Our Focus

Our Focus

In response to the current conflict, UNDP has adapted its programming to meet most urgent needs of communities. UNDP’s response supports the critical nexus of humanitarian assistance and emergency interventions – creating an enabling environment for structural stability and return to peace.

Learn more about our current Crisis Offer.

When conditions allow, UNDP will resume programming that had to be paused.

Our pre-April 2023 programming:

The 2019 revolution, led by regular people and especially women and youth, secured a unique opportunity for the people of Sudan to transform their nation. While this transition has had its setbacks, there is hope that the Sudanese will come to an agreement about their future sooner or later. When that occurs, real work on national transition and economic recovery will have to start in earnest.

Sudan will be working to improve living standards, revitalize the economy, address refugee and IDP displacement through durable solutions, improve human rights record, build resilience, and transition to a civilian-led, democratic government, while continuing to make progress on a Sudanese-led peace process – the Juba Peace Agreement (JPA).

Guided by the evolving vision of Sudan’s transition and key components of the JPA, UNDP Sudan is focused on critical aspects of the transition, like community stabilization and peace, protection and human security, institutional change and climate and energy adaptation, aligned with the rest of the UN and the Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, we support longer-term key areas of development like solutions for health and access to energy, as well as resilience and emergency response.

Working closely with authorities, civil society, the private sector and the international community, UNDP will support the realization of Sudan’s vision at the national, state, and community/local level, while simultaneously assisting Sudan in transitioning from a humanitarian to a development focus within the framework of the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus.

To do so, we are focusing on five areas of work for 2022-2023 supported by our Accelerator Lab:

Peace & Stabilization

Peace, peace dividends, and stability at the community level, are essential for development in Sudan. Unfortunately, competition for natural resources and other assets, poverty, inequality and unemployment, food insecurity, and a changing climate are all potential ignitors of armed conflict and violence.

Rule of Law & Justice Reform

In line with the key components of the Juba Peace Agreement and Sudan’s vision for the future, UNDP provides support to help effect the legislative and structural changes required. This includes assistance with legislative reform to improve protection of both gender and human rights, helping develop a legislative architecture for free and fair elections, and providing guidance in the review and preparation of Sudan’s new constitution.

Learn More

Democratic Transition and Economic Recovery

Good governance, together with strengthened democratic institutions that provide services and guide society, are essential for peace and sustainable human development in Sudan. Equally important is fully harnessing the opportunities presented by Sudan’s natural resources, agricultural sector, and young workforce through which to unlock Sudan’s economic potential.

Learn More

Health for Development

With an extensive geographical area and a population of over 42 million, ensuring universal access to health services across Sudan is a significant task, as is responding to the health and socioeconomic impact of COVID-19.

Learn More

Access to Energy & Climate Change

With 60% of Sudan’s population lacking access to electricity, modern, sustainable energy solutions are a key focus area for development, and intrinsically linked to improvements in the provision of basic services like health, education, communications, and safe drinking water.

Learn More

Accelerator Lab

The Accelerator Labs are UNDP’s new way of working in development. Globally, 90 labs serve 114 countries to find innovative and impactful solutions to today’s development challenges. We aim to challenge the status-quo and traditional ways of working to do development differently.

Learn More

Emergency Crisis Response

Recognizing the need to integrate disaster risk reduction with other UNDP priorities, such as poverty reduction, community stabilization, governance, peace-building, and sustainable livelihoods, UNDP Sudan programmes are flexible, able to quickly adapt for emergency response with a focus on supporting early recovery. Hence our advocacy to humanitarian partners and donors to prioritize life-preserving activities, such as emergency employment through cash-for-work, emergency supplies such as solar cookers and lanterns alongside standard NFI items, roll out community policing and other unarmed protection of civilians approached for PoC, as well as housing reconstruction to enable return of IDPs including through cash-for-work modalities.

Utilizing our expertise with local communities, UNDP interventions often focus on vulnerable, displaced groups and the communities hosting them, including initiatives on protection, civil works, emergency employment, and access to basic services like energy, communications and health. Alongside our humanitarian partners, we employ durable solutions within HDP programming that provide help for those in immediate need and which also recreate important community assets for the future.

Sustainable Development at the Community Level

In Sudan, UNDP utilizes area-based management (ABM) to work with geographically defined communities and areas, addressing interwoven development barriers like poverty, inequality, lack of basic services, insecurity, and climate-risks.

Addressing these factors helps ensure stability at the local community level, supporting Sudan's democratic transition and reducing potential challenges during critical peace processes. To achieve this, complementary responses by humanitarian, peace and development actors are required, bolstered by resilient practices that sustain the gains made by the Sudanese people and the efforts of the international community.

To help deliver on this need, UNDP collaborates with a full spectrum of partners to ensure integrated approaches to community stabilization, providing needs-based assistance in sustainable livelihoods, infrastructure rehabilitation, basic service delivery, access to energy, protection of civilians and human rights, local government capacity building, and other areas of support, to pave the way for long-term recovery and development, and support durable solutions at the community level.