Sudan

Sudan has faced multiple and significant challenges in 2023. In this context, the humanitarian community in Sudan took steps to set clear and realistic boundaries for the response, to maximize the effectiveness of its limited resources and to avoid overstretching existing capacity.

The 2024 humanitarian response requires US$2.7 billion to accelerate and scale up lifesaving and protection assistance and avert further deterioration of the humanitarian situation for 14.7 million people. Where appropriate, the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) decided to reinstate activities seeking to restore safe and unhindered access to critical basic services and livelihood opportunities - paused in 2023 (after April) - to prevent further erosion of coping capacity among the most vulnerable and lay the foundation for recovery in the hope of an improvement in the situation.

Scope and boundaries

Despite the significant scale of humanitarian needs across Sudan, targeting and the financial requirements to meet urgent needs have been tempered by a restrictive operating environment due to unstable, unpredictable and at times unsafe access. This significantly impacts the collective reach of the response. With the modest level of received funding in 2023, the humanitarian community reached 5 million people with some form of humanitarian assistance, accounting for 27 per cent of the 2023 target.

Though covering the entire country, the response prioritizes meeting the critical needs of the most vulnerable - particularly those displaced, hosting communities, conflict-affected people, and refugees - based on the following criteria:

• Prioritizing the areas where cluster severity was classified at level 3 and above, and areas where high severity across clusters overlap.
• Adopting the carefully balanced approaches of prioritization and feasibility, with consideration of the current realities of access (using the existing access database as a proxy) and operational capacity (using the existing response monitoring data as a proxy) to set out where the most urgent needs are, where they can be reached and how this can be done feasibly and effectively without overstretching existing capacities.
• The planned response activities are humanitarian. No resilience-building or development activities are included.

In light of the highly fluid operational context, the HCT will closely monitor the implementation of the response plan and adjust its course throughout 2024 as the environment evolves. In case of significant changes, including any improved access to the areas defined as “hard-to-reach” at the time of planning, this response plan will be revised to reflect additional actions and financial resources required to bolster the response in a timely manner and to sustain and expand access to people in need. At the time of writing, partners are reviewing operational coordination mechanisms across the regions to identify ways to increase response in difficult and/or hard-to-reach areas.

Areas of focus for the 2024 response

• Addressing access impediments through strengthening the principled engagement with all parties to the conflict and joint evidence-based access advocacy and negotiation, calling for upholding the Jeddah Declaration to ensure protection of civilians and local responders. The Joint Operating Principles (JOPs), endorsed by the HCT in July 2023, should be capitalized on. The current cross-border operations from Chad (through five crossing points into Sudan) should be scaled up. Where feasible, additional alternative delivery mechanisms will be explored.
• Increased support to and engagement with the grassroots communities' networks in Sudan through innovative and conflict-sensitive approaches, including, but not limited to, flexible and area-based coordination arrangements (complementary to the IASC humanitarian coordination system), expanded capacity-strengthening efforts on technical aspects of programming (e.g. psychosocial support, including Social Emotional Learning (SEL), education in emergencies, monitoring and evaluation, etc), and facilitating direct access to funding opportunities.¹
• Prevent encampment: Encampments are harmful to the physical and mental health of displaced people, dehumanizing and disempowering them, and can prolong displacement. Efforts will focus on having a clear operational strategy/approach to support IDPs in host communities, maintain solidarity and prevent encampment in the absence of a conducive environment for safe returns.
• Increased focus on integrating protection in humanitarian efforts and centrality of protection: This will be done by assessing the threats the different groups of affected people, particularly women and girls, are facing, how those threats affect women, men, boys and girls as well as other marginalised groups differently, and what they are doing to protect themselves. Agencies will embed protection principles in their programs to proactively anticipate and mitigate dangers. This is to ensure that their programmes would not create additional risks to affected people and identify opportunities to reduce the threat or reduce their exposure to it. Impartial information and analysis will be provided to those who can take political and diplomatic actions to improve the situation for affected people.
• Joint Efforts to Mitigate GBV Risks: Rapid assessments² reveal an exacerbation of GBV and protection risks partly due to insufficient mitigation measures across various clusters. All clusters and agencies reaffirm their commitment to reducing GBV risks by implementing action plans based on the IASC guidelines for integrating GBV interventions in humanitarian action. The approach involves avoiding actions that cause or increase GBV risks associated with humanitarian programming, ensuring safe access to services for vulnerable populations, and actively reducing GBV risks in the environment and service delivery. Agencies will also promote resilience by strengthening national and community-based systems to prevent and mitigate GBV, facilitating access to care and support for survivors and those at risk.
• The scaling up of multipurpose cash assistance (MPCA) in 2024 is poised to be a transformative strategy that significantly enhances the effectiveness and efficiency of the response. MPCA, being inherently multisectoral, provides a unique and flexible modality to address the diverse and immediate needs of conflict-affected households. The collaborative efforts of the Cash Working Group (CWG) and Cluster Coordinators demonstrate a commitment to maximizing the impact of MPCA through improved coordination, reduced duplication, and enhanced monitoring and reporting practices. This not only addresses immediate humanitarian needs but also lays the foundation for a more coordinated and effective response in the complex context of Sudan.

A number of supporting initiatives will be undertaken throughout 2024 to create a conducive context in support of these specific areas of focus. These include (i) decentralization of coordination and operational structure that is operationally oriented and inclusive of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) – both national and international; (ii) improved focus on primary data collection and needs assessments to adequately inform response prioritization and targeting as the situation evolves; (iii) robust risk management, including to mitigate the risk of aid diversion; and (iv) raising the profile of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan in support of resource mobilization.