The conflict in Sudan is causing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded in the country. A report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) projected that between October 2023 and February 2024, 17.7 2

million people faced acute levels of food insecurity1. There are ongoing humanitarian efforts to address short-term needs, but there is also an urgent need for investment in the private sector, to both support Sudan’s food security resilience and lay the foundation for post-conflict economic recovery and growth. The war has caused significant damage to agricultural value chains and financial systems. Broad-based disruptions to basic market functioning result from damage to logistics systems, increasing transport costs, fragmented payments systems and severely reduced access to working capital and asset finance. Encouragingly, the rapid assessment highlighted that Sudan’s private sector is highly innovative and is adapting and evolving to operate in the fast-changing context, but it needs critical support. This provides a strong rationale for interventions to leverage the capabilities in Sudan’s private sector to innovate and deliver solutions to rebuild and strengthen core market functions.

FSD Africa in collaboration with BOS seeks to improve the food security situation and help re-build agri-food systems in Sudan through addressing impacts from the war on agricultural production and distribution. The Innovation Studio for Resilience (ISR) project is designed to achieve this. Its purpose will be to identify, co-develop, and pilot scalable innovations with on-the-ground private sector partners, specifically to address financing challenges in Sudanese agrifood systems by providing support and strategic investment to the private sector.