Policy Briefs
“Evidence that drives policy and program decisions.”
Policy briefs cover topics such as:
✅Education access for refugee children
✅Livelihood opportunities in restricted environments
✅Mental health and trauma recovery needs
✅Gender-based violence in displacement
✅Food insecurity and ration cuts
✅Peacebuilding and reconciliation strategies
✅Refugee rights and legal frameworks
Purpose:
To provide decision-makers, NGOs, donors, and humanitarian actors with concise, evidence-informed insights into the most pressing challenges facing Sudanese refugees and displaced communities, and to offer practical policy recommendations that can guide funding, programming, and advocacy.
Education Access for Refugee Children
Policy Brief: Education Access for Refugee Children
Issue Overview
Millions of refugee children face prolonged disruption to education due to displacement, poverty, overcrowded schools, and limited resources in host countries. Without access to education, children face heightened risks of child labor, early marriage, recruitment, and long-term poverty.
Key Challenges
- Insufficient schools and learning materials
- Language and curriculum barriers
- Poverty-related dropouts
- Limited teacher capacity
Why It Matters
Education is a protective intervention and a foundation for long-term recovery, stability, and peace.
Policy Recommendations
- Invest in education-in-emergencies funding
- Support school supplies, scholarships, and teacher incentives
- Expand accelerated and alternative learning programs
- Integrate psychosocial support into schools
Livelihood Opportunity in Restricted Environments
Policy Brief: Livelihood Opportunities in Restricted Environments
Issue Overview
Refugees often face legal, geographic, and market restrictions that limit employment and entrepreneurship, forcing dependency on aid.
Key Challenges
- Work permit restrictions
- Limited access to capital and markets
- Skills mismatch
- Gender and youth exclusion
Why It Matters
Livelihoods restore dignity, self-reliance, and resilience, reducing long-term humanitarian costs.
Policy Recommendations
- Expand micro-grants and cash-based livelihood programs
- Support home-based and camp-appropriate enterprises
- Enable refugee-host community economic integration
- Promote vocational training aligned with market demand
Mental Health & Trauma Needs
Policy Brief: Mental Health and Trauma Recovery Needs
Issue Overview
Exposure to violence, displacement, and loss has created a silent mental health crisis among refugees, particularly women and children.
Key Challenges
- Limited mental health professionals
- Cultural stigma
- Underfunding of psychosocial services
Why It Matters
Unaddressed trauma undermines education, livelihoods, social cohesion, and peacebuilding.
Policy Recommendations
- Integrate mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) into all humanitarian sectors
- Train community-based counselors
- Fund trauma-informed care models
- Support faith- and community-based healing initiatives
Gender-Based Violence in Displacement
Policy Brief: Gender-Based Violence in Displacement
Issue Overview
Displacement increases the risk of sexual exploitation, domestic violence, early marriage, and trafficking.
Key Challenges
- Insecure shelters and sanitation facilities
- Limited reporting mechanisms
- Social stigma and fear of retaliation
Why It Matters
GBV erodes human dignity, safety, and long-term development outcomes.
Policy Recommendations
- Strengthen GBV prevention and response services
- Ensure survivor-centered, confidential reporting systems
- Invest in women-led protection structures
- Integrate GBV risk mitigation across sectors
Food Insecurity Ration Cuts
Policy Brief: Food Insecurity and Ration Cuts
Issue Overview
Funding shortfalls have led to reduced food rations, increasing hunger, malnutrition, and negative coping strategies among refugees.
Key Challenges
- Rising food prices
- Reduced humanitarian funding
- Nutritional gaps for children and mothers
Why It Matters
Food insecurity fuels health crises, school dropout, and social instability.
Policy Recommendations
- Restore and protect life-saving food assistance funding
- Expand cash and voucher assistance
- Support community farming and nutrition programs
- Prioritize children and pregnant women
Peace-Building and Reconciliation Strategies
Policy Brief: Peace-Building and Reconciliation Strategies
Issue Overview
Displacement fractures communities and deepens grievances, threatening long-term peace.
Key Challenges
- Trauma and mistrust
- Inter-communal tensions
- Exclusion of youth and women from peace processes
Why It Matters
Peacebuilding is essential for sustainable return, reintegration, and national recovery.
Policy Recommendations
- Support community-led reconciliation initiatives
- Integrate trauma healing into peace programs
- Engage faith leaders, women, and youth
- Link humanitarian aid to peacebuilding efforts
Refugee Rights and Legal Frameworks
Policy Brief: Refugee Rights and Legal Frameworks
Issue Overview
Many refugees lack legal status, documentation, and access to justice, exposing them to exploitation and exclusion.
Key Challenges
- Complex asylum procedures
- Limited legal aid
- Restrictions on movement and work
Why It Matters
Legal protection is central to dignity, safety, and self-reliance.
Policy Recommendations
- Strengthen refugee legal documentation systems
- Expand access to legal aid
- Align national policies with international refugee law
- Support diaspora advocacy for refugee rights