Staffing priorities for the Sudan humanitarian crisis

In April 2023, fighting broke out between Sudan’s Armed Forces, or SAF, and the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, in the capital city of Khartoum. Almost two years later, as the conflict continues and has spread throughout the country, more than 8 million Sudanese are displaced internally, and around 25 million people need humanitarian assistance. According to aid organizations on the ground, reaching the populations most in need is a challenge. The bureaucracy around visas and permits for transporting aid supplies is also hindering the response, said Edmore Tondhlana, deputy head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, which is coordinating various agencies in the country. Individuals can be targeted due to their ethnicity or nationality, limiting where some staff can work, he added. For Médecins Sans Frontières, obtaining long-term visas for staff — most of whom are international — has been difficult in certain regions, impacting the organization’s response, said Ozan Agbas, emergency manager for MSF’s operational section headquartered in Amsterdam. In the RSF-controlled parts of Darfur, permits aren’t required to enter the region, but the work is “incredibly intense,” with staff in Nyala working amid regular airstrikes, he said. Meanwhile, the local talent pool is “spread thin,” according to Sibongani Kayola, now Mercy Corps deputy regional director of operations, having served as the organization’s country director for Sudan for two years, including when the conflict broke out. The country team is largely made up of local staff, so the hiring process is quicker and less complicated, Kayola explained, but there is high demand for those professionals who remained in the country. While local staff are familiar with the context, language, and processes, they also face safety concerns in some regions. Displacement is driving the response Prior to the conflict, Mercy Corps’ work in Sudan focused largely on longer-term resilience and capacity-building projects, but programming pivoted to meet emerging needs as the fighting spread across states, triggering multiple waves of displacement, said Kayola. While people initially fled with what assets they could, such as goats or cash, those resources were gradually depleted. Shelter; food provisions; and water, sanitation and hygiene, or WASH, are among the biggest needs, she said, including in internally displaced people centers, which are often schools or other buildings not designed for holding large populations. Working alongside other agencies, OCHA’s response is also prioritizing services for displaced populations, said Tondhlana. This includes WASH, food security, shelter, and distributing nonfood items, such as blankets. Aid organizations are supporting collapsing health systems OCHA’s response includes a major effort from the health cluster, which is mobilizing significant supplies and working to build the capacity of medical facilities, said Tondhlana. Nutrition is another key focus, especially with the risk of famine in parts of the country, and significant work is being done in this regard with the support of colleagues at UNICEF, he added. Sudan’s collapsing health care system is also grappling with outbreaks of cholera, among other diseases. In response to the scale of the crisis, MSF has significantly scaled up its budget and operations in Sudan over the past year, said Agbas. Expelled from Sudan in 2009 for its reporting on sexual violence in Darfur, MSF Holland started operating in the country almost three years ago, focusing on Tigrayan refugees from Ethiopia and other vulnerable groups, he explained. Then, in the early months of the fighting, when the organization had limited access to RSF-controlled areas, efforts concentrated on government-controlled regions where most medical needs were related to conflict and trauma injuries. Lack of primary health care, disease outbreaks, and inadequate WASH facilities drove subsequent needs, he added. Initially, Agbas’ team in Sudan provided “hands-on” support to hospitals before transitioning to a more supportive role, allowing Sudanese doctors and the Ministry of Health to manage the facilities with financial and technical assistance. However, there remains a severe shortage of experienced medical professionals. “We’re working with very junior Sudanese medical professionals, sometimes they're … volunteers, paramedics, midwives, and local midwives,” said Agbas, “[so] we do a lot of trainings, a lot of capacity-building with those staff, but [it’s] hands-on because we're also in an emergency.” The organization has also been approached to help train health committees, set up and staffed by IDPs to provide health care throughout their camp. However, Agbas noted that the team in Sudan is diverse and includes a significant number of nonmedical staff, such as those supporting management capacity on the ground. Local knowledge and community engagement skills are in demand For OCHA, finding the right profiles to staff its civil-military coordination and access team has been a challenge, said Tondhlana. These roles are important as they involve working with authorities to navigate the bureaucratic and administrative hurdles that can hinder response efforts, he added. With access also being one of the main challenges for MSF, supply and logistics is a critical part of the operations, said Agbas. Goods destined for Darfur, for example, often need to be routed through Chad, requiring a team there to handle the management of supplies. Sudan’s complex legislation on humanitarian work also means the organization needs people who understand the law and how to comply with it, he said. Other profiles likely to be in demand include humanitarian affairs colleagues, who collect data testimonies and provide analysis to inform MSF’s operational decisions, and those working in community engagement. In Sudan, the lack of direct channels to influence military players means engagement with community leadership who can advocate and shape decisions is particularly important, explained Agbas. In addition to speaking the local language, this role “requires a good understanding of community dynamics, good communication skills, [and] the right attitude,” he said. Prior exposure in high-insecurity contexts is “not a must” but is important to MSF, as is experience running emergency operations. Agbas stressed that in such intense contexts, every individual on the ground, particularly the international staff and managerial positions, must be able to take the initiative and make decisions based on the needs or developments. Mercy Corps’ Kayola said that individuals who speak Arabic, have worked with local organizations, and have experience in fragile and conflict-affected states are preferred. To respond to the growing humanitarian needs, the organization has already expanded into new areas — including the River Nile State, Northern State, and Kassala State — hiring additional staff to support these operations, as well as relocating some existing staff. Kayola noted that going forward, the organization will be looking for professionals experienced in cash and markets programming, among other roles. Ready to stand out from the crowd and get noticed by the recruiters who matter most? Update your Devex profile and start connecting with top global development recruiters now.