This needs assessment was conducted by a team from CARE International Sudan, led by the MEAL coordinator. The assessment took place in South Darfur state covering Gereida locality, and East and South Jabal Mara areas in Kass locality. The objective is to assess the current situation, identify the gaps and needs of the targeted communities and recommend key interventions that meet the real needs of the people the project serves. Different methods were used for data collection, including individual interviews with household leaders, Focus Group Discussions with representatives from different community groups, desk review of the existing information, and Key Informant Interviews with the authorities in relevant ministries and institutions.
Key Findings:
• Only 7.6 % of the people in the assessed area have easy access to adequate safe water for their family. 92.4% are suffering either from difficulty in getting the water, poor quality of water, or insufficient amounts of water for their households.
• Responsibility for fetching water lies primarily with women (55%) and girls (27%). This puts not only an uneven burden on women and girls with regards to the time and energy spent, but also exposes them to various types of violence (21.9% reported this), including sexual harassment (reported by 3.8%).
• There is lack of hygiene promotion within the assessed communities, as 97% of respondents indicated they have not received any type of capacity building in WASH. This reflected in the way that communities dealing with environment and personal hygiene: Only half (50.9%) of the respondents regularly wash their hands with water and soap.
• With regards to sanitation, 45% of people practice open defecation. Interestingly, while 51.5% of the population has a latrine in their household, only 36.6% of the population uses a latrine in their household. Lack of hygiene and sanitation is associated with poor health outcomes, with open defecation contributing to the risk of (sexual) violence against women,
• The assessed areas are suffering from lack of health facilities, and the available facilities are poor in term of required services, only 36.4 % of the consulted people have health facilities in their villages, including health centers (31.3%), hospital (6.5%) and clinics (2.2%).
• Women and girls suffer from poor access to sexual and reproductive health services. Only 28.1% of deliveries are done in a health facility, with the assistance of a trained mid-wife (21.3%), nurse (3.4%) or doctor (3.4%). Home-based deliveries by a traditional mid-wife are the most common way to give birth (38.2%). The traditional mid-wives lack formal education and some of them also undertake harmful traditional practices such as Female genital mutilation.
• Malnutrition among children under 5 years is high (37.6%) as a result of; 1) lack of capacity among mothers on the importance of intensive breast feeding for infants and other best nutrition practices for other children, 2) the poverty and low level of livelihood among the targeted communities which affect their access to the food.
• Agriculture is the main source of income for 88.9% of the consulted households in the assessed area, 65% of them are women headed households, and within the consulted females 86.5% are depending on agriculture as the main source for income. 55.4% of people depending on their own agricultural production as main source of food for their families. All farmers interviewed practice traditional rain fed agriculture
• House hold income is very low in the assessed area as 84.1% of the consulted people have an income of 5,000 SDG (12 USD) or less per month, 12.4% earn 5000 -10000 SDG/Month while only 3.5% of the people earn more than 10000 SDG per month. In the months prior to harvesting, food insecurity peaks. In September 93.3% if people suffer from lack of food. Figures are also particularly high in August (58.8%) and October (19.4%).