The Socio-economic Impact of Armed Conflict on Sudanese Urban Households
Moatinoon
The 2024 Sudan Urban Household Survey, conducted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), provided a comprehensive assessment of the socioeconomic impacts of the ongoing conflict on urban households across Sudan. The survey, carried out between May and July 2024, highlighted the far-reaching consequences of the conflict on key aspects of daily life and livelihoods, including income, employment, health, education, access to other critical services, and overall household vulnerability. The profound effects of the conflict on urban households are shown, emphasizing the need for urgent and targeted policy and programmatic interventions.
The survey found that the conflict has caused significant demographic shifts. Around 31 percent of urban households now reside in states different from their pre-conflict locations. This shift has implications for the social fabric of urban areas, especially considering the heightened vulnerability of displaced populations. Displaced households face challenges in securing housing, healthcare services, and employment opportunities, all of which are crucial for their long-term stability and wellbeing.
Economically, the conflict has severely disrupted the livelihoods of urban residents. There has been a stark decline in employment, with the proportion of urban households with fulltime wage earners cut in half. Many households have shifted to self-employment, a means of income generation that is often less stable and more vulnerable to market fluctuations. While only 1.6 percent of heads of urban households reported having no employment or income before the conflict, alarmingly, this figure has risen to 18 percent during the conflict, indicating deepening economic distress in urban areas. Economic recovery, self-reliance, and resiliency-building programs are urgently needed to support both wage earners and selfemployed individuals in obtaining sustainable livelihoods.
The conflict has adversely affected the health status of urban households. Over half of the respondents reported a decline in the health condition of their household since the onset of the conflict. This has been exacerbated by significantly more limited access to healthcare services. The affordability of health services has deteriorated, with healthcare costs becoming a major burden for many families. Out-of-pocket payments for healthcare have risen dramatically, further straining household finances already weakened by the conflict.
Addressing these healthcare challenges will require both immediate humanitarian support and longer-term investments in sustaining, financing, and rebuilding the healthcare system.
Education has not been spared from the effects of the conflict. Nearly 70 percent of urban households with school-aged children reported that one or more of their children had stopped attending school, primarily due to the closure of educational institutions and the household’s inability to afford school fees. This threatens to undermine human capital development for a generation of Sudanese children, putting millions of children at increased risk of premature mortality over their life course, with long-term consequences for the country’s recovery and growth. Restoring access to education, particularly through innovative solutions, such as remote and mobile learning, is essential to prevent long-term educational setbacks.
The access of urban households to basic services, including water, sanitation, and electricity, has deteriorated significantly since the conflict began. Access to piped water dropped by over 20 percentage points, while electricity reliability has worsened for nearly 90 percent of households that had access to electricity before the conflict. These disruptions in essential iii services compound the vulnerabilities faced by urban populations. There is an urgent need for infrastructure rehabilitation. Restoring these services will be critical to improving living conditions and building the economic resilience of urban households.
Assistance has increased in response to the conflict, but most households still rely on informal support networks rather than formal aid systems. Family and friends remain the primary source of assistance, with formal government or international aid reaching only a small portion of the urban population. This gap in formal social protection underscores the need to strengthen the national social protection system and ensure that aid is more widely and equitably distributed. Expanding formal assistance mechanisms is particularly important for vulnerable groups, such as female-headed households and those with no employment or income.
The conflict has also led to heightened insecurity and violence, with over 28 percent of households reporting having suffered from theft, robbery, or other direct impacts from the conflict on their security. Persistent insecurity further exacerbates the hardship faced by urban residents, making it even more difficult for them to recover and rebuild. Addressing the immediate security concerns and the underlying factors contributing to conflict-related violence will be a key element in creating a safer and more stable living environment for urban households.
In conclusion, the findings from the analysis of data from the 2024 Sudan Urban Household Survey reveal a range of adverse socioeconomic impacts of the ongoing conflict. The disruption to household livelihoods and the decline in access to essential services, particularly healthcare and education, point to the urgent need for coordinated and sustained interventions. Upon a ceasefire and immediate cessation of violence, addressing these challenges will require an integrated nexus approach to restore livelihoods, rebuild infrastructure, and strengthen social protection systems with targeted efforts by the government, international organizations, and civil society to support displaced populations.
Only through such comprehensive efforts can the urban population of Sudan begin to recover and build a more resilient future.
