22-23 Sudan DRA JR4 During the past five years, Sudan has seen an increase in the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance from 5.8 million people in 2016 to 13.4 million in 2021. South Kordofan and Khartoum contain localities with priorities for humanitarian interventions. The Sudan Joint Response 4 aims to address the needs in 2022 and 2023 by providing affected people with multi-sectoral assistance to respond to the immediate needs and protection risks of the most vulnerable and conflict affected people in targeted areas in Khartoum, North- Darfur, East Darfur, South Kordofan, White Nile and Gadaref, through an effective and efficient humanitarian response by Dutch NGOs, national partners and actors.SOS in collaboration with VCO will achieve its overall objective which is: to contribute to build families for children in need, and help them shape their own futures, and share in the development of their communities. This will be done while increasing the resilience of protracted displacement and refugee groups, and vulnerable host communities, by addressing protection needs, FSL (Food security and Livelihood) and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) for improved health, protection and livelihood in two prioritized localities in South Kordofan (Rashad and Abu Jubayhah) and two prioritized localities in Khartoum (Jebel Awlia and Um Bada). With three specific objectives and its outcomes:

Objective 1. Contribute to meet the immediate food security needs of IDPs, Refugees and conflict-affected host communities living in 4 localities within SK and Khartoum states.
Objective 2. Provide protection services to vulnerable crisis affected people, including those with special needs, and to strengthen community-based protection mechanisms to prevent and respond to protection risks, and to address protection needs in Khartoum and South Kordofan. 
Objective 3: Vulnerable affected population in Khartoum and South Kordofan live in satisfactory conditions of sanitation and hygiene •        IDP’s & Refugees:  Sudan is both a destination and transit country for asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants from at least ten countries. After Uganda, Sudan is hosting the second-highest number of refugees fleeing violence from South Sudan . Refugees in Sudan reside in camps, out-of-camp settlements, and urban areas across 18 states. Of the 1.1 million refugees in Sudan, 48% are under 18 years old. This action targets at least 50,447 IDPs, returnees and refugees in Gedaref and rural North and South Darfur. In Gedaref, the action will target Um Rakouba camp where Ethiopian refugees fleeing the conflict in the Tigray region reside. In East Darfur the action will target Al Salam and Kalma IDP camps. Many South Sudanese refugees take residence in this area as well. In North Darfur and South Kordofan IDP’s and refugees in and out of camp are targeted with direct live-saving services and appropriate flexible FSL, WASH, Health and Protection solutions, following a multi-sectoral approach. IDPs and refugees are an important target group for the conflict resolution interventions under FSL. 
•        Returnees & Host communities have also been subjected to adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic drought, flooding and conflict with major effects on child protection as well as loss of livelihoods. The project will ensure protection mechanisms led by the communities are reinforced and functional. This includes support for Family Tracing and Reunification. 
•        Women and girls: Women and girls are more likely to experience a worsening of existing inequalities as result of the protracted crisis in Sudan. For example, 70% of food insecure people are women and girls in Sudan. As such, mainstreaming Gender throughout the entire project cycle is key. In North Darfur, South Kordofan and Khartoum the JR partners will work with different stakeholders including the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Social Development to conduct a gender assessment and understand the social and economic political factors that affect gender needs and opportunities in the project target areas. Based on the identified needs and gaps, Gender, GBV, and safeguarding are mainstreamed in capacity building and all project staff and frontline workers are trained on the gender-sensitive approach. In addition, the project is designed to respond directly to the needs of women, because of their disadvantaged position. Project sites, for example latrines in South Kordofan, are rehabilitated following gender considerations to ensure privacy and safeguarding, and support menstrual hygiene management (MHM). Considering FSL, the project builds on previous successes of SDNJR1-3 of building women’s financial assets, which strengthens women’s financial knowledge and saving habits, improving women’s agency and organizational skills, providing safe spaces to exercise leadership and eventually improve their decision making and negotiation at household level as well as increasing their resilience to shocks. Apart from this the project will ensure that women have equal representation in the various committees established in the project.
•        Adolescence and youth: Targeted activities will ensure adolescents are actively involved in the process and activities. The JR4 will seek to target adolescence and youth through DRR interventions and youth involvement and FSL livelihoods activities and peace & reconciliation activities to ensure they receive appropriate targeted services to help them reintegrate into their communities and can act as agents of change. This group will be targeted for life skills, case management and vocational training and peer support activities. The vocation training subjects will be determined with the input of the targeted adolescents. 
•        Children: The project will provide training on the child friendly feedback and response mechanism to capture the needs, priorities, and relevance of the project inputs to children, boys and girls. Boys and girls will also be targeted through the project’s Child Protection activities by providing high quality case managements services, Family Tracing and Reunification, Education support and multi-purpose cash support for the most vulnerable children based on the updated Minimum Basket Expenditure MBE value that is agreed on by the cash working group as well as consultation with relevant partners.  
•        Men and boys: The project will reach men and boys through targeted FSL, Protection, Health, WASH and CfW activities but also will engage boys and men gender equality awareness, child protection and GBV risk mitigation, and roles and responsibilities training activities. Based on lessons learned from SDNJR1-3, the partners have noted the importance of ensuring gender-sensitive approaches to engage boys and men on topics of gender equality and participation of girls and women. The 2020 AAP report has include recommendations on the involvement of boys and men, to be adapted in the response to promote positive masculinity.   
•        PWD & Elderly: The construction of additional classrooms, latrines and/or the provision of water points will accommodate the needs of people with disabilities. Awareness campaigns on disability inclusion will be conducted, and teachers will be trained on inclusive learning environments. The selection of the CPCBN members will take the inclusivity aspect into account and proportionally include men, women, youth representation, PWD, and minorities. In 2019 Sudan experienced a political transition where months of sustained street protests have led to the fall of Omar al-Bashir. On July 5, 2019 a transition process started during which a transitional government, the so called Transitional Military Council, comprising of military representatives, representatives from the Forces for Freedom and Change and members to represent armed groups governed the country and prepared the way towards democratic elections. On August 31, 2020 and September 3, 2020 peace agreements were signed between Sudan's transitional government and the Sudan Revolutionary Front and between the transitional government and SPLM-North al-Hilu rebel faction, officially ending nearly two decades of armed conflict and bloodshed in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile. During 2021, tensions have escalated between the military and civilian components of the transitional authority in Sudan which resulted in a military coup on October 25, 2021. Thousands of people are currently protesting at sit-ins calling on the different parties as the country grapples with the biggest crisis since the end of Omar al-Bashir’s government. Civilian officials including the prime minister have been detained and the airport in Khartoum is closed. Sudan has been facing shortages of basic commodities after anti-government protesters blocked a port in Red Sea state. Due to the port block the country is running out of life-saving medicines, fuel, and wheat stocks  . JR partner offices have been working in low profile with only essential staff on standby. Over the last weeks, implementation has been suspended in all offices, pending evolution of events in the country. Limited access to internet connectivity (mobile internet has not yet been restored and most other internet providers are working below capacity) continues to affect normal working environment for staff, partners as well as vendors and suppliers. At this point in time it is not clear how the situation will affect the Sudan Joint Response in the coming weeks and months as the situation continues to evolve. 

The humanitarian situation in Sudan is driven by an economic crisis, localized conflict, protracted internal displacement, climate shocks (drought and flooding), cyclical disease outbreaks, and pressure from hosting more than 1 million refugees and asylum seekers. Furthermore, the economic crisis, including inflation (the inflation rate has reached 412.75% as of June 2021) resulted in record-high numbers of food-insecure people. According to the Humanitarian Needs Overview report of 2021, the number of people in need in Sudan in 2021 is the highest reported in the past decade, having a total of 13.4 million people requiring life-sustaining support to meet minimum living standards. The COVID-19 measures significantly affected commodity movement, market functionality and cross-border trade, and compromised livelihoods and daily labour opportunities. This reduced households’ purchasing power and access to basic commodities for the most vulnerable people. According to the HRP 2021, the Health sector has the highest number of people in need – 9.2 million, followed by WASH – 9 million, and the Food Security and Livelihoods sector – 8.2 million people in need and Education 2.1 million children in need. Whilst, Protection needs are most severe in localities of Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile, and increasing in parts of eastern Sudan .  There are 2.5 million IDPs in Sudan. Most of them are in the Darfur states, South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, which have also been epicentres of conflict over the past 17 years . These are also the areas with the highest percentage of people in need – 52% of all people in these states are in need of humanitarian assistance. Besides, Sudan hosts over 1.1 million refugees, including 763,000 refugees from South Sudan and more than 61,000 Ethiopian refugees, and acts as a key transit country for migrants from the Horn of Africa heading to Europe.