Starting from 2020, CIMA Research Foundation started to work in Sudan alongside the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) in the Mayo Up project, dedicated to strengthening local governance capacities, also with the aim of increasing essential services in the fields of health, education, environment, and contribute to the strengthening of living conditions of migrant, host and displaced communities present in the open areas of Mayo, an area near the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
As part of the project, we conducted two missions to Mayo. The first one, in 2020, had the aim to perform a first assessment of the hydraulic risk in the area and had also led to perform aerial surveys by drone, providing important indications to direct interventions of mitigation and adaptation to hydraulic risk. The second one, in 2021, had instead the aim to evaluate the results of the interventions carried out on the basis of the surveys of the past year and assess the current status of the warning system to natural hazards (in particular floods and droughts) at the national level, to understand the possible directions of development in view of risk reduction and strengthening of resilience to disasters in Sudan.
In 2021, the collaboration with AICS was further strengthened with a new project, Fighting climate change. Early Warning and civil defense for floods and droughts in Sudan – APIS , which aims to implement an Early Warning System (EWS) to reduce damage while strengthening risk management in the country, particularly with regard to floods and droughts. Thus, this latest collaboration is taking place on a national scale and involves improving knowledge of the country’s hazards, strengthening monitoring and forecasting tools and the technical and scientific skills of local experts, fostering inter-institutional coordination in emergency warning and management, and, finally, increasing institutional awareness of the risks Sudan faces.
In the framework of the project, lasting three years, CIMA Research Foundation will therefore provide technical assistance on several fronts, such as the development of a risk profile for flood and drought, the integration of data collected from monitoring stations installed in 2020-21, the analysis of the regulatory framework for risk management in order to analyze good practices and weaknesses and, finally, support the definition of operational procedures for the warning system and the assessment of the ability to involve voluntary groups in civil protection operations.
In addition, the project provides for technology transfer and training activities. In this sense, CIMA Research Foundation is responsible for the implementation of myDEWETRA.world platform in Sudan for decision support and sharing of sectoral data related to risks and for the realization and dissemination of warning bulletins; we will also be responsible for training activities at national level for the use of the platform. In addition, CIMA Foundation will provide technical equipment for the use of drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, UAV) for civil protection purposes, and also in this area will be organized specific training courses. Finally, hydro-meteorological monitoring and data collection networks will be strengthened.
In 2023, a conflict began in Sudan, which made the operational scenario of the project more complex and delicate on one hand. On the other hand, the situation made it even more urgent to provide support for civil protection and humanitarian operations in the country, as it exacerbates the risks to which the population is exposed and worsens the management and coordination capabilities of institutions. Special attention in this context is also given to the displacement of people who leave their homes due to the conflict. This situation has led the consortium to focus on creating tools and connections with the regional network to ensure continuity in Early Warning services, in accordance with the goals of the Early Warning 4 All Initiative. There were three main lines of intervention:
- Strengthening coordination capacities for humanitarian activities, particularly by utilizing the AMHEWAS network, to create a prototype of an impact-based bulletin related to extreme events. A similar approach has been adopted by the Italian Red Cross and CIMA Research Foundation for Ukraine as part of a different project, and it allows for organizing humanitarian operations while considering the possibility of adverse weather conditions. The bulletin provides daily updates on weather-hydrological conditions in Sudan, which can be cross-referenced with information regarding internally displaced persons, the population of a specific area, and the presence of humanitarian infrastructure; it is designed to be shared with organizations involved in the humanitarian emergency response
- Ensuring continuity and sustainability of monitoring and forecasting services by supporting national authorities through partnerships with regional partners
- Supporting members of the National Council for Civil Defense (NDCC) in enabling the management and coordination of flood and drought risks