Why We Did This Evaluation
Sudan is facing the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis, with more than 25 million people experiencing acute food insecurity and famine conditions. In 2024, the United States was Sudan’s largest humanitarian donor, providing $880.3 million in assistance; over half of that funding supported emergency food assistance. As of June 2025, USAID was responsible for implementing and monitoring 31 active humanitarian assistance awards in Sudan. By the end of June 2025, USAID had transferred the administration and oversight of all the active awards to the Department of State (State).
The complex, unstable environment in Sudan limited USAID’s ability to safely and directly oversee humanitarian assistance and increased the risk of theft and diversion. As a result, USAID relied on remote and third-party monitors to oversee its awards. Our office also received complaints of fraud, waste, and abuse, including theft and diversion of the humanitarian aid provided under USAID-funded awards in Sudan, including those implemented by public international organizations and nongovernmental organizations. Given these concerns, we conducted this evaluation to determine the extent to which USAID (1) monitored humanitarian assistance to Sudan and (2) managed key monitoring information during the transition of active awards to State.
What We Found
USAID did not continuously implement planned monitoring activities for its humanitarian assistance in Sudan. The Agency did not complete all 21 planned site visits to monitor $1.04 billion in humanitarian assistance awards in Sudan between January and June 2025. The third-party monitor conducted 11 of the 21 planned site visits in January, May, and June 2025 covering health, nutrition, food security, protection, and shelter and settlement activities. However, it did not conduct the remaining 10 site visits during the reporting period. As of the end of June 2025, four site visits had been cancelled, and six were pending completion. Furthermore, USAID did not consistently follow its internal procedures for reviewing reports for the 11 completed site visits. As a result, USAID did not have reasonable assurance that the awards were implemented as intended and may not have identified all program irregularities or taken corrective actions. In addition, USAID’s ability to confirm and use monitoring results to identify and address implementation issues in a timely manner was limited.
USAID did not share unresolved program irregularities during the transfer of active humanitarian assistance awards to State or preserve key award documents. USAID maintained a tracker of reported irregularities in humanitarian programs in Sudan, including over 45 open, unresolved irregularities as of June 2025, but did not share this tracker with State. In addition, USAID had several documents describing individual monitoring activities, such as the field monitoring protocol for third-party monitoring activities, but these did not constitute a comprehensive country monitoring plan for Sudan. The Agency did not share a country monitoring plan with State. Finally, USAID did not preserve key monitoring documents needed to transition its active awards to State. As a result, State does not have the information it needs to fully monitor these awards.
What We Recommend
We made three recommendations to USAID to provide the program irregularities tracker and the country monitoring plan for its former humanitarian response in Sudan to cognizant officials at State and ensure that transferred award files are complete and include key monitoring information. We also suggest that cognizant State officials implement processes and procedures to monitor and preserve information on humanitarian assistance responses.