MISINFORMED: Sudan’s Centralization Problem and the Pandemic

An Information Ecosystem Assessment

Between October 2020 and March 2021, Internews’ Rooted in Trust (RiT) project team, in partnership with Insight Strategy Partners and Y-Peer Sudan, conducted a Information Ecosytem Assessment (IEA) to better understand COVID-19 information needs and preferred channels of information for communities affected by armed conflict in five Sudanese states, including Blue Nile, South Kordofan, Kassala, West Darfur and Khartoum.

This IEA documents how information around the COVID-19 pandemic is produced, consumed, and shared in Sudan contributing to the existence of multiple and overlapping information sub-systems within the supply side of the broader ecosystem.

The findings show how the centralization of news production, as well as power and resources, leads to the development of these sometimes-competing subsystems. This is evident through data collected from marginalized groups, such as displaced communities (refugees, IDPs, migrants) and those in communities that host them, who are not targeted by official supply mechanisms of information.