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Sudan + 3 more

Sudan Annual Country Report 2023 - Country Strategic Plan 2019 - 2024

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Overview

In 2023, the outbreak of conflict in Sudan resulted in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis marked by a sharp rise in levels of acute food insecurity among the Sudanese people. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) showed that at the height of the 2023 lean season over 20.3 million individuals, constituting 42 percent of the country’s population, were acutely food insecure – a record high. The spread of violence throughout the country led to Sudan facing one of the largest displacement crises in the world, with over 8 million people being displaced since the war began, both internally and to neighbouring countries.

This unstable security situation exacerbated an already challenging operating environment, leading to a two week operational pause at the onset of the crisis. Following the resumption of activities in May, WFP and partners faced substantial difficulties related to access. WFP subsequently invested in its access capacities and worked closely with OCHA and other partners to expand the accessible network of roads. Additionally, the limited flow of information from conflict-affected areas made data verification increasingly challenging, requiring WFP to use estimates for beneficiary counts where cooperating partner distribution reports were not available due to connectivity issues.

To guide WFP’s response to the worsening humanitarian situation, WFP activated a 6-month Corporate Scale up for Sudan in June, which enabled it to shift its programming focus to life-saving operations aimed at reaching the most at-risk displaced and conflict-affected communities.

Following the temporary pause of operations, WFP quickly resumed its emergency interventions for internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees, and residents – thereby playing a critical role in increasing access to food and mitigating the extent of backsliding progress on SDG 2. In the following 8 months from May to December, WFP overcame significant challenges to deliver life-saving humanitarian assistance to millions of people, amidst raging conflict. In total, WFP reached approximately 8.4 million beneficiaries throughout 2023 overall (55 percent female). This included provision of general food assistance to around 5.8 million people (45 percent male/55 percent female. WFP also reached 394,302 children (6-59 months) pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls (PBW/Gs) with specialized nutritious food for prevention and treatment of moderate acute malnutrition. Major achievements include breakthroughs in reaching people in West and Central Darfur through the Chad-Sudan Border, as well as accessing people with life-saving assistance in Khartoum, a major battlefield.

In agreement with the World Bank, WFP quickly adjusted the implementation of the Sudan Emergency Safety Net Project to respond to the changing context. The Safety Net was adapted to the emergency setting and extended to newly-displaced IDP populations reaching over 2.6 million beneficiaries (75 percent of which received cash).

To adapt to the changing circumstances and ensure the application of context-appropriate approaches to its accountability and assurance throughout its operations, WFP revised its Identity Management (IDM) Strategy which established minimum IDM standards based on the level of access in a given context. In areas with active conflict and suboptimal access, where concerns over beneficiary safety outweighed the need for comprehensive digital IDM, paper-based registration was used to collect limited household data and recipient’s signature, while additional risk mitigation measures were taken to protect beneficiary personal data.

In parallel to scaling up emergency operations, WFP continued to invest in activities that aimed to improve resilience and build the capacity of communities to withstand shocks. While all resilience activities were halted in conflict affected areas such as Darfur and Kordofan regions, they continued to be implemented in the eastern part of Sudan where access remained constant, reaching around 27,000 households with livelihood support and asset creation throughout 2023. WFP also supported smallholder farmers (SHF) to produce and aggregate marketable surpluses and reduce post-harvest losses, reaching over 55,000 with post-harvest loss training and storage technology. On top of this, WFP worked in partnership with the African Development Bank to improve the wheat production of over 170,000 SHFs through the provision of wheat seeds and fertilizer as well as sufficient storage and technical capacities in post-harvest management and aggregation.

In addition, WFP reached close to 1 million school-going children with school meals and take-home rations during the first quarter while schools remained partially open. A focus for WFP Sudan was the restructuring of the school feeding programme by pursuing a transition from regular school feeding activities to home grown school feeding (HGSF). By laying foundations to transition to a HGSF model for when schools reopen in 2024, WFP intends to improve the livelihoods of SHFs and local communities by utilizing the demand for food created by school meals. In anticipation of the shift, WFP put in place plans to build on the procurement of 4,150 MT of Sorghum from SHFs in 2023, and has engaged with 26 farmer organizations to find a suitable quote for the purchase of 9,200 MT of sorghum for 2024.

WFP also contributed to SDG 17 through ensuring that partners operating in Sudan had access to common services. The challenging conditions meant that effective partnerships were particularly critical in facilitating a successful response to the crisis. WFP helped provide 13,000 m33 of humanitarian supplies on behalf of 13 common partners, along with transporting 11,000 passengers and more than 36 MT of light humanitarian cargo through its UNHAS service. In addition, the logistics and emergency telecommunications clusters were scaled up and activated respectively, with WFP acting as the lead agency and providing critical connectivity services to over 33 humanitarian organizations at 30 sites.

Throughout its operations, WFP remained mindful of the importance of leaving no one behind and do no harm principles. It enhanced provisions for protection and accountability to affected populations and worked to ensure that specific needs of women, girls, and other at-risk groups were monitored and addressed. As the conflict unfolded, WFP launched trainings for staff and key stakeholders on gender equality, which included PSEA and GBV. Additionally, women-only committees were formed to help better identify the needs of female beneficiaries, and GBV referral pathways were maintained and disseminated to communities.