ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Policy
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1579825
Humanitarian-Development Nexus approach to health system strengthening in Sudan: a policy analysis
Provisionally accepted
- Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
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Background: With increasing conflict, fragility and emergencies in many countries, health systems are being frequently weakened and require support and strengthening. To ensure provision of lifesaving interventions, while improving national health systems, the humanitarian-development nexus presents a policy solution to bridge the divide between humanitarian and development actors. Sudan represents an interesting case of the nexus adoption with protracted emergencies, a volatile political scene, and economic and partnership complexities. This study aimed to explore the understanding and adoption process of the nexus approach to health system strengthening in Sudan.Methods:We conducted a policy analysis based on seven qualitative interviews conducted in 2022 with informants from varying humanitarian and development entities.Results: Our findings showed the unclarity around the nexus meaning and practicalities, despite the consensus on its importance. While the introduction process was driven by global partners, the Government of Sudan's uptake of the nexus and the presence of relevant coordination mechanisms in the health sector aided in advancing the nexus. Yet, the humanitarian and development actors expressed conflicting values and disagreement on utilizing certain the financial management, procurement and information components of the national health system components.Conclusion:Sudan's health partners have implemented various nexus-based practices to strengthen national health system capacities. However, the nexus approach has faced challenges due to conceptual ambiguities and inconsistent implementation. We call for the advancement of guidance and dialogue on the approach, stressing the importance of ownership, coordination, and flexibility, with a belief that the humanitarian-development divide can be further bridged.
Keywords: Humanitarian, development, Nexus, Sudan, policy, Health, system, Partnership
Received: 19 Feb 2025; Accepted: 28 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Aweesha, Hurtig, Pulkki-Brännström and San Sebastián. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Huzeifa Jabir Idris Aweesha, Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.