Starting in 2020, CIMA Research Foundation began working in Sudan by supporting the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) in the Mayo Up project, dedicated to enhancing local governance capacities, including for the purpose of increasing essential services in health, education, environment, and contributing to the strengthening of the living conditions of migrant, host, and displaced communities present in the open areas of Mayo, an area near the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
In 2021, the collaboration with AICS was further strengthened with a new project, Climate Change Early Warning and civil defense for floods and droughts in Sudan – APIS, which aims to strengthen Sudan’s technical and operational capacities in disaster prevention and management through the implementation of an operational warning system that reduces deaths, human suffering, and economic damage caused by floods and droughts.
The conflict in Sudan, which erupted in April 2023, has significantly reshaped—and complicated—the operational landscape for the APIS project. Simultaneously, it has underscored the urgent need to bolster support for civil protection efforts and, critically, humanitarian operations across the country. Priorities have been reassessed with a revised approach that retains the core objective of delivering technical assistance to strengthen Sudan’s flood and drought early warning and response systems.
By aligning Sudan’s disaster management frameworks with regional initiatives, the project ultimately aims to bridge gaps in resilience while addressing the escalating demands of a nation in crisis.
Goals and expected results
The project includes a path to share and adapt the Italian civil protection system’s technological tools and operational procedures.
The APIS initiative follows four main lines of action aimed at strengthening hydrometeorological disaster monitoring, forecasting and warning capabilities in Sudan:
- improve knowledge on natural hazards by facilitating data collection and sharing among the different sectors involved in disaster risk management
- strengthen technical and scientific capacities for monitoring and forecasting hydro-meteorological hazards through the development of tools and specialized training activities
- improve inter-institutional coordination in alert and emergency management by establishing standard operating procedures and strengthening early warning and response mechanisms
- increase public awareness of natural hazards by fostering better reception and interpretation of alert messages by the general public
Following the outbreak of conflict in 2023, heightened emphasis is placed on:
- Establishing robust tools and linkages with regional networks to ensure continuity of critical warning services through secondment mechanism of experts and temporary relocation
- Supporting humanitarian actors through tailored forecasting services for extreme hydrometeorological events
- Developing real-time bulletins to enhance preparedness and decision-making during emergencies
CIMA Research Foundation’s contribution
Under the project, CIMA Research Foundation is providing technical assistance on several fronts:
- Developing a national risk profile for floods and droughts to identify areas most susceptible to hydro-meteorological hazards in the current and future climate
- Provision to authorities involved in disaster risk management in Sudan of a decision support platform (Dewetra), which will integrate key information within it, supporting the issuance of timely warnings to all stakeholders
- Technical assistance for restoration of the national monitoring network through the re-installation of network management software and the supply of a low-cost automatic hydro-meteorological monitoring systems.
- Design and transfer of High-resolution rain and flood forecasting warning system, which will cover the entire domain of Sudan
- Implementation of a nationwide operational drought condition monitoring system
- Provision of a technological tool for compiling and issuing warning bulletins
- Implementation of a situation room for Sudan
It is important to emphasize the contribution of Sudanese experts relocated to regional centers: coordination among the multiple actors involved is indispensable in responding to extreme hydrometeorological events that put a strain on the most vulnerable areas, which are further affected by the consequences of the conflict.
