Sudan Appeal
Humanitarian Action for Children
UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children appeal helps support the agency’s work as it
provides conflict- and disaster-affected children with access to water, sanitation, nutrition,
education, health and protection services. Return to main appeal page.
Sudan snapshot
Appeal highlights
- Sudan is home to 14.5 million vulnerable people enduring inter-communal violence, flooding and epidemics including COVID-19, and remains under protracted pressure from conflict, economic hardship and nutritional deprivation. Institutions remain weak and unable to provide life-saving services to those displaced or affected.
- The 25 October military coup and ensuing violence could lead to a resurgence of political instability and unrest, with potentially significant implications for the country’s democratic transition, economic development and prospects for a comprehensive and lasting peace.
- UNICEF remains committed to a rights-based approach to fulfilling the needs of the most vulnerable children and their communities. Humanitarian contributions that incorporate development and peacebuilding approaches are key to delivering sustainable solutions to support the Government and its people as they go through this difficult period.
- UNICEF requires US$270 million to break the cycle of vulnerability, delivering key health services to prevent and resolve epidemics such as measles and COVID-19, prevent the long-term detriments of malnutrition, improve water and sanitation access, educate the next generation of Sudanese and protect children from the risks threatening their well-being.
Key planned results for 2022
330,000 children admitted for treatment for severe acute malnutrition
2.5 million people accessing a sufficient quantity of safe water
63,300 women and children accessing gender-based violence risk mitigation, prevention, response
3,452 schools implementing safe school protocols
Funding requirements for 2022
Country needs and strategy
Humanitarian needs
Currently, Sudan is struggling to meet its obligation to support the children that call it home. While rapid-onset emergencies such as floods, conflicts in the west (Darfur) and the south (South Kordofan/Blue Nile States) and epidemics (COVID-19, cholera, measles, viral hemorrhagic fevers, etc.) continue to draw attention, the exposure to prolonged crises such as conflict-driven displacement, economic deprivation (inflation and over-reliance on unaffordable subsidies), malnutrition and failing service infrastructure traps people and children in a perpetuating cycle of need. In 2021, each of the 18 states has been beset by one crisis or another and this trend will continue into 2022. Most of the 14.5 million people in need, including almost 8 million children, will remain unreached without adequate resources.
Political stability since the 2019 revolution has allowed steps toward economic recovery and internal peace. Since 25 October 2021, new uncertainties have emerged; however, a political agreement was signed reinstating the Prime Minister on 21 November with hopes for renewed stability. The transitional Government still lacks revenue, battling crippling inflation and the COVID-19 pandemic, and struggling to implement the rule of law. Regional turmoil is likely to trigger further refugee crises beyond the 55,785 Ethiopian refugees and 784,860 South Sudanese refugees that are among the 1.1 million refugees already hosted. Internally, 3 million IDPs in camps are awaiting resolution to current and past conflict, and solutions that span the peace, development and humanitarian spheres. Sudan remains a junction for irregular migration and must reckon with both new and old internal complexities.
For vulnerable infants living through prolonged crises and emergencies, this means 1 out of every 18 will not reach their fifth birthday and one in seven will not have enough food to prevent wasting and stunting. Waterborne diseases such as cholera remain a risk due to unsafe drinking water. Even before COVID-19, 36.5 per cent of children were out of school, dispossessing young Sudanese of education, the safety of the schoolyard and school feeding. For the community that raises the child, epidemics are a constant threat while healthcare is inadequate, and water and sanitation inaccessible. Conflict and insecurity increases forced recruitment and association with armed groups, creating physical and mental distress for all gender and age groups. Crises leave women more vulnerable to gender-based violence and negative social norms leave girls at risk of harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM) and restricted education. Community structures are ill-prepared to mitigate the risks of floods and conflict. Social welfare does not reach deep enough to provide necessities for those worst affected by economic troubles.
UNICEF’s strategy
In 2022, UNICEF will support 3.3 million of the most vulnerable individuals in Sudan, including 1.8 million children. By enhancing the linkages between development, humanitarian and peacebuilding contexts, UNICEF will act at individual, community, state and international levels to deliver meaningful, life-sustaining services to children before, during and after a crisis, contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals that are directly related to children.
UNICEF will coordinate with all actors, including United Nations agencies, government counterparts, non-governmental partners, donors and communities in 15 states 28 to deliver efficient, quality programming. Currently, UNICEF leads the Child Protection Area of Responsibility, WASH, education and nutrition sectors while actively participating in the health sector, gender-based violence sub-sector and the Refugee Consultation Forum.
Life-saving prevention, preparedness and response interventions remain a priority for UNICEF. To support every child’s health, UNICEF will prevent and treat severe malnutrition through interventions targeting children, pregnant and lactating women while providing access to public healthcare and vaccinations. UNICEF will provide innovative solutions for personal hygiene and access to safe water, combat COVID-19 and other communicable diseases. UNICEF is committed to a comprehensive protection of children's welfare, including classrooms as safe-havens as well as educational centers, and protection responses for children enduring crises.
Holding to Grand Bargain commitments, UNICEF will enhance community-based interventions, especially in areas where access was recently granted, implementing risk-informed and conflict-sensitive programming to achieve an equitable coverage of basic needs in support of the national peace process and Juba Peace Agreement. UNICEF will continue providing support and funding to local and national organizations dedicated to responding to and preventing violence, abuse and exploitation, including of women, girls and boys affected by armed conflict, while striving to keep children in schools and increase cash-based programming.
In line with the Core Commitments for Children, UNICEF will give particular consideration to gender and disability while enhancing accountability to the affected population. UNICEF will mainstream child-centered planning and gender-responsive preparedness into national planning whilecommitting to the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) and accountability to the affected populations (AAP) through reporting mechanisms including community engagement and mobilization platforms.
Programme targets
Find out more about UNICEF's work
Highlights
Humanitarian Action is at the core of UNICEF’s mandate to realize the rights of every child. This edition of Humanitarian Action for Children – UNICEF’s annual humanitarian fundraising appeal – describes the ongoing crises affecting children in Sudan; the strategies that we are using to respond to these situations; and the donor support that is essential in this response.
