Multi-sectoral Assistance to Vulnerable Households in North Delta – Kassala State Plan International Sudan (PIS) with its sub-grant partner SORD propose to implement this project in 10 out of 42 communities of North Delta locality in Kassala State, where it has maintained long-term presence for over ten years immersed in the lives of community members by supporting development and resilience building efforts. Based on an intention of targeting 20,770 people (5500 men, 5836 women, 4813 boys amp 4621 girls), PIS identified the highest priority needs for North Delta as being income, food and nutrition security by consulting various groups of beneficiary community members, line ministries, attending cluster meetings, and one-on-one discussions with Ministry of Health (MoH), UNICEF, WFP, and FAO. At State level, at least 400 000 people experience low food consumption, poor food preparation amp food hygiene practices, and low purchasing power due to rising cereal prices, poor harvests from climate change impacts amp farming techniques, lack of entrepreneurship skills, and low access to financial services for income generation activities (IGAs).  Food and nutrition insecurity result in poor zinc/iron rich diets, high prevalence of GAM among under 5 children (7.9%) and SAM among pregnant/ lactating women (11.4%), leading to morbidity and mortality. Communities also resort to negative coping strategies like urban migration, disposal of assets, neglect and economic and sexual exploitation of children, adolescent girls, and women.

This project thus intends to address the issues with an integrated approach that aligns with the HRP 2020 outcomes to support crisis affected people to reduce mortality and morbidity, build resilience to withstand recurrent shocks, and strengthen prevention and mitigation of protection risks that are heightened during food and nutrition insecurity crises.  The project will target all three sectoral interventions at 20,770 people from households (HH) experiencing, food and nutrition insecurity to improve practices for diversified IGAs and crop amp livestock farming, increase access to nutrition services, and reduce protection risks that children, adolescent girls, and women may face due to increased vulnerabilities in times of crisis.  PIS has aligned its project to cluster priority activities under each sector as follows:  Food Security amp Livelihoods (FSL): targeting women and men, PIS will provide inputs for crop and livestock farmers support extension services and training on improved sustainable practices provide IGA training, input tools, and output market linkages and clean‐up of irrigation water canals. Nutrition: targeting children between 6 to 59 months, and pregnant and lactating women (PLW), PIS will support community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) and infant young child feeding (IYCF) services for severe and moderate acute malnutrition (SAM, MAM) cases with community outreach and nutrition amp reproductive health education campaigns, MUAC screening, treatment referral, volunteer training, and support mother support groups.  Protection: in FSL and nutrition sector sessions, PIS will highlight protection risks and other cross-cutting issues e.g. health emergencies (COVID-19, Dengue fever) that impact beneficiary groups and compound food and nutrition insecurity problems and general well-being.  Focus will be on supporting a women’s centre, and train and build the capacity of community-based child protection networks (CBCPN) to provide services on risk identification, reporting, referral/ responding, and raising awareness.  These interventions are intended to build synergies with on-going work by PIS, its partner and other actors, and for PIS, this builds on integrated water resource management and food security projects.