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  • Publication | 2025
Sudan: Women, Food Insecurity, and Famine Risk in Sudan, Gender Snapshot (21 July 2025)
Global Food and Nutrition Security

Highlights:

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• 75% of female-headed households (FHHs) are food insecure, up from 64% in 2024.

• Severe food insecurity among FHHs nearly doubled in one year—from 14% (2024) to 25.9% (2025).

• Only 1.9% of FHHs are food secure, compared to 5.9% of male-headed households.

• 45% of FHHs report poor food consumption, nearly twice the rate of male-headed households (25.7%).

• Only one-third of FHHs have an acceptable diet, versus more than half of male-headed households.

• 73.7% of women nationally do not meet minimum dietary diversity, limiting essential micronutrient intake and endangering maternal and child health.

• FHHs rely more on fragile coping mechanisms, such as remittances (10% vs. 4% for MHHs), and lack access to sustainable income sources.

• Female-headed households are three times more likely to be food insecure than male-headed households,  highlighting the structural disadvantage they face in food access and resilience.

• Acceptable food consumption has declined among FHHs, dropping from 48% in 2024 to just 34% in Q1 2025—while men’s dietary quality has remained relatively stable.

• Nearly 1 in 4 FHHs are living in conditions that approach or meet famine thresholds, compared to only 7% of male-headed households.

• Poor food consumption among FHHs has doubled in one year, rising from 22% in 2024 to 45% in early 2025, underscoring a dramatic erosion of dietary quality