Country: Sudan

Committee: UNICEF
Topic: Empowering Refugee Children through Technology
Technology is defined as the application of scientific knowledge for practical
purposes, especially in industry. Today, technology can be seen and felt in every aspect of
our life just like in education, business, communication, and many more. According to
studies, in the year 2020, there are 26 million refugees worldwide, and 50 percent of refugees
are children. Refugees are forced to flee persecution for their beliefs, ethnicity, nationality,
membership of a particular social group, or sometimes they’re forced to leave as a result of
war. Since 2010, Sudan is among the top refugee-receiving countries with over one million
refugees accommodating mostly refugees from Sudan’s neighboring country South Sudan.
Since a great percent of refugees are children, it means that these children lack many things
and among those many things is their access to technology. Technology is the children’s key
to opening opportunities like education, information, financial and social support. It can give
these children voices to speak themselves and a chance to be heard. Technology gives them a
vision of a brighter future and an idea into the world around them.
Sudan for decades has kept its doors open to people fleeing war, hunger, and
hardship. It continues to host refugees from many countries. Additionally, Sudan is one of the
major hosting countries for refugees fleeing the deadly conflict in South Sudan (UNHCR-
Sudan). UNICEF Sudan on the other hand has been supporting and empowering children by
providing children and adolescents vocational training, technical and life skills for the
children’s brighter future. UNICEF supported a workshop through youth clubs for children
whose goal is to bring out the children’s creative and innovative sides. One of the children is
Monzir,17, who came from internally displaced communities. He and his friends developed a
solar-powered car that could drive him and his friends to school. According to Monzir, “I
named the team ‘Future Generations’ because we are the future of our communities, the
future of the country.” While the government of Sudan maintains a generous open border
policy for persons fleeing conflict and persecution, gaps remain. These gaps concern
registration and documentation, freedom of movement, access to basic services like
technology, labor markets, land and property ownership, and financial services.
Many actions can be done to further empower children refugees through technology.
Such as the continuous funding for the children in the youth club mentioned earlier and
providing them tangible materials they can use. Also, establishing workshops focusing on
making more digital literate children. Teaching children the basics of technology specifically
social media can help them realize the power it has that can enable them to change their fate.
Putting a place that has accessibility to computers and other gadgets which the children can
share and where they can accomplish their e-learning. Sudan government also partner up with
UNICEF, UNHCR, World Bank, ILO, and the Government of the Netherlands. This
partnership will focus on delivering change between the South Sudanese refugee, internally
displaced, and host community populations in East Darfur and West Kordofan, including in
building these changes is giving the children access to technology and education like
Alternative learning system and e-learning programs that can provide children jobs for the
future. Sudan and its government are always open to partnerships with organizations or other
countries for the welfare of the refugees providing support and a helping hand.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Unknown (2020). Country Vision Note for Sudan. International Labor Organization.
https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---ddg_p/documents/
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 Bos, F. (2019). Sudan’s ‘Future Generations’. UNICEF-Sudan.
https://www.unicef.org/sudan/stories/sudans-future-generations
 Christophersen, E. (2020). These 10 countries receive the most refugees. Norwegian
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 Unknown (2021). Sudan - Country Refugee Response Plan. Relief-Web
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