Social protection in fragile and conflict affected settings

The case of Sudan

Bibliographic Data

ID21338415
AuthorsDáire Brady (IFHV Bochum Germany, corresponding author), Zina Nimeh (0000-0001-6183-8753, UNU‐MERIT Maastricht University Maastricht The Netherlands, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume79
Issue2
Pages17-42
Publication date2026-04-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Social Security Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-871X • E-ISSN: 1468-246X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/issr.70029
OpenAlexW7165186367
LanguageEN
References cited9

This article examines Sudan’s state‐led social protection system by conducting a mapping of the country’s main social protection schemes, drawing on legislative documents and secondary reports as well as the 2022 Sudan Labor Market Panel Survey. Focusing on three main programmes: Zakat, the National Health Insurance Fund and the National Pension and Social Insurance Fund, the article captures programme objectives, eligibility rules, and operational definitions to assess coverage, targeting accuracy, and benefit adequacy. Findings reveal systematically low coverage, substantial targeting failures, and benefits well below subsistence thresholds. Vulnerable populations including internally displaced persons, camp residents, and conflict‐affected regions, face severe exclusion despite greatest need. Sudan’s social protection system remains trapped in minimal absorptive functions, constrained by high informality, institutional fragmentation, and protracted conflict. These findings contribute to empirical evidence on social protection in fragile contexts and point to a set of practical reconstruction priorities

Empirical evidence · Legislature · Pension · Social exclusion · Social insurance · Social policy · Social protection · Subsistence agriculture · Agricultural risk and resilience · Healthcare Systems and Reforms · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare

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