance child-friendly spaces and multi-purpose centres for children with disabilities to ensure accessibility through assessments and design solutions aligned with national standards.

A community-based approach will be maintained and adapted to emerging needs through various strategies, including coherent information management, sub-national coordination, localization strategy and inter-agency collaboration .The CP AoR will strengthen local partnerships with organizations, structures (e.g., youth/adolescent groups, women-led organisations, etc), government entities (including the State Council of Child Welfare and law enforcement actors), and social workers to expand the reach of child protection services. Collaboration with the GBV AoR will prioritize specialized services for child and adolescent survivors of GBV. Community-based child protection networks (CBCPNs) across states will be supported, including in hard-to-reach areas, to raise awareness, identify high-risk cases, and facilitate referrals to needed services, while information on referral pathways will be updated. Coordination will be enhanced to promote predictability, accountability, and collaboration among different actors (including PSEA and AAP Task Forces). The CP AoR will support partners in gathering evidence data with detailed disaggregation (by sex, age and disability) for informed decision-making.

COST OF THE RESPONSE

The CP AoR requires US$81 million to reach the 3.0 million people targeted. The AoR will prioritize improving the quality of community-based child protection through support to community structures and the quality of child protection specialised services for children most at-risk and survivors of violence, exploitation and abuse.

3.7.3 Gender-based Violence Area of Responsibility

PEOPLE IN NEED
6.7M
PEOPLE TARGETED
1.8M
REQUIREMENTS (US$)
62.8M
PARTNERS
41

SUMMARY OF NEEDS

All forms of GBV have increased since the outbreak of the conflict in April 2023. The GBV AoR and service providers have received surging reports of cases of GBV including sexual violence, particularly against IDPs in transit and during the looting of homes. The number of domestic violence cases is rising at alarming rates, along with risks of sexual violence and exploitation as women and girls are displaced, in transit, in temporary shelters, or at border crossings waiting for visas. Risks of sexual violence and exploitation also increase as economic hardship is rising due to increasing prices of basic goods including food, water, and fuel. Service providers report that GBV survivors face life-threatening consequences of both physical and mental health. Older women, adolescent girls and women and girls living with disabilities face additional concerns and challenges in this unstable environment. Vulnerable men and boys are also exposed the risks of GBV.

Key challenges facing GBV service providers are: (i) limited humanitarian access in conflict-affected states, (ii) shortage of supplies, and (iii) limited availability of specialized services. Access to services in many affected localities is severely curtailed by insecurity, destruction of goods and properties, and looting of medical supplies and facilities including health centres and hospitals. These challenges hinder the ability of GBV services to meet the significantly increasing needs.

RESPONSE STRATEGY

In 2024, the GBV AoR’s priority activities will contribute to achieving following objectives:

  1. Provide life-saving specialized quality GBV services, including clinical management of rape, case management, and psychosocial support, and reinforce referral pathways (with a focus on women and girls with disabilities and adolescent girls).
  2. Promote GBV risk mitigation into all aspects of the humanitarian response.

The response will target the most vulnerable women, adolescent girls and groups including those living with disabilities and survivors of SEA among the displaced, returnees and host-community settings in the prioritized locations.

TARGETING & PRIORITIZATION

The GBV AoR will focus on service provision to survivors of all forms of GBV and GBV risk mitigation activities such as GBV case management, referrals, specialized psychosocial support and counselling, and the distribution of dignity kits, including female hygiene items, as well as conducting GBV assessments and safety audits to identify the bottlenecks of access challenges. Women centres, including temporary or semi-permanent structures, will be used as service delivery points, providing a wide range of services, including psycho-social support, training, as well as income generation activities and economic empowerment.

To address access challenges, the GBV AoR will focus on updating referral pathways in collaboration with local actors, especially women-led organizations. Given the heightened sensitivity surrounding GBV, awareness campaigns will be essential to build trust with communities and survivors. The AoR plans to create or support Community-based Protection Networks and local women's networks to enhance awareness efforts. The GBV AoR will prioritize assisting humanitarian actors to integrate GBV risk mitigation measures into operations.

PROMOTING QUALITY & INCLUSIVE PROGRAMMING

The GBV AoR will enhance AAP through safety audits, group discussions on GBV, consultations, and sharing GBV standard operating procedures and referral mechanisms. Collaboration with the PSEA network will continue to support SEA survivors' access to GBV services. Interventions will be adjusted to meet the needs of people with disabilities, older people, and adolescent GBV survivors through an improved inter-agency referral and response mechanisms to improve access to multisectoral assistance.

COST OF RESPONSE

The GBV AoR requires US$62.8 million to reach 1.8 million people targeted. The AoR will expand GBV services through various channels, both static and mobile, and advocate for more integrated services to improve the efficiency of the response.

3.7.4 Mine Actions Area of Responsibility

PEOPLE IN NEED
6.0M
PEOPLE TARGETED
3.8M
REQUIREMENTS (US$)
15.3M
PARTNERS
7

SUMMARY OF NEEDS

Extensive use of explosive weapons has been reported since the outbreak of the ongoing conflict. As a result, the civilian population in Khartoum and other urban areas affected by the ongoing violence face an immediate risk of accidents caused by explosive ordnance (EO), which often damage critical infrastructure and subsequently deny safe access to it, further exacerbating vulnerabilities caused by the conflict. Majority of the IDPs displaced from the areas newly affected by the conflict have not been sensitised to the threat of EO. Hence, more than 6 million people across the country, including humanitarian actors, need to learn how to mitigate the threat of EO and to safely access areas contaminated with EO.

RESPONSE STRATEGY

The MA AoR will focus on the following key areas:

  1. Expand the delivery of technical advice on explosive hazards to enable humanitarian actors’ mobility in areas affected by conflict and safe access to target populations in need of humanitarian assistance.
  2. Deliver life-saving, age- and gender-tailored Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EROE) to vulnerable populations including IDPs at risk of explosive hazards.
  3. Survey and clear areas affected by conflict to enable safe population movements, safe delivery of humanitarian aid, and in support of future recovery efforts.
  4. Provide a crucial platform through coordination to collect information and requests from humanitarian partners and support delivery of a principled, prioritized approach to humanitarian mine action operations.

The MA AoR response will enable more than 3.5 millionpeople, including local residents, IDPs, and returneesto gain access to services, residences, and infrastructures, while raising awareness of EO risks and promoting safe behaviour among 270,000 at-risk people.

TARGETING & PRIORITIZATION

Areas newly affected by EO during the ongoing conflict will be prioritized for mine action where heightened movement will be expected among IDPs and returnees across these contested areas. Survey and clearance efforts will particularly focus on roads, humanitarian facilities, and other critical infrastructure Additionally, the awareness about the EOs of IDPs, returnees and resident population will be raised prioritizing areas newly affected by EO and areas severely affected during the historical conflicts.

PROMOTING QUALITY & INCLUSIVE PROGRAMMING

The MA AoR ensures the equal participation, consultation, and inclusion of affected populations in the planning and implementation of programs, considering their needs, knowledge and requirements throughout the program cycle. MA ensures that knowledge of risks related to EO among women, girls, boys, and men from diverse groups is incorporated in risk reduction efforts, clearance, and risk education. It supports multi-sectoral assistance to EO victims that is responsive to the specific needs of vulnerable groups and advocates for mainstreaming of gender and diversity considerations in national mine action policies, institutions, and programs. Additionally, MA follows the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) and UN gender guidelines. PSEA is a significant component of the MA partners’ standard operating procedures. MA also follows the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) for environmental protection to avoid possible contamination from MA activities, and ensures interventions apply the “do no harm” principle.

COST OF RESPONSE

The total cost of MA response is US$ 15.3 million, covering EORE, survey, and clearance of EO while enhancing the quality of delivery. The projected cost includes the office assets and MA equipment lost during the ongoing conflict.

References

  1. The joint and interagency assessments were carried out in different parts of the country, such as central Darfur, including Zalingei city; East Darfur (over 13 locations); North Darfur (in 7 areas of IDP camps); and Nyala town in South Darfur. Hot spot areas like Northern State (in Wadi Halfa locality and its surroundings); Khartoum South and East; and West Darfur including Geneina, Kulbus, Jebel Moon, and other localities.
  2. Around 50 per cent of reported grave child rights violations were verified in 2023 (Jan to Sep) as per MRM verification standards.
  3. 102 women and 63 girls aged 11 to 17 years old.