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The Sustainable Development Goals in Yemen
The Sustainable Development Goals are a global call to action to end poverty, protect the earth’s environment and climate, and ensure that people everywhere can enjoy peace and prosperity. These are the goals the UN is working on in Yemen:
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Publication
24 November 2021
Assessing the impact of war in Yemen: Pathways for recovery
UNDP Yemen has once again partnered with the Frederick S. Pardee Center for International Futures. The report, Assessing the Impact of War in Yemen: Pathways for Recovery, continues to apply integrated modeling techniques to better understand the dynamics of the conflict and its impact on development in Yemen.
Released in November 2021, this report explores postconflict recovery and finds that war has continued to devastate the country; the conflict’s death toll has already grown 60 per cent since 2019. However, if a sustainable and implementable peace deal can be reached, there is still hope for a brighter future in Yemen.
Seven different recovery scenarios were modeled to better understand prospects and priorities for recovery and reconstruction in Yemen. The analysis identified key leverage points and recommendations for a successful recovery – including empowering women, making investments in agriculture, and leveraging the private sector. Moreover, by combining these, it is possible to save hundreds of thousands of additional lives and put Yemen on a path not only to catch up with – but to surpass – its pre-war SDG trajectory by 2050.
Through achieving a peace deal, pursuing an integrated recovery strategy, and leveraging key transformative opportunities, it is indeed possible for Yemen to make up for lost time and offer better opportunities to the next generation.
PREVIOUS REPORTS
In April 2019, the first of three reports, Assessing the Impact of War on Development in Yemen, commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Yemen, revealed that the war had already set back development by more than two decades and caused more deaths from indirect causes such as hunger and disease than deaths from conflict-related violence.
The second report, Assessing the Impact of War in Yemen on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), released in September 2019, predicted that if conflict persists past 2019, Yemen will have the greatest depth of poverty, second poorest imbalance in gender development, lowest caloric intake per capita, second greatest reduction in economic activity relative to 2014, and second greatest income inequality of any country in the world.
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Story
11 September 2022
Floods in Yemen upend lives for tens of thousands already fleeing brutal conflict
SANA’A, Yemen – “The sky was full of clouds, then suddenly heavy rain washed away our shelters. Everything we owned – personal documents, blankets, food – it was all destroyed.”
Qubool, 42, is the sole breadwinner for her six children. When fighting erupted near their village in early January, she fled with her family in search of safety.
They have since been living at the Baga camp for displaced people in the Al Dhale governorate, in southwest Yemen. Thinking back on that traumatic arrival, Qubool said, “We left everything behind. I didn’t have anything with me that could provide for the most important necessities of life, such as food or medicine.”
But on top of being uprooted from their home and bereft of their belongings, the family’s precarious situation was soon to be dealt another blow: They are among tens of thousands of people already displaced by the gruelling conflict in Yemen who have now lost their homes and remaining possessions to torrential rains battering vast areas of the country.
Since April, flash floods have ravaged critical infrastructure including roads, water sources and health-care centres. Of the over 300,000 people estimated to be affected by the emergency, over half of them are women and girls, many of whom have already been displaced multiple times and are in a vulnerable physical and psychological state.
Coping through crises
To reach those displaced by the flooding, UNFPA is leading a humanitarian multi-agency Rapid Response Mechanism, together with UNICEF and WFP. Teams are distributing kits containing women’s clothing and essential hygiene items such as soap and sanitary pads, along with jerry cans and ready-to-eat food. Each kit is designed to cover a family's basic necessities for five to seven days and help alleviate their ordeal.
Eman, 28, is from the western Al Hudaydah governorate and received a kit after the rains brought down the roof of the derelict house where she and her family had been sheltering from the violence.
She described their lives before the conflict as simple yet happy – she was passionate about her work as a women’s tailor and her husband, Mohammed, ran a small but successful vegetable shop. But as the fighting edged closer to their village, the family were forced to flee to the Amran governorate further north.
Eman said, “I didn’t have any option but to sell my precious sewing machine to help us pay for the transport. It was a hard moment. I lost my only source of income.”
The change in location – and in their lives – was jarring. Suddenly unemployed, isolated and worried for their children’s health, no longer having a safe roof over their heads left the young parents with an impossible choice.
“I had to decide whether to provide food for my family or spend that money to stop the rain from flooding our home,” Mohammed explained.
Eman said the rapid response teams helped her family through a harrowing period. “This kit really came on time and has helped us to eat and dress, as we lost everything we had. We hope that in time, we’ll be able to become self-reliant again,” she told UNFPA.
Women and girls suffer the harshest fallout
After almost eight years of conflict and with rising climate disasters, a staggering 23 million people in Yemen need immediate humanitarian assistance. Millions have lost their homes, the economy has collapsed and the health system is barely functioning.
Of the 4.3 million people displaced within Yemen, more than three-quarters are women and children. Some 1.3 million women are currently pregnant, of whom nearly 200,000 are at risk of developing life-threatening complications yet have only precarious – if any – access to reproductive health services.
The UNFPA-led Rapid Response Mechanism has been activated in 16 flood-affected governorates and more than 100 districts across Yemen. Since mid-July, over 50,000 people have been reached with distributions thanks to financial contributions by the European Union, USAID and the Yemen Humanitarian Fund, and thousands have been referred on to health and protection services.
But a severe funding shortfall means even essential programmes have been scaled back, endangering the lives especially of pregnant women, newborns and gender-based violence survivors, as services are cut and care staff can’t reach those in urgent need of support. As of September 2022, UNFPA had received only one-third of the $100 million required to ensure reproductive health and protection assistance to millions of women and girls in Yemen.
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Story
19 June 2022
With emergency obstetric care elusive, pregnant women in Yemen face tragic consequences
HADRAMOUT, AMRAN AND TAIZZ GOVERNORATES, Yemen – An internally displaced woman named Hamsa* in labour arrived at Maifa’a Mother and Child Centre in Hadramout Governorate, known to provide free obstetric services, only to discover medical personnel gone and delivery services cut off.
Raisa*, ready to give birth to her first child, made it to Al Dhabr Health Centre in Amran Governorate but found the doors locked, no longer open around-the-clock due to lack of personnel. Hours ticked by as her pains intensified, but her family couldn’t afford transportation to another hospital.
When Amat* rushed to Al Khabt Hospital in Taizz Governorate in critical condition, she, too, realized that the obstetric care she had been counting on had vanished – and the nearest hospital that could save her and her baby’s life was precious hours away.
Funding streams dry up
UNFPA is the sole provider of reproductive health medicines and is leading reproductive health service provision in Yemen. But lack of funding has forced it to scale back humanitarian operations by 25 per cent since the beginning of the year. (Only 13 per cent of a $100 million appeal has been funded so far.)
In 2021, UNFPA reached 1.6 million women and girls with reproductive health services, assisting 151,000 safe deliveries and averting 344,000 unintended pregnancies with support to 127 health facilities and payments to 2,065 health workers.
But UNFPA has had to reprioritize, currently supporting 98 health facilities and four reproductive health mobile teams with the contributions of Canada, the Central Emergency Response Fund, the European Union, the Netherlands, Qatar Fund for Development, USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Aid and Yemen Humanitarian Fund.
Pregnant women pay a steep price
In Maifa’a, Hamsa had to seek help from a traditional birth attendant at home. The attendant did not realize she needed a Caesarean section and when she started bleeding heavily, had to be taken to the nearest hospital in Al Mukalla City 130 kilometres away. There the medical team managed to save Hamsa’s life, but not her newborn baby girl.
Al Dhabr Health Centre, where Raisa tried to obtain care, had provided free reproductive health-care services since 2018, with UNFPA supporting a female doctor and trained midwife. The clinic received up to 30 cases a day but after it started charging for services and medicines (beyond affordable for most), it saw two patients a day. Until it reduced working hours from 24 to 5, the clinic had never recorded a single maternal death. The clinic, which has lost specialists, has stopped testing for birth defects, providing post-delivery incubators and performing surgeries due to lack of fuel that could cut power mid-operation.
Raisa had to go to a midwife, who advised that her critical condition warranted a visit to the hospital. With no money for transport, she went to a second midwife, who also told her she needed emergency care. Raisa, who was 32, died before reaching a hospital; her baby daughter survived.
A health system in ruins
Only half of Yemen’s hospitals remain functional, and only one in five of them provide maternal and child health services. Nineteen of the country’s 22 governorates have six maternity beds for every 10,000 people, half of what the World Health Organization deems standard. In addition, an estimated 42.4 per cent of the population lives more than one hour away from the nearest fully or partially functional public hospital.
One Yemeni woman dies every two hours during childbirth from causes that are almost entirely preventable. An estimated 8.1 million women and girls of childbearing age require help accessing reproductive health services, including antenatal care, safe delivery services, postnatal care, family planning and emergency obstetric and newborn care. Among them are 1.3 million women who will deliver in 2022, of whom 195,000 are projected to develop complications that will require life-saving medical assistance.
A desperate search for help
Doctors at Al Khabt Hospital referred Amat to Al Mahweet City Hospital three hours away, where the family found out that it, too, didn’t provide the services she needed, including a blood bank. “On the way, I fainted,” she recalled. “I saw my whole life wiped out just like that.” Her husband panicked when her lips turned blue. “The moment I touched her, I felt they were going to be taken away from me,” he said.
Another two-and-a-half hours away was Al Jumhori Hospital in Al Mahwit City. The largest in the governorate, it is still being supported by UNFPA – and was an unconscious and barely breathing Amat’s last chance. After nearly six hours of travelling due to poor road infrastructure, mother and baby survived.
“It’s simple,” said midwife Afrah, who helped deliver Amat’s son. “When services are readily available, we can save lives.”
*Names changed for privacy and protection
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Story
06 June 2022
YEMENI WOMEN LEAD COMMUNITIES IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
Aden – One of the greatest challenges facing society today, the warming of the planet is showing no signs of decreasing. In Yemen, where communities are confronting conflict and economic decline, temperatures have been rising faster than the global average over the last three decades.
Across the country, droughts and floods periodically damage agricultural lands, reduce the availability of arable lands and threaten the livelihoods and food security of communities.
“Agriculture is the main source of income for our communities, but climate change has made farming difficult and brought a decline in our economy,” said Noha Alban, a community leader from Lahj.
"Climate change has caused drought and water scarcity, which has made it impossible for farmers to grow their food. They now need to dig wells which are expensive. This has forced many farmers to sell their land and move to other areas,” she added.
Yemen is facing a decline in agricultural productivity and a shortage of seasonal crops on which the rural population depends, leading to increased food insecurity, high rates of malnutrition, as well as the continued shortage of groundwater and drinkable clean water.
"Before we started to experience drought, heavy rain and flooding, 80 per cent of our community worked on farms but now only 30 per cent can afford seeds or the other resources they need to continue farming,” said Noha.
In rural communities across Yemen, women are tackling the issue of climate change with grit and resilience.
Women often work as farmers and increasingly are becoming the sole breadwinners of their families, says Noha. They also play a pivotal role in food security and land management and help to mitigate tension over natural resources like water among local farming groups.
Noha is a member of the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Conflict Resolution Committee which was formed to address issues that arise in communities due to displacement and competition over resources.
Committee members work to raise awareness about environmental sustainability, social cohesion and peaceful solutions to conflicts through community dialogue and mediation.
"The majority of people here know the climate is changing but they do not know what kinds of precautions they can take. People need more awareness about climate change to learn how to protect themselves from rain and winds, and how to store rainwater," added Noha.
“Women can help to reduce the risks of climate change by talking to people and raising their awareness.”
Noha and other members work closely with male and female farmers to improve and care for their agricultural crops, as well as educate them about the complications of climate change and the causes of floods and droughts.
"As a member of the Conflict Resolution Committee, I help to resolve these disputes. We also educate farmers and encourage them to support each other in the management of resources and their land," elaborated Noha.
“Everyone in society should come together to solve these issues as a community, not individually.”
In coordination with community leaders and local authorities and support from the European Union, IOM works extensively with its partners and the Conflict Resolution Committees with the aim of alleviating the pressure that arises from mass displacement and competition over resources and services.
The committee also works to solve environmental and climate change-related problems and helps farmers find solutions for shortages related to water, seeds and other basic resources.
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Story
01 May 2022
UN Volunteers provide critical healthcare in times of crisis in Yemen
UN Volunteer health professionals have been providing much-needed critical healthcare for UN operations in Yemen in times of crisis. Since 2020, the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme has deployed 60 UN Volunteer doctors, nurses and other medical providers, almost all of whom are nationals, in UN Clinics administered by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in seven locations in Yemen.
National UN Volunteers have been playing a key role in providing healthcare to over 6,000 UN staff and their eligible dependents. They carry out daily walk-in consultations, emergency care, inpatient care, follow up of cases and healthcare promotional activities, with proper guidance from international UN Volunteers and senior medical staff, as stipulated in the UN Clinic Standard Operating Procedures.
In addition, they contribute to health consultations, workshops on universal precautions and COVID-19 awareness activities, in cooperation with relevant governmental health departments. The country-wide deployment of these UN Volunteers was meant to keep up with the needs on the ground, and to facilitate the wide international humanitarian response to the crisis in Yemen.
Humanitarian and relief activities are implemented by international and national staff who, in turn, rely on a robust healthcare system to keep them well in the field. Thus, the deployment of UN Volunteer medical workers enables the work of many others. — Abdullah Al Duraibi, UNV Country Coordinator in Yemen.
Accordingly, the level of expectations from these UN Volunteers went beyond the commitment required from a health worker to their patients in a normal context. Recruited in the context of a national crisis, compounded with a global pandemic situation, being prepared to go over and beyond, and having the ability to work within diverse teams were critical assets.
UN Volunteer Marwah Al-Maqtari had full understanding of this context when she was recruited as a National Emergency Doctor for the UN Clinic in Sana’a back in May 2020.
“Serving as a UN Volunteer within the COVID-19 team required a disciplined professional commitment around the clock,” she explains. For Marwah, being a doctor is not just about treating the patients, it is about “listening to their fears and concerns and staying by their side,” as well.
These medical volunteers are part of a larger community of UN Volunteers, including ambulance drivers, human rights advocates, translators, engineers and information technology experts, among others. Together with their colleagues serving UN operations in Yemen, this volunteer community maintains knowledge-sharing platforms, renewable energy sources and updated medical procedures, upon which healthcare systems depend.
Our UN Volunteers learn from one another and work closely together. This high degree of cooperation and learning contributes to capacity building and improves the care we provide. — Dr Florence Fongang, UN Physician/Health Manager with UNDP in Yemen
UN Volunteer Ahmed Al Rough serves as an Emergency Nurse within the UN Clinic in Sana’a. His core duties involve providing primary healthcare to the beneficiaries of the UN Clinic, preparing medical supplies for emergency services and managing referrals. He also plays a key role in updating the daily COVID-19 statistics, which contributed greatly to the review and update of the UN country team’s COVID-19 protocols.
“Unfortunately, patients often delay medical services because they are misinformed and dissuaded by stigmas,” says Dr Florence. This is an issue the UN Volunteers help to address, benefiting from their position as national volunteers embedded in the local community, which allows them build trust with local beneficiaries.
Alongside his core duties, Ahmed helps counter misinformation. For example, he conducted awareness workshops and developed dashboards, flyers and other information material about COVID-19 pandemic. These activities helped local communities acquire the knowledge and skills needed to reduce disease transmission and increased transparency with real-time situation updates.
Indeed, a devastating economic recession, years of conflict and political insecurity have taken a heavy toll on the healthcare sector in Yemen. These challenges have resulted in under-investment, which limited the access to and quality of medical supplies, services and continuing education opportunities.
However, through their hard work and dedication, UN Volunteers are planting the seeds of positive change. By building trust in national capabilities, they inspire hope for Yemen’s post-conflict recovery.
However, through their hard work and dedication, UN Volunteers are planting the seeds of positive change. By building trust in national capabilities, they inspire hope for Yemen’s post-conflict recovery.
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Story
27 April 2022
From Inspiration to Action: I Believe in Volunteers
My journey as a UN Volunteer started with a recommendation from a friend. At the time, I had practiced medicine in my home country, Cameroon, for over 20 years. A close friend advised me to join the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme as a way to expand my experience in medicine, while traveling and volunteering in service of others. My recollection of my sister’s illness made me decide right away that this was right for me.
When I was younger, my sister developed a medical condition. She underwent two heart surgical procedures and endured a lot of suffering, but she survived and inspired me. She later asked me to consider a career in medicine to help other young girls. When this volunteering opportunity came up, I took it and became a UN Volunteer on 27 March 2008.
I was recruited for the first volunteer assignment in Haiti. As a mother of a seven year-old twins, it was not easy for me to travel and leave them behind. But I did it with the support of my husband, who understood my motives and took good care of our children while I was deployed overseas.
I am sharing my experience to encourage other women, especially mothers, to not pass on such opportunities. I understand their role as caregivers. I hope learning about how I volunteered, and balanced between my work and family, will make them more confident that they can do it too.
While in Haiti, I practiced medicine amidst floods, cholera, earthquakes and a severe economic recession. These harsh conditions damaged roads and threatened the supply of food and other resources to affected communities.
My volunteering journey with the UN took me next to support the Ebola response in Africa, amidst lockdowns and a profound public health crisis, which garnered the world's concern.
Through these emergency and disaster relief contexts, I became involved in inpatient and outpatient services, medical evacuations, capacity building, prevention and disease mitigation activities.
It was especially heartwarming to see my work being recognized while knowing I was making the contributions my sister always believed I would make. Serving with UNV prepared me in ways that I couldn't have imagined.
These experiences were wide-ranging and led my career growth within the UN. I eventually transitioned from a UN Volunteer Medical Officer to become the Health Manager of the UN Clinic administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), first in Somalia, then in Yemen, which is a lead medical position in the field.
When COVID-19 hit the globe, I was in Yemen. Indeed, I was the one of the first female doctors to join the UN Clinic medical team in Yemen. Like my home country Cameroon, Yemen desperately needs to increase the number of doctors and nurses to improve health conditions and address humanitarian needs.
My previous experience allowed me to understand both the significant role women can play in this regard and the value UN Volunteers can add in such contexts. I moved quickly to recruit, deploy and train national UN Volunteers in our UN Clinics. All while ensuring inclusion of women in the deployments, coupled with flexible schedules and remote work opportunities which promote work-life balance.
Ultimately, our work in Yemen benefited significantly from the contribution of the recruited national UN Volunteer health professionals.
As I travel between clinics to attend to patients and help building staff capacity, I often think of my sister and how she inspired me. I also think about my children and how my own journey would inspire them.
At first, my children didn't want to study medicine. While in Cameroon, they saw me work long hours and weekends then come home tired. They struggled to embrace the career that demanded a lot of their mother's time. However, my children began to view medicine differently after I joined UNV. They began to understand how important doctors are to crisis-affected communities and now see themselves in the lives we save. This is everything to me.
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Press Release
19 January 2023
The ILO and Yemen’s development fund pledge to further promote decent work for the most vulnerable
SANAA (ILO News) - The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Yemen’s Social Fund for Development (SFD) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to increase collaboration on promoting decent work in the country.
The agreement, signed by the ILO’s Regional Director for Arab States Ruba Jaradat and SFD Managing Director Abdullah Al-Dailami, aims to formalize joint work by the two agencies in key areas to foster job creation and gender inclusion and to generate labour market data.
“The ILO already has a long history of successful collaboration with Yemen’s Social Fund for Development, and we are delighted to enter into this new partnership with the SFD in order to promote decent work for some of the country’s most vulnerable communities,” said ILO Regional Director Jaradat. “We will jointly focus on generating much-needed employment opportunities, as well as reliable data on Yemen’s labour market in order to guide the development of robust and effective employment strategies and plans.”
"It is our pleasure to launch a new phase of technical cooperation between the Social Fund for Development and the ILO in several areas of social development,” said SFD Managing Director al-Dailami. “The cooperation will focus on enhancing decent work opportunities, especially for women, as well as enhancing occupational safety and health, vocational training and community contracting. It will include updating and refining relevant work manuals which will enable both parties to use SFD's rich experience and ILO's standards for benefiting vulnerable populations and poverty alleviation actors at the national and international level."
Future joint activities under the new agreement are expected to include conducting a labour force survey in Yemen in collaboration with other relevant authorities, and developing social protection schemes for public works programmes. Furthermore, activities will focus on supporting the SFD in integrating Employment-Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP) approaches into its existing cash-for-work or cash-for-assistance projects, as well as into SFD guidelines and tools, including those relating to Occupational Safety and Health. It will also build the business and management capacities of women community contractors and increase their participation in SFD projects. EIIP approaches aim to create short-term decent jobs through projects that create assets, renovate and rehabilitate infrastructure systems, and promote environmental sustainability.
At the outset of January 2023, the ILO and SFD entered into a new cooperation area to enhance the working skills and employability of more than 600 vulnerable Yemeni men and women, to enable them to better cope with the crisis and enhance their resilience.
Prior to that, the two organizations worked on promoting an entrepreneurship culture among Yemeni youth and women, building the capacity of national institutions and training service providers in business development, microfinance and self-employment initiatives.
The new phase of cooperation ushered in by the MoU will end in December 2023.
“The ILO already has a long history of successful collaboration with Yemen’s Social Fund for Development, and we are delighted to enter into this new partnership with the SFD in order to promote decent work for some of the country’s most vulnerable communities,” said ILO Regional Director Jaradat. “We will jointly focus on generating much-needed employment opportunities, as well as reliable data on Yemen’s labour market in order to guide the development of robust and effective employment strategies and plans.”
"It is our pleasure to launch a new phase of technical cooperation between the Social Fund for Development and the ILO in several areas of social development,” said SFD Managing Director al-Dailami. “The cooperation will focus on enhancing decent work opportunities, especially for women, as well as enhancing occupational safety and health, vocational training and community contracting. It will include updating and refining relevant work manuals which will enable both parties to use SFD's rich experience and ILO's standards for benefiting vulnerable populations and poverty alleviation actors at the national and international level."
Future joint activities under the new agreement are expected to include conducting a labour force survey in Yemen in collaboration with other relevant authorities, and developing social protection schemes for public works programmes. Furthermore, activities will focus on supporting the SFD in integrating Employment-Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP) approaches into its existing cash-for-work or cash-for-assistance projects, as well as into SFD guidelines and tools, including those relating to Occupational Safety and Health. It will also build the business and management capacities of women community contractors and increase their participation in SFD projects. EIIP approaches aim to create short-term decent jobs through projects that create assets, renovate and rehabilitate infrastructure systems, and promote environmental sustainability.
At the outset of January 2023, the ILO and SFD entered into a new cooperation area to enhance the working skills and employability of more than 600 vulnerable Yemeni men and women, to enable them to better cope with the crisis and enhance their resilience.
Prior to that, the two organizations worked on promoting an entrepreneurship culture among Yemeni youth and women, building the capacity of national institutions and training service providers in business development, microfinance and self-employment initiatives.
The new phase of cooperation ushered in by the MoU will end in December 2023.
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Press Release
01 December 2022
One-fifty houses are handed over under the “Adequate Housing” project in Aden
Aden, Yemen, 29 November 2022 – Aiming to improve the living conditions of families in Aden, Yemen, UN-Habitat, in partnership with the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Programme for Yemen (SDRPY) and Alwaleed Philanthropies (AP), rehabilitated the houses of 150 families in the last two years.
The houses were handed over in a ceremony attended by Eng. Ali Ahmed Hassan, the Deputy Minister of Public Works and Highways, Eng. Ahmed Al Madkhali, Head of SDPYR Aden Office, Erfan Ali, UN-Habitat Regional Representative for the Arab States, and Diego Zorrilla, Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator.
“The handover of 150 houses today under the rehabilitation project returns the smile and hope of our citizens. We hope for the acceleration of implementing future phases to alleviate the suffering of our citizens,” Eng. Ali Ahmed Hassan stated in the ceremony.
The “Adequate Housing” project aims at improving the living conditions of low-income families in Aden, Yemen, through ensuring that their housing is safe, secure and designed to resist hazards.
"The developmental and economic support, through SDRPY, comes under direct guidance and care by the Custodian of the two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdulaziz and His Royal Highness, the crown prince, with constant follow up by the Programme Director, Ambassador Mohamed Bin Saeed Al-Jaber, to improve the lives of the Yemeni people,” Eng. Ahmed Madkhali said. “The project is a product of a partnership between SDRPY, UN-Habitat and AP, following extensive efforts to improve the lives of our Yemeni brothers and sisters and to improve the living conditions of low-income Yemeni families.”
Over 4,000 people are set to benefit from this project after the rehabilitation of a targeted number of 600 low-income housing units in Aden.
“Rehabilitation of damaged houses allows Yemenis women, men and children of all ages to be as independent as possible in everyday activities, enabling participation in education, work, recreation, and meaningful life roles, such as taking care of family,” Dr. Erfan Ali commented.
The project also aims to enhance the capacity of Yemeni engineers and provide unemployed youth with vocational training. A partnership with the University of Aden resulted in the training of forty engineers from the Ministry of Public Works and Highways in the area of project management for construction.
Vocational training on skills such as carpentry and electrical installation is also provided for unemployed youth from targeted districts.
SDRPY have previously implemented 224 initiatives and projects throughout Yemeni governorates, focusing on 7 main areas. Education, health, water, energy, transportation, agriculture, fisheries and capacity building for governmental entities, in addition to development programmes.
Alwaleed Philanthropies
Over four decades, Alwaleed Philanthropies has supported and spent more than 4.4 billion dollars on social welfare and initiated more than 1000 projects in over +189 countries, managed by 10 Saudi female members, reaching more than 1 billion beneficiaries around the world, regardless of gender, race, or religion. Alwaleed Philanthropies collaborates with a range of philanthropic, governmental, and nongovernmental to combat poverty, empower women and youth, develop communities, provide disaster relief, and create cultural understanding through education. It seeks to build bridges for a more compassionate, tolerant, and accepting world.
UN-Habitat
UN-Habitat works in over 90 countries supporting people in cities and human settlements for a better urban future. Working with governments and local partners, its high impact projects combine world-class expertise and local knowledge to deliver timely and targeted solutions. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development includes a dedicated Goal on cities, SDG 11 – to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
www.unhabitat.org
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Press Release
19 October 2022
FAO Yemen Marks World Food Day with Pledge to Support Efficient, Inclusive, Resilient and Sustainable Agrifood Systems
The event is one in a series with others scheduled for Sana’a, Taiz and Mukalla within the coming few days. This year’s World Food Day is celebrated under the theme: Leave No One Behind and today’s event bore testimony to this as it was attended by various people including staff from FAO and MIAF, farmers, pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, beekeepers and fisher folks.
The FAO Representative in Yemen, Dr Hussein Gadain, in a message that was screened at the venue, said this year’s World Food Day comes at a time when the world faces several challenges including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts, climate change and rising food prices.
“Our aim is to work with farmers who dedicate time and energy to produce food, the livestock owners, the fisher folks, the poultry breeders, the market sellers and all the people who play a part to ensure that food is in our plates. We work with all and Leave No One Behind.
“We work to reduce malnutrition and food insecurity in Yemen through efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems. We are committed to ensure better nutrition and food security, which is linked to sustainable production and decent livelihoods,” said Dr Gadain.
The FAO representative added that FAO is implementing bold, scaled, and collaborative actions.
“These actions are significantly improving food security conditions of rural families affected by the conflict and climate change shocks. We are building a sustainable environment where everyone, everywhere in Yemen, will have regular access to enough nutritious foods,” added Dr Gadain.
The venue was a hive of activity as farmers, pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, beekeepers and fisher folks were proudly displaying their products and equipment. These products and equipment are a result of their participation in some FAO interventions. These include sprayers to manage and control desert locust and drip irrigation equipment. Livestock farmers were also displaying tools and equipment used in dairy processing and animal fattening.
There were pheromone traps on display and these are used in the management of the ferocious fall armyworm (FAW). Also, on display were systems that ensure availability of near real time data in support of early warning for early action. Beekeepers were also displaying their products, showing the recent interventions in the honey value chain.
The products on exhibition represent the wide array of the emergency, resilience, and development-focused interventions implemented by FAO in Yemen. These interventions are made possible through the generous support of our donors and partners.
End
Contact:
Ali Al-Ashwal
Senior Communication & Outreach Analyst
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Sana'a - Republic of Yemen
Tel: +967-1-432681/2 Ext: 48
Mobile: +967 739955525
Email: ali.alashwal@fao.org
Leonard Makombe
Emergency Outreach and Reporting Specialist
Email: Leonard.Makombe@fao.org
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Sana'a - Republic of Yemen
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Press Release
22 September 2022
Note to the media on the UN plan to prevent an oil spill from the FSO Safer
The United Nations official leading the organization’s efforts on the FSO Safer said today that donors have generously pledged all of the $75 million required for the emergency operation to transfer oil from the decaying supertanker to a safe vessel.
The official, David Gressly, who is the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, was speaking at a high-level event on the Safer co-chaired by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the United States of America, and the Federal Republic of Germany.
Mr. Gressly said reaching the amount needed to implement the emergency operation was a fantastic milestone. It followed the Netherlands announcement that it would increase its pledge to $15 million from $7.5 million.
To begin work on the emergency operation as soon as possible the United Nations needs donors to convert all of the pledges to cash. As of 18 September, $59 million has been disbursed or was in the process of being disbursed. Mr. Gressly said he was hopeful the remaining undisbursed pledges would be converted to cash very soon.
The UN also needs a further $38 million to finish the job with the installation of safe long-term replacement capacity for the Safer.
The revised budget for the two-track plan is $113 million, comprising $75 million for the emergency operation and $38 million to replace the Safer capacity.
The original budget was reduced by $31 million largely because of the adoption of a double-hull vessel tethered to a catenary anchor leg mooring (CALM) buoy system as the safe long-term solution. The system is the fastest to implement and most flexible of the three long-term replacement options that were considered.
During the event, Mr. Gressly also thanked the public for contributing $200,000 to the UN plan through crowdfunding and for raising awareness about the Safer. He thanked the multinational HSA Group, which was the first private entity to provide a contribution and said that he looked forward to further donations from the private sector.
ENDS
The co-hosts of the event said the following:
The Netherlands
“Normally, as minister, it’s my job to deal with the repercussions of disasters. But in this instance we have a chance to prevent a disaster. The Safer is a ticking timebomb. We need swift action.”
Liesje Schreinemacher, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation
United States
"We are proud that the United States pledged $10 million for the UN Safer project. Our contribution stands alongside contributions from a range of countries, organizations, and individuals across the globe, representing a broad coalition of partners that understands the importance of preventing an economic and environmental catastrophe from the Safer tanker."
Tim Lenderking, Special Envoy for Yemen
Germany
“Thanks to our continued joint efforts, we have a rare opportunity here, to tell a story not often told: the story of how we prevented a catastrophe! With its contribution of 12 million, Germany significantly contributes to this accomplishment. If all parties to the conflict stick to the agreement made to rescue the FSO Safer and the operation is successful, the FSO Safer can go from being a symbol of impending disaster to a beacon of hope for Yemen!”
Deike Potzel, Director General for Stabilization, Crisis Prevention, Peacebuilding and Humanitarian Assistance
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Press Release
19 August 2022
World Humanitarian Day 2022
Aid workers in Yemen – more than 95 per cent of whom are Yemenis – ensure that 12.6 million people on average receive humanitarian assistance or protection support every month. But they operate in an extremely challenging environment. They are too often subjected to threats to their safety and well-being, even as they work to save lives and reduce suffering every day.
This year has seen an alarming increase in attacks on aid workers in Yemen. The first half of 2022 saw an aid worker killed, two injured, seven kidnapped and nine detained. There were 27 incidents of threat and intimidation between January and June, compared with 17 such incidents recorded all of last year. There were also 28 carjacking incidents recorded in the first six months of the year, 17 more than in 2021. Twenty-seven attacks against aid organizations’ premises and facilities – including the looting of humanitarian supplies and other assets – were recorded in the first half of 2022, also more than in the whole of 2021.
In recent months, aid workers have been targets of disinformation and incitement, including false allegations that they corrupt Yemeni values, including the morals of young women. Such baseless allegations jeopardize the safety and security of humanitarian workers, especially Yemeni female aid workers at a time when women and girls are experiencing increased levels of violence and a rollback of their rights in many parts of the globe.
“Violence and threats against humanitarian workers undermine the delivery of aid, further jeopardizing the lives of those most in need,” said the Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly. “Aid workers in Yemen deserve to be celebrated for their selfless dedication.”
While the UN-brokered truce has provided tangible relief to civilians since going into effect in April and deserves full backing, more than seven years of conflict and economic collapse continue to exacerbate the humanitarian crisis. More than 23 million people need some form of humanitarian assistance or protection. The number of people that are food insecure is projected to increase to 19 million by December. The malnutrition rate among women and children is among the highest in the world and a third of the 4.3 million internally displaced people in Yemen continue to live under dire conditions. Without the tireless commitment of humanitarians in Yemen, the situation would be far worse.
“Aid workers in Yemen remain unwavering in their mission. These selfless women and men continue to step up to every day, providing millions of people in need with food and cash, health services and clean water, protection and emergency education,” Mr. Gressly said. “We should all do everything we can to protect them and support their critical work.”
This year has seen an alarming increase in attacks on aid workers in Yemen. The first half of 2022 saw an aid worker killed, two injured, seven kidnapped and nine detained. There were 27 incidents of threat and intimidation between January and June, compared with 17 such incidents recorded all of last year. There were also 28 carjacking incidents recorded in the first six months of the year, 17 more than in 2021. Twenty-seven attacks against aid organizations’ premises and facilities – including the looting of humanitarian supplies and other assets – were recorded in the first half of 2022, also more than in the whole of 2021.
In recent months, aid workers have been targets of disinformation and incitement, including false allegations that they corrupt Yemeni values, including the morals of young women. Such baseless allegations jeopardize the safety and security of humanitarian workers, especially Yemeni female aid workers at a time when women and girls are experiencing increased levels of violence and a rollback of their rights in many parts of the globe.
“Violence and threats against humanitarian workers undermine the delivery of aid, further jeopardizing the lives of those most in need,” said the Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly. “Aid workers in Yemen deserve to be celebrated for their selfless dedication.”
While the UN-brokered truce has provided tangible relief to civilians since going into effect in April and deserves full backing, more than seven years of conflict and economic collapse continue to exacerbate the humanitarian crisis. More than 23 million people need some form of humanitarian assistance or protection. The number of people that are food insecure is projected to increase to 19 million by December. The malnutrition rate among women and children is among the highest in the world and a third of the 4.3 million internally displaced people in Yemen continue to live under dire conditions. Without the tireless commitment of humanitarians in Yemen, the situation would be far worse.
“Aid workers in Yemen remain unwavering in their mission. These selfless women and men continue to step up to every day, providing millions of people in need with food and cash, health services and clean water, protection and emergency education,” Mr. Gressly said. “We should all do everything we can to protect them and support their critical work.”
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