WFP Sudan Monthly Bulletin January 2014

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IDPs in Geneina Camp in West Darfur listen to interventions by WFP Sudan

Donors ECHO and DFID.

Photo: WFP/Maïssa Khattab

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Operational Highlights

Regional Unrest: Sudan currently faces two level-

three WFP corporate emergencies along its borders—

Central African Republic (CAR) and South Sudan. While

on alert for any possible spill over from CAR, the

pressing humanitarian crisis in South Sudan has called

for immediate assistance and necessitated the formulation

of an Immediate Response (IR) EMOP. In response,

WFP has reopened its sub-office in Kosti and distributed

emergency food assistance to more than 12,000 new

arrivals across two states, in addition to transporting

NFIs for around 5,000 individuals.

Cash Voucher Expansion: In January, GFD cash

vouchers were introduced in three new camps in Darfur

— Zam Zam, Ardamata and Dorti — giving WFP verified

beneficiaries the opportunity to choose locally preferred

ingredients from mobile markets inside the camps for

the first time. 118,000 individuals will benefit from this

expansion in Zam Zam camp alone, and a further 25,000

in Ardamata and Dorti combined.

S3M Data Release: In January, findings from the

Simple Spatial Sampling Methodology (S3M) nutrition survey

conducted in July 2013 by the Federal Ministry of Health

and UNICEF were released. While only preliminary data is

available at this stage, it confirms Global Acute Malnutrition

(GAM) rates well above the 15% emergency threshold in

a number of locations, including double (30%) in seven

out of 17 locations in North Darfur, and as high as 34%,

27.3%, and 21.8% in Tokar, Haya and Agig localities of Red

Sea State, highlighting the need for a comprehensive

response on the ground.

Increased Insecurity in South Darfur: On 21 January,

WFP’s compound in Gereida, South Darfur was broken

into by armed combatants who looted fuel, forcing eight

staff members to spend the night in the office. Elswhere,

unknown armed groups attacked WFP contracted fleet

loaded with NFIs and WFP commodities, including

supplementary food for children, in four separate

incidents throughout the state.

Resource Mobilisation

The 2013 WFP Sudan Emergency Operation (200457)

closed on 31 December with resources amounting to

US$276.8 million confirmed, representing 70% of overall

funding requirements. The 2014 EMOP (200597) commenced

on 1 January 2014 and has already received US$193

million following generous contributions from the United

States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Russia,

leaving an existing shortfall of 49%.

Pipeline

WFP requires an additional US$56.7 million between

now and April to cover a shortfall of 31,120 MT of assort-

ed food commodities — including Supercereal, Super-

cereal Plus and Dry Skimmed Milk (DSM) — and

US$20.7 million for voucher activities from mid-July

onwards. In addition, the Country Office has to reim-

burse US$32 million received from WFP’s corporate

advance financing mechanism, to allow for preposition-

ing in remote locations of Sudan, including Darfur. The

loan enabled the procurement of 23,369 MT of food

commodities and allowed WFP to kick off the 2014 oper-

ation at a fully-fledged level when combined with the

early release of 88,390 MT of assorted commodities from

Food for Peace in July 2013.

EMOP 2014

AT A GLANCE

4 million beneficiaries—3.1 million in

Darfur, 900,ooo in CETA

287,000 MT of food

US$376 million budget

US$50 million voucher programme—

15% of beneficiaries in 2014 will receive

cash/commodity vouchers

60% of beneficiaries are enrolled in

general food distribution (GFD)

programmes;

Newly-displaced and

accessible populations

assisted by WFP between

January and December 2013

436,585 in Darfur

15,380 in South Kordofan

40,080 in North Kordofan

48,700 in Blue Nile

WFP Sudan: Humanitarian Response to South Sudan Crisis

Emergency Update

Since fighting broke out in Juba in mid-December, approximately 23,960 South-Sudanese have been displaced into

Sudan (excluding Abyei). In response, the Sudan Country Office has activated an Immediate Response (IR) EMOP to

cater for the needs of up to 50,000 refugees arriving in the border states of South Kordofan, White Nile and Blue Nile

States. Valued at US$1 million and with total food requirements of 862.5MT, the IR EMOP has the capacity to provide

affected populations with full general food distribution (GFD) rations for a period of one month. As of 31 January, WFP

had distributed 30.5MT of emergency food assistance to 1,634 new arrivals in two locations of South Kordofan State

(Elleri and Abu Gebaiha). WFP has continued to distribute emergency GFD rations to affected populations since then

reaching more than 12,000 people and anticipates that a longer-term intervention to the crisis will be required. WFP

Sudan is therefore seeking additional resources to cover US$3.35 million required to implement a second phase of as-

sistance to provide specially fortified foods to 10,000 children under five and pregnant and lactating women (PLW)

through the Blanket Supplementary Feeding Programme (BSFP), and 1,200 malnourished children under five and PLW

through the Targeted Supplementary Feeding Programme (TSFP), in addition to continued GFD and logistical support.

New Displacements in 2013

In 2013, the security situation and operating

context deteriorated significantly across Sudan,

further impacting what is already one of the

world’s most protracted humanitarian crises.

Increased fighting between Government forces

and armed groups, as well as inter- and intra-

tribal conflict over land and resources resulted in

the internal displacement of more than half a

million people across Sudan, the highest

cumulative number of new internally displaced

persons (IDPs) since 2008.* In many areas of

displacement there are few indications that the

security situation will improve in 2014—on the

contrary, clashes continue to erupt in many

locations causing further displacements, most

notably in South and East Darfur.

* New displacements were principally concentrated in the South and East Darfur region with limited displacements in Central and North Darfur and areas bordering South Sudan (North and South Kordofan and Blue Nile States).

Cereal Shortfall Following Below-Average Rainy Season

Findings from the latest Annual Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission (CFSAM) indicate significant production

shortfalls throughout Sudan following poor rainfall and delays in planting in the main producing regions of Gedaref,

and following a resurgence of fighting in Darfur and South Kordofan states. The assessment, which was led by the Food

and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Sudan’s Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, shows that for the 2013/14

season, the total production of sorghum, millet and wheat—the main staple cereals—is estimated at 2.85 million tonnes, only

48% of the total production in 2012 (5.89 million tonnes) and 68 % of the five-year average (4.19 million tonnes).

In light of the constrained market supplies, cereal prices have either remained at their peak lean season levels or have

continued to increase in January. Between December 2013 and January 2014, sorghum prices increased by 14% in

Kadugli (South Kordofan), 5% in El Fasher (North Darfur) and 15% in Ed Dein (East Darfur) despite ongoing harvests

country-wide. Normally, prices decrease at this time of year.

Moving forward, WFP’s Vulnerability, Assessment & Mapping (VAM) unit will monitor the situation closely and pro-

vide regular updates to the Sudan Country Office to guide WFP programming in 2014.

Newly-Displaced and Accessible Populations

Assisted by WFP in 2013

Table I shows the total (unique) number of newly displaced populations assisted

by WFP in 2013; 540,745. This figure includes 48,700 beneficiaries in government

-controlled territories of Blue Nile State whose needs were not catered for in the

original EMOP (200457) and who received GFD support following improved

access to the region in April 2013. The blue line represents figures initially reported to

WFP, and which subsequently reduced during the rapid verification process.

Cash Voucher-Based School Meals Introduced

in North Darfur

In December, WFP Sudan piloted a cash voucher programme targeting

23,450 students in 29 schools in El Salam and Abu Shouk IDP camps,

North Darfur currently receiving WFP daily school meals. While WFP

has been transitioning beneficiaries from in-kind food assistance to

cash vouchers in North Darfur since 2011, the decision to include

school children in the caseload arose following challenges in 2013

related to the timely delivery/dispatch of in-kind food to the region,

largely due to insecurity and limited road accessibility during the rainy

season, resulting in commodity shortfalls and reduced rations.

Consequently, WFP approached the State Ministry of Education and

other stakeholders about a possible shift in modality from in-kind food

assistance to cash vouchers.

Under the programme, children are provided with one hot meal a day

at break time composed of local food items including 130 grams of cereals,

15 grams of pulses, 10 grams of oil and 5 grams of salt and providing

574 kilo calories per child per day. Now though, instead of receiving a

school meal prepared with the WFP in-kind food basket, schools will

have the opportunity to choose from up to 15 commodities available

from mobile markets inside the camps, and from which they can make

locally preferred recipes including ‘Belila’. Targeted schools will receive cash vouchers containing a value of 15 SDG per

child per month (approximately US$2.51). The school headmaster, along with representatives of the Parent Teacher

Association (PTA), will be responsible for redeeming the cash vouchers as well as storing the commodities and

maintaining records of daily utilization.

Commenting positively on the pilot, Mohamed Imam, Headmaster of El Salam 12 Boys School, said: “The assistance

through cash voucher is the best I have seen because it gives us the opportunity to choose the food commodities to

serve to the children who now find a change on their plates”. “The Food Management Committees (FMCs) and cooks

set up a weekly menu of various recipes which children appreciate a lot as it is tasty and fully made of local food, and no

single grain remains on the plates once served”, he added.

The pilot, which will continue in the selected schools until the end of the school year in March 2014, will be followed

with an evaluation to determine whether it should be expanded into different locations.

In 2014 WFP plans to assist approximately 900,000 children mainly in IDP camps and food insecure areas through

school feeding programmes across Sudan, 260,000 in North Darfur alone.

January 2014—WFP Head of North Darfur Area

Office Abdirahman Meygag and Head of El

Fasher Sub-Office Yahia Medani with El Salaam

26 Girls School’s cook at El Salam IDP Camp, El

Fasher, North Darfur. Photo: WFP/Odette Kishabaga

DFID and ECHO visit WFP Activities

in West Darfur

In December, WFP Sudan donors DFID and ECHO

travelled to El Geneina, West Darfur for a two-day

mission to visit WFP cash voucher distributions in

Sultan House IDP camp, and meet with beneficiaries

participating in WFP’s camp profiling exercise in

Ardamata camp. While there, DFID and ECHO

discussed the verification exercise, the various steps

and procedures involved in the camp profiling process,

and beneficiaries’ expectations. They also met with

traders at local mobile markets where they engaged

in a dialogue on the efficiency of the voucher system

and saw a GFD in-kind distribution at Abuzar camp.

DFID and ECHO ended their trip with a visit to WFP’s

El Geneina warehouse which has the capacity to

store up to 24,000 MT of food commodities.

ECHO’s Jean-Marc Jouineau and DFID’s Ian Byram visit a trader shop using

WFP vouchers in Geneina, West Darfur. Photo: WFP/Maïssa Khattab

In Memoriam. WFP Sudan was deeply saddened by the untimely passing in late 2013 of colleagues Mahmoud Mohamed Alamin Shareif in Kassala, Thomas Marco Kwoll in Port Sudan and El Hag Ahmed Osman in Khartoum.

The World Food Programme

School Meals Keep Children in

Schools in Sudan

Red Sea State – Ayisha dreams of becoming a doctor someday. As she is only a fifth-grader at Um Almomineen Basic School, she knows that she still has a long way to go before she realizes her dream. For now she enjoys going to school and learning the basics of mathematics, science and grammar.

In the Red Sea State alone where Ayisha’s school is located, the retention rate in WFP-assisted schools stands at 97.3 percent compared to the state level rate of 87.2 percent. These schools are found in some of the most food-insecure areas in Red Sea State and statistics from these schools are found to be better than the state average.

“If there is no school feeding, there will be no classes,” said Mohammed Idriss Karar, the Headmaster at Ayisha’s school, adding that the programme has been a good incentive for parents to send their children to school.

“All the students of the school are sharing the school meal which encourages them to attend and encourages parents to enrol their children,” he said.

Ayisha and her classmates each receive a cooked meal at lunch time. The meal consists mainly of cereals and pulses to give them the energy they need throughout the school day.

Launched in 1969, the programme has been WFP’s longest running programme in Sudan and has contributed significantly to the country’s education system by keeping enrolment and retention rates high in schools in food-insecure and conflict-affected areas such as those in the region of Darfur.

While basic education is free in Sudan parents, especially in rural areas, find it difficult to keep up with school-related expenses such as books, stationery, uniforms and pocket money.

Ayisha’s father, Ibrahim, is a school teacher whose salary is barely enough to cover university fees of his two elder daughters and school fees of his other children who are studying at secondary schools.

“With all these expenses, I find it difficult to meet the needs of all my children, and this programme has lifted the burden of providing a school meal to Ayisha ,” he said.

The cost of feeding a child in school throughout the year is estimated at US$34.

“This is quite a small amount of money compared to the huge impact a simple daily meal has on a child’s life and future in general,” said WFP Head of School Feeding Programme in Sudan Arduino Mangoni.

Ayisha Ibrahim attends one of 182 schools receiving school meals in 10 localities in

Red Sea State as part of WFP’s Food for Education (FFE) programme which

benefits a total of 25,908 students across the State. Photo: WFP/Abdulaziz Abdulmomin

Ayisha is one of the 860,000 school

children who benefits from the Food for

Education (FFE) programme that WFP has

been supporting in 2,394 schools in eight

states in Sudan. More than 600,000

children are in the conflict-affected region of

Darfur and the rest in Central and Eastern

regions of Sudan.

Food for Education (FFE) in

Sudan, 2013-2014 School Year

Personal Digital Assistants Piloted in West &

Central Darfur

In West and Central Darfur, WFP continued to roll out its pilot exercise to train staff and implementing partners, including the Government of Sudan (GoS), in the use of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). First introduced in 40 locations in November 2013 during data collection for the sixteenth round of the Food Security and Monitoring System (FSMS), the Area Office has since trained a further 12 people in PDA data collection, entry and programing.

PDAs have proven an effective tool in capturing and retrieving data, including food security, market and nutrition data, as well as reducing entry errors and the amount of time required for data entry and analysis. In West and Central Darfur, the Area Office was able to complete 700 questionnaires in 17 days using PDAs, half the time it would have taken to complete the process manually and without the logistical burden of transporting almost 8,000 pages (the equivalent of 700 paper questionnaires) to the field and back again and thus making a significant saving to the environment. Using PDAs, the costs of data entry related tasks and personnel have also been reduced; as the data is entered automatically results can be ready for analysis in less than an hour once the information is uploaded. In contrast, manual data entry can take up to a month.

The Geneina Area Office now plans to buy 150 PDAs for the West Darfur Ministry of Agriculture to enhance their efficiency in data collection and analysis, and has also begun piloting them in the collection of Monitoring & Evaluation data.

An official from WFP implementing partner Ministry of

Agriculture conducting a questionnaire using a PDA in

Habila IDP Camp in West Darfur. Depending on its

memory size, a PDA can hold data relating to more than

2 million questionnaires. Photo: WFP/El Geneina Area Office.

Farmers to Market (F2M) Improves

Livelihoods in Sudan

Findings released in January from the Farmers to Markets (F2M) Evaluation Report of the 2012/2013 farming season (in North Kordofan, Kassala and North and West Darfur) show that, on average, 70% of farmers evaluated reported an increase in their area under cultivation and between 50 and 70% a surplus in production. In North Kordofan, farmers also indicated a positive impact on their financial security, with 26% of participants remarking that they had now started to save regularly and 81% that they could now send their children to school.

First piloted by WFP in Kassala in 2010, WFP has since expanded F2M to five additional states Sudan-wide. The objectives of F2M are to help small holder farmers register with farmers’ associations, receive training from agricultural extension services and receive micro-financing to improve their production and skills so that their food production and/or income is increased and they are able to become self-sufficient over the longer-term.

In 2014 WFP is planning to enrol 120,000 participants in the F2M project, enabling WFP to reach 600,000 beneficiaries across nine states.

WFP Enhances its Partnerships to Tackle

Sudan’s Nutrition Crisis

In January, WFP signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) in line with the National Health System Strategic Plan. The broad areas of collaboration will be development of national policies, national capacities for nutrition programming and monitoring, implementation of food-based preventive nutrition programmes and advocacy for allocation of external donors’ and government’s budget to the nutrition sector.

Furthermore, the signing in November 2013 of an MoU with the FMoH, Red Sea State MoH, Red Sea State Ministry of Industry and UNICEF has led to the development of a joint annual workplan for 2014. Together this unified effort aims to increase the production of adequately iodized salt from 41% to over 60% in Sudan and the consumption of adequately iodized salt from existing levels of 9.5% to 50% or more by December 2015. Through its partnership with the Micronutrient Initiative, WFP will continue to provide technical support to salt producers in Red Sea State to achieve these objectives.

WFP Deputy Country Director Margot van der Velden with

officials from the Federal and Red Sea State Ministry of Health

and State Ministry of Economic Affairs and Investment during

the signing ceremony. Photo: WFP/Port Sudan Area Office

A Farmers to Markets participant in Kassala

during the 2012 cultivation season. Photo: WFP/

Kassala Area Office

UNAMID Increases its Support

to WFP Operations

In late 2013, UNAMID’s Humanitarian Protection Strategy Coordination Division agreed to establish specialized military escorts to both WFP Fleet vehicles (WFP owned and operated trucks) and contracted transporters along corridors between El Fasher-Nyala and El Fasher-El Geneina thereby providing enhanced logistical support for WFP food convoys along some of the most challenging and insecure routes in Sudan. UNAMID’s decision to provide this level of support to contracted transporters was no small matter and required the peacekeeping mission to make significant changes to its mandate in order to authorise non-UN vehicles access to escorted convoys.

Since the first enhanced escorts were provided to WFP food convoys in early November a total of 286 Fleet and contracted vehicles, under escort by UNAMID, have been able to move more than 11,000 MT of food commodities to Nyala and Geneina. During this time neither WFP nor its contractors have experienced the loss of a single truck, MT of food and most importantly drivers have been able to make the journey protected and return to their bases without incident.

UNAMID convoy leaders review transport documentation, before departure from

El Fasher on route to Nyala via Shangi Tobay. The two day journey passes through

areas that have seen an increase in tribal conflict and a high percentage of vehicle

hi-jacking throughout 2013. Photo: UNAMID/Albert Gonzalez Farran

UNHAS Extends Operation to New Locations

Since 2004, WFP has managed the United Nations Humanitari-an Air Service (UNHAS) on behalf of the entire humanitarian community in Sudan. In late 2013, a budget revision was conduct-ed to the existing special operation (SO 200514) to extend its timeframe to December 2014. The total budget for the revised operation is US$64.7 million and the current shortfall is ap-proximately US$26 million (40%). The project is predominantly reliant on donor contributions, and passengers are charged a nominal fee, determined by the User Group.

In 2013, WFP resumed its monthly flights to Kadugli, South Kordofan and extended its air service to Port Sudan to twice a month. UNHAS also introduced a new schedule allowing daily connections between Khartoum and deep field locations such as Zalingei, Garsila and Um Dukhun.

WFP Sudan Fleet Management Recognised

with International Award

In 2013 WFP Sudan’s land transport team won the UPS-sponsored Best Transport Achievement Award for its work in WFP’s Special Operation in South Kordofan. The award was presented by Fleet Forum, which every year identifies a humanitarian organization that most exemplifies excellence in one or more ‘fleet management’ areas, including road safety, fleet safety, environmental impact, and cost efficiency.

Fleet Forum’s Executive Director, Paul Jansen, said: “given the harsh environment where WFP operates in Sudan, they still man-aged to make a huge improvement in the effectiveness and effi-ciency of their fleet. In general it’s not easy to improve your effec-tiveness—the fact that they were able to do this within a danger-ous environment, while saving US$1 million and reaching more beneficiaries in South Kordofan makes them a great example for other organizations in the humanitarian sector”.

A WFP truck crosses a river to reach newly-displaced

affected by conflict in South Kordofan. Photo: WFP/Mohamed

Abuelgasim

Did You Know?

On average, UNHAS transports over 3,600 pas-

sengers a month to over 40 destinations across

Sudan;

UNHAS conducted 14 medical and 18 security

evacuations of humanitarian workers from conflict

-affected areas of Sudan in 2013.

Of the UNHAS 2012 Top 10 NGO Users list, three

are registered in the United Kingdom (Merlin,

Tearfund and International Mercy Corps).

UNHAS requires 300,000 litres of fuel each

month in order to remain operational at a cost of

around US$600,000.

In 2013 UNHAS performed 6,152 flights accumu-

lating 5,732 hours.

Thank You – We would like to thank the following donors who contributed to WFP Sudan’s

Emergency and UNHAS operations in 2013 and so far in 2014.

For more information contact:

World Food Programme

P.O. Box 913 | 653 A, Block 68, Arkawit

Tel: + 249 83 248001 | www.wfp.org/countries/sudan

Country Overview

The Republic of Sudan remains a least-developed and low-income food-deficit country, ranking 171 out of 187 countries

in the 2013 Human Development Index. The combination of conflict-related insecurity, large-scale population

displacement, widespread poverty and a deteriorating economic situation leaves much of the country engulfed in a

humanitarian crisis.

According to the International Monetary Fund, Sudan’s economy shrank by 4.4 percent in 2012—largely due to the 75%

loss of oil revenues following the separation of South Sudan in July 2011. Further stagnation in 2013 resulted in the

Government’s decision in September to remove subsidies on fuel resulting in nation-wide protests and violence in the

capital. Real Gross Domestic Product is expected to increase by only 2.6 percent in 2014 with increases in consumer

prices likely to place further pressure on already vulnerable populations and households. As such there is an imminent

need for the continuation of emergency life-saving nutrition assistance to populations living in affected areas in 2014.

In 2014, WFP plans to provide emergency food assistance to nearly 4 million food insecure, conflict-affected and highly

vulnerable persons, including IDPs (both protratced and newly displaced), resident communities, refugees,

malnourished children and pregnant and lactating women. Due to increased security in 2013, WFP will assist 2.4

million beneficiaries in 2014 through GFD.

Despite the fluid security situation, WFP will also focus on building the foundations for transitioning and reducing

emergency assistance through early recovery and durable solutions, and plans to assist 1.1 million people through

activtities such as Connecting Farmers to Markets, Food for Asset (mainly water management and water retention

projects) and Safe Access to Firewood and Alternative Energy (SAFE) projects. WFP will also expand its nutrition

portfolio by reaching 700,000 women and children, and nearly 900,000 children in conflict-affected and severely food

insecure areas through school feeding.

Cash Voucher transfers will also be expanded in both Darfur and Central/Eastern Sudan where markets are capable of

supporting them, with the planned piloting of electronic vouchers in 2014.

WFP’s Emergency Operation (EMOP 200597) is supported by a Special Operation, WFP’s Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS).

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