Sudan: ICCG Operational Cross-Cutting Issues Minimum Package (October 2025)

Background:

The Sudan ICCG Operational Cross-Cutting Issues Minimum Package serves as a practical inter-agency tool to ensure the consistent and systematic integration of key cross-cutting priorities across all clusters, areas of responsibility (AoRs), and working groups/taskforces in the humanitarian response, in full alignment with the principles and spirit of the Humanitarian Reset, which places cross-cutting priorities at the center of humanitarian action and system-wide accountability.

Developed under the leadership of Thematic Advisers of the Inter-Cluster Coordination Group (ICCG), this tool defines minimum operational standards for the application of the following themes across the Humanitarian Program Cycle (HPC): Accountability to Affected People (AAP), Age, Disability and Inclusion, Child Protection, Gender in Humanitarian Action (GiHA), Gender-Based Violence (GBV), Protection, and Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA).

It is designed as a concise, action-oriented reference that supports field teams and coordination structures to mainstream these cross-cutting issues at every phase of humanitarian action — from assessment and planning to implementation and monitoring. The package also aligns with global inter-agency commitments and provides links to technical guidance for deeper application.

The adoption of this tool by the ICCG marks a step toward harmonized inter-cluster accountability. Following endorsement, the ICCG Cross-Cutting Platform, comprised of the lead Thematic Advisers, will coordinate quarterly reporting against the minimum package to track progress, identify gaps, and ensure consistency with the ICCG’s overall monitoring framework and collective reporting to the HCT. Each cluster and working group will be responsible for contributing inputs on implementation status and examples of good practice through this quarterly process.

Ultimately, the minimum package aims to strengthen collective accountability, coherence, and leadership on cross-cutting issues — ensuring that humanitarian action in Sudan is inclusive, equitable, and responsive to the distinct needs, risks, and capacities of women, men, girls, and boys, including persons with disabilities and other marginalized groups.