Sudan’s ongoing conflict has severely disrupted economic ecosystems and activities, financial infrastructure and market systems. Inflation remains extremely high, with the food component of the Minimum Expenditure Basket (MEB) having doubled between March 2024 and April 2025, while hygiene items rose by 77 per cent. Currency depreciation, widespread liquidity shortages and fragmentation of the financial system have further eroded household purchasing power. The collapse of formal banking in nearly half the country has increased reliance on informal transfer systems, which face fluctuating liquidity. Despite these constraints, state-level markets remain functional overall, and cash and voucher assistance (CVA) continues to be effective and strongly preferred, with over 90 per cent of affected households identifying cash as the most dignified and responsive form of support. These economic shocks disproportionately affect women and female-headed households. MSNA findings show that female-headed households are more likely to be financially excluded and less likely to receive cash assistance, despite facing higher levels of food insecurity and caregiving burdens. Women are also more reliant on informal and mobile transfer mechanisms, with implications for safety, access and reliability.
“Cash support enables me to manage my expenses based on my personal priorities.”
Affected woman in El Obeid, North Kordofan
Response planning
In the community consultations for the HNRP, affected people placed cash assistance as their top preferred type and modality of assistance. In line with this feedback, humanitarian actors plan to reach 1 million vulnerable households across Sudan with multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA) in 2026, for which they require $121.3 million. Targeting prioritizes inter-sectoral severity 4 and 5 localities, where markets remain functional and where Food Security and Livelihoods (FSL) Cluster coverage is limited.
MPCA will be delivered in line with the Cash Working Group’s (CWG) endorsed transfer value of 360,000 SDG (roughly $150) per household per month, provided for three months. This amount is derived from the national median MEB and circulated monthly by the Joint Market Monitoring Initiative, with adjustments triggered when median prices shift by ±15%. For newly displaced households and sudden-onset crises, a one-off $217 transfer will be provided to meet immediate needs. Planning is informed by MSNA data and continuous market-functionality monitoring.
Group Cash Transfers (GCTs) remain essential in access-constrained, besieged or hard-to-reach locations. Transfer values range from $3,000 to $7,000, with $5,000 recommended by the CWG. GCTs enable communities and groups to rapidly address priority humanitarian needs while preserving flexibility and collective decision-making.
The CWG will continue to provide overarching coordination for MPCA and support sectoral CVA across clusters to ensure harmonization, reduce duplication, and strengthen referral pathways. Joint CWG–FSL Cluster delineation guidance clarifies complementary roles between MPCA (meeting unmet basic needs) and sectoral cash (addressing cluster-specific gaps). The CWG and FSL also jointly developed market-in-crisis guidance to support cash programming in constrained environments. Technical working groups on MEB/transfer values, Financial Service Providers and liquidity, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL), and GCTs reinforce coherence, harmonize tools, and coordinate liquidity management while ensuring adaptive, market-sensitive response design.
The humanitarian CVA maintains alignment with existing social protection systems, particularly UNICEF’s Mother and Child Cash Transfer Plus (MCCT+) Programme, which complements humanitarian CVA by strengthening government-linked delivery systems and contributing to long-term, inclusive and adaptive national social protection structures.
Read more on the CVA and MPCA response in 2026 here.