Attachments
Executive Summary
Since the fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) broke out on 15th April 2023, humanitarian needs have increased from 16 million to 24.7 million people in need. The United Nations has placed Sudan at Programme Criticality Level I. As such, international staff have been evacuated. To meet this critical humanitarian response gap, local women-led and youth organisations, and neighborhood committees have stepped in to support the communities. Since the onset of the crisis, local populations and the humanitarian response have struggled with intermittent telephone and internet connectivity and continue to operate in a highly insecure situation with minimum resources.
To support these organisations, UN Women has developed terms of reference for a twophase rapid gender assessment (RGA). Phase One (I) was initiated between May 10 and 20, 2023 - a period when most families were fleeing from conflict areas to safer localities, while others were still living in conflict areas, undecided whether to move or not. Those with elderly parents struggled to convince them to relocate from conflict areas. Most of the data collectors, research assistants, and data analysts were forced to continually relocate due to heavy shelling within their locations. Phase One (I) had two key objectives: (a) to map the local organisations, with a special focus on women-led and youth-led organisations, providing lifesaving humanitarian needs to women, girls, boys, and men. This cohort was either fleeing conflict areas or arriving in the receiving areas, requiring resources; and (b) to fully comprehend access to lifesaving goods and services from a gender perspective, including access to water, food, shelter, and sources of income; participation of women in decision-making processes at household and community levels; and gender division of labor and any shift in gender roles and responsibilities; the prevalence of sexual and gender-based violence; and coping strategies applied by households to cope. The Phase covered five states: Khartoum, Blue Nile, Darfur, Red Sea State, and the White Nile State. Using snowballing and purposeful research techniques, key informants were selected to identify respondents, including women, men and youth leaders, community leaders, and civil society activists.
This Initial Rapid Gender Assessment provides information on the different needs, capacities, and coping strategies of women, girls, boys, and men in Sudan. These needs are presented as follows: (a) Needs requiring immediate attention and, (b) Needs requiring mid-term interventions.