Sudan
The Higher Council for Food Security and Nutrition, with its Technical Committee and Technical Secretariat
Sudan's arrangements combine a political Higher Council for Food Security and Nutrition, established by Presidential Decree No. 287 of 2015, with a technical committee of undersecretaries and a technical secretariat, both added in 2017. The three bodies form a single chain: the Secretariat prepares national policy and plans, the Committee validates them and passes them upward, and the Council endorses them and presents them to Cabinet. This institutional set up can be classed as a dual multisectoral mechanism with a supporting unit.
Higher Council for Food Security and Nutrition
Institutional set-up and structure. Established by Presidential Decree No. 287 of 2015 and sitting at political level, convened and chaired by the Prime Minister.
Mandate and decision-making power. The Council is the political decision-making body of the arrangement. It supervises food security and nutrition interventions between central and state institutions, endorses the national policy, strategy and situation reports and presents them to Cabinet, supports state governments to establish their own coordination mechanisms, endorses the priorities for annual food security programmes and activities, approves the priorities for food and non-food assistance in situations requiring humanitarian response, and supervises improvements to food security information and early warning systems.
The Council is tasked with the following roles (building blocks):
Agenda setting: advocacy and dialogue; deciding on goals and strategic priorities
Policy formulation and decision making: developing policies for consideration by the relevant authorities; deciding and enacting them
Implementation: coordinating policy and programme delivery
Monitoring and evaluation: tracking progress, evaluating and reporting
Who is involved
Government: political level, chaired from the office of the Prime Minister, with the President as establishing authority
How it works in practice
Receives reports, plans and policies submitted upward by the Technical Committee
Presents endorsed policy, strategy and situation reports to Cabinet
Supports state governments to establish their own coordination mechanisms
Sets the priorities for annual programmes and for humanitarian food and non-food assistance
Technical Committee for Food Security and Nutrition
Institutional set-up and structure. Established in 2017 and chaired by a state minister at the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, bringing together undersecretaries from across government.
Mandate and decision-making power. The Committee provides technical guidance. It submits reports, plans and policies to the Higher Council, approves protocols of cooperation with institutions working on food security, coordinates and raises funds for the collection and analysis of data on food insecurity, advises ministries on food security issues, and approves briefings on specific food security policies for presentation to the Council and to Cabinet.
The Committee is tasked with the following roles (building blocks):
Agenda setting: advocacy and dialogue
Policy formulation and decision making: providing technical advice; developing policies for consideration by the relevant authorities
Monitoring and evaluation: tracking progress, evaluating and reporting
Who is involved
Government: a state minister at the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation as chair, with undersecretaries from finance and national economy, agriculture and irrigation, commerce, animal resources, fisheries and pastures, water resources and electricity, education, and welfare and social security
Technical agencies: the Secretary General of Strategic Planning, the Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner, and the heads of the standards and metrology organisation, the national information centre, the meteorological authority and the central bureau of statistics
How it works in practice
Submits reports, plans and policies upward to the Higher Council
Approves protocols of cooperation between participating institutions
Coordinates and raises funds for the collection and analysis of food insecurity data across institutions
Technical Secretariat for Food Security
Institutional set-up and structure. Established in 2017 alongside the Technical Committee and led by a Secretary General, with a suprasectoral remit.
Mandate and decision-making power. The Secretariat carries the technical coordination of the arrangement. It prepares comprehensive national food security policies with the participation of the bodies concerned and follows up their approval, prepares a national food security work plan setting out programmes, projects and investment, proposes food and non-food interventions for emergencies and submits them to the Higher Council, and coordinates and follows up support for implementation with institutions at central and state level, setting priorities and establishing the mechanisms to deliver them.
The Secretariat is tasked with the following roles (building blocks):
Policy formulation and decision making: coordinating policy development; developing policies for consideration by the relevant authorities
Implementation: coordinating policy and programme delivery
Monitoring and evaluation: tracking progress, evaluating and reporting
Who is involved
Government: agriculture and irrigation, water resources, health and education, with the humanitarian affairs commission and the strategic reserve directorate; the Secretariat also reports working with finance and economic planning, animal wealth, fisheries and range, and labour and social security
How it works in practice
Prepares the national food security policy and work plan and follows up their approval
Collects and evaluates food security data, and uses it to determine the responses required in emergencies
Coordinates and follows up implementation with institutions at central and state level
Evidence base: policy documents only, 2026. Last updated: September 2026.
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