Title:
Sudan’s Health System Response Amid the ongoing 2023 Conflict: An Examination Through a Resilience lens
Authors:
Babikir, MONA AHMED BASHIR
Place:
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Publisher:
KIT (Royal Tropical Institute)
Year:
2025
PAGE:
68
Language:
En
Subject:
Health and Poverty
Keywords:
Sudan, armed-conflict, emergency response, resilience.
Abstract:
Introduction: Sudan’s ongoing-armed conflict has severely disrupted its health system, exposing weaknesses in preparedness and response. Understanding how elements of resilience emerged during this crisis can inform strategies for fragile settings. Objective: x To explore how Sudan’s Health Emergency system demonstrated resilience across awareness, self-regulation, integration, diversity, and adaptation during the 2023 conflict, and to derive recommendations for strengthening health emergency system capacities. Methodology: A qualitative design combined a systematic literature review of 62 documents with six key informant interviews from federal, state, UN, and humanitarian actors. Data was thematically analysed using an adapted Kruk et al. (2015) resilience framework, triangulating findings across sources. Results: Before the conflict, Sudan had multi-hazard preparedness plans, a dual surveillance system, and trained rapid response personnel, but chronic underfunding, uneven workforce distribution, and weak subnational operationalization constrained awareness capacity. Following Khartoum’s collapse, the system reorganized into three operational hubs. Integration was achieved through Health Cluster coordination, humanitarian–development– peace nexus programming, and cross-border vaccination campaigns. Diversity emerged through community health workers, midwives, grassroots Emergency Response Rooms, diaspora-led telemedicine, and humanitarian corridors. Adaptive responses included conflictoriented medical education and policy dialogues, although limited institutional learning hindered sustained change. Conclusion: Sudan’s health system relied on decentralized operations, informal networks, and community-driven initiatives to sustain essential services during conflict. Institutionalizing these mechanisms, enhancing subnational capacities, securing protected health financing, and formalizing diaspora and community roles are critical to building sustainable resilience in similar fragile contexts
Organization:
KIT (Royal Tropical Institute) Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
Institute:
KIT Institute
Country:
Sudan
Region:
Northeast Africa
Training:
Master of Science in Public Health and Health Equity
Category:
research
Right:
© 2025 Babikir
Document type:
Thesis/dissertation
File:
Q1yRY7u5bz_2025121113264287.pdf