Sudan | Joint Market Monitoring Initiative (JMMI) Market Overview January 2024 – Sudan

INTRODUCTION

Given the rapidly changing humanitarian context in Sudan, the Joint Market Monitoring Initiative (JMMI) was established under the guidance of the Sudan Cash Working Group (CWG) to inform cashbased interventions and gain a deeper understanding of market dynamics in the country. The JMMI aims to inform marketbased programming in Sudan through monthly monitoring of prices of selected food and non-food items (NFI) as well as other critical market indicators.

Marketplaces across Sudan are assessed through two different channels: (i) in some state capitals, prices of food items are monitored by the World Food Programme (WFP)1 , (ii) in other locations, prices and other critical market indicators are recorded every month by JMMI partners through interviews with purposively sampled retailers. Data for the second round of the JMMI was collected from January 10-23, 2024.

The factsheet presents an overview of median prices for food and non-food items (NFIs) in the main markets of the localities assessed, a comprehensive breakdown of the cost of the interim Minimum Expenditure Basket (MEB), and the Market Functionality Score (MFS) for the markets assessed at locality level.

Key Findings

• Overall, the highest median costs of the Minimum Expenditure Baskets (MEB) were observed across assessed localities in the Greater Darfur region (South, West, East, and Central Darfur). The most expensive MEB was recorded in Sharg Aj Jabal locality in South Darfur State (578,718 SDG) for the MEB with top-up items and in Ag Geneina in West Darfur for the MEB without top-up items (399,717 SDG). The high median cost of the MEB observed in the Greater Darfur region may be attributed to the continued hostilities in Darfur following the escalation of conflict since April 2023 and the large number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) hosted in the area4 .

• Median MEB prices in Aj Jazirah in January were notably elevated compared to December, amounting to 449,382 SDG with top-up and 338,382 SDG without. The high cost of the MEB in Aj Jazirah may be related to the escalation of conflictin the populous city of Wad Medani in mid-December 2023 and the resulting closure and looting of markets in the state – one of Sudan’s most important areas for crop production5 . At the same time, comparison with December is difficult because the same markets could not be monitored due to the conflict.

• A notable increase (61%) in the median cost of the food items in the MEB was observed from December 2023 (80,289 SDG) to January 2024 (128,894 SDG) across the assessed localities. Rising food prices were primarily driven by a stark increase in costs for tomatoes since December 2023, especially in Blue Nile (+650%) and South Kordofan (+392%). The most expensive food components of the MEB were reported in Ag Geneina, West Darfur (239,931 SDG) and the lowest were reported in Ar Rusayris, Blue Nile (70,029 SDG).

• The median cost of the non-food items (NFI) in the MEB decreased by 12% from December 2023 (68,515 SDG) to January 2024 (60,152 SDG) across the assessed localities. The decrease can be attributed to the lower prices for water supply in most states. The most expensive NFI component of the MEB (without top-up items) was reported in Assalaya, East Darfur (131,733 SDG) and the lowest in Ar Rusayris, Blue Nile (44,352 SDG).

• Overall, markets tend to be least functional in the Greater Darfur region and in Aj Jazirah state, where almost all of the assessed markets scored less than 50 out of the maximum total score of 100. The findings from this assessment show that the high prices of items, low market access, low market resilience and poor infrastructure all negatively impacted the functionality of the markets.