“I encourage parents to vaccinate their children as they are the ones responsible for their children’s health”, says Bakil Ali Mohammed Al Awa, a father of five, who has been displaced from Hajjah to Marib, in Yemen. With many other displaced families, Bakil and his children live today in the Community College Camp in Al Rawdah, Marib. The long-lasting military conflict in Yemen has forced thousands of people to leave their homes and move to camps for displaced persons and remote villages. Displaced persons numerous challenges such as the lack of healthy food, unclean water, and unsanitary living conditions. Since the war has had a strong impact on the country’s healthcare system, thousands of Yemenis do not receive qualified medical help, which inevitably leads to a general deterioration of the health situation in the country. “Due to overcrowding, informal housing and poor sanitation in camps, the health situation is becoming tragic,” says Dr. Abdulkareem Al Hogaeli, one of the 10 district supervisors deployed for the polio vaccination campaign supported by UNICEF. “We target 4,500 beneficiaries in the camp, mostly children between the age of six months and 15 years,” he adds. The inaccessibility of health centres and lack of qualified personnel are not the only reasons why thousands of children in Yemen remain unvaccinated and therefore at risk of deadly diseases like polio. “Many children don’t get vaccinated because families don’t know about the vaccine or the disease,” the supervisor explains. This is why the Immunization Campaign targeting 149 Internally Displaced Persons camps is also committed to educating parents about the risks of diseases like polio or measles, and about the benefits of vaccines for children. “We explain to parents that prevention is better than cure, and that vaccines will stop diseases from spreading”, says Sarah Saad Saleh, one of the 560 health workers who work for the polio and measles immunization campaign with UNICEF. “Within this camp, there are four mobile teams going from one house to another. Every day, we vaccinate up to 170 children,” says Dr. Abdulkareem Al Hogael. “Children are at risk of epidemic diseases due to the poor health situation in the province and the absence of sanitation inside this camp”, he explains, enhancing the importance of the mobile teams’ mission. “No one wants to see their child sick,” adds another volunteer health worker. “When parents see that vaccines help, they gladly accept our assistance and encourage neighbors to vaccinate their kids.” The ongoing vaccination campaign has deployed 280 mobile teams that targeted over 100,000 children. “I am so proud that the mobile team for immunization has visited our camp, and I vaccinated my children,” says Bakil Ali Mohammed, looking at his daughter Salma with a smile.  

In Yemen, one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, seven years of conflict show no sign of abating, nor does rising hunger. As fighting continues to displace tens of thousands while disrupting access to nutritious food for millions of people, over half the population – 16.2 million people – are facing acute hunger, with 5.1 million people at risk of famine. Half of all children under 5 – 2.3 million – are at risk of malnutrition this year. The World Food Programme (WFP) provides emergency food assistance – as in-kind rations, vouchers or cash – to nearly 13 million people, prioritizing areas with the highest rates of food insecurity. But nearly 3 million have received assistance on alternate months instead of monthly for the last 19 months due to funding shortfalls. Where this is happening, inadequate food consumption, one measure of hunger tracked by WFP, is rising, underscoring how vitally important food assistance is for families – and how precarious the food security situation remains. “We live in a war zone,” says Medleen, a health worker at a WFP-supported nutrition clinic in Lahj. “The high prices have trapped people and they can no longer eat even one meal a day.” The cost of food has more than doubled this year alone in parts of Yemen, pushing it further and further out of reach for many families.  “My kids say ‘Baba, we are hungry’,” says Ali, a father of five who lives in a camp for internally displaced persons in Aden. “I feel frustration and pain.” “You feel terrible, and you have nothing to give them,” adds Ali’s wife, Afrah, who is pregnant with their sixth child.  Ali and Afrah receive cash assistance from WFP. Afrah describes what it means to her family: “When I receive the cash assistance, I feel as if I own the whole world. It takes a big burden off our shoulders, and we can buy stuff for the children.” The rapid decline of the Yemeni riyal is one of the core drivers of rising hunger. The currency continues to regularly hit new record lows in southern Yemen, surpassing YER1,600 to US$1 in early December. The rate of depreciation has accelerated with a 26 percent slide in the last six weeks alone. Added to that are Yemen’s nearly depleted foreign currency reserves, which make it increasingly difficult for the import-dependent country to finance food imports. In addition, global food prices are at a 10-year high. This means the important contributions received from donors to finance our food assistance programmes in Yemen and around the world don’t stretch as far as they used to. “I wish the war ends, and the prices decrease and to live in safety and security,” says Huda, who lives in a camp for internally displaced people in Taiz and receives food assistance of staple foods – flour, oil, pulses, sugar and salt – from WFP. But with food prices in the market rising all the time, Huda struggles to afford fresh produce, dairy, or meat to supplement the rations she gets from WFP. “Sometimes, we eat bread for weeks. Only bread for all meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes the children sleep with no dinner,” says the mother of six.  Then there is the conflict. In Marib and Hodeidah there has been a wave of families being forced to move  because of the conflict – tens of thousands of people since September alone. Many have been displaced for the second, third or even fourth time in nearly seven years of war, often moving from makeshift camp to makeshift camp in the hope of finding refuge as frontlines shift .  Families who have fled multiple times are among those most at risk of rising food insecurity: in Marib, a conflict hotspot, around half of families are facing inadequate food consumption, up from one in three at the start of the year. 
 
Elham, who is pregnant, fled with her three children to a displaced persons camp near Marib city in May this year. It was the third time the family had been forced to move since the war began. “The children are hungry, and we don’t have enough money to feed them. I wish for a future for my children that is better than ours. I wish them a bright future. I wish for safety and security for Yemen,” said Elham. Elham is among over 3 million children and mothers who receive nutrition supplements from WFP to both treat and prevent malnutrition. Making sure this assistance reaches mothers like Elham in displacement camps is vital. Elham collects her nutritious supplement – a fortified porridge mix of wheat and soya – from a mobile clinic run by WFP in the camp. A father also living in that camp brought his five young children. All of them were malnourished. Hanan, a health worker in the mobile clinic, handed the father nutrition supplements for his children. “There is no future for our children as long as the war continues in Yemen,” she says.  Without WFP’s food assistance and nutrition support in Yemen the situation for families would be even worse. Any cuts to humanitarian assistance would also likely see food insecurity and malnutrition increase at an alarming rate, rapidly undoing donors’ investments to date.  This year WFP has delivered more than 1 million metric tons of food and distributed over US$130 million in cash assistance to acutely food insecure families across Yemen. Each day, more than 500 trucks are on the road in the country, navigating damaged roads, checkpoints and shifting frontlines to deliver vitally needed WFP food assistance to the children, women and men who need it most. But to continue saving lives, WFP needs funds - US$1.98 billion for 2022. Learn more about WFP's work in Yemen

Schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths are neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), but these parasitic worm infections can lead to anemia, malnutrition, and learning difficulties among children. Left untreated, schistosomiasis can damage the liver, intestines, bladder, spleen, and lungs, and soil-transmitted helminths can cause a range of problems, including slow physical and mental development. Public health authorities have battled for more than a decade to tackle schistosomiasis, supported by partners such as the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) and World Health Organization (WHO). In 2010, one in five residents in Yemen were at risk of contracting schistosomiasis, better known as bilharzia.  Today, that has dropped to fewer than one in 15 (about three million people). Limited data exists for the soil-transmitted helminths that affect communities across the country but bringing these infections under control is another public health goal. Eliminating schistosomiasis involves the mass administration of drugs, in which members of a target population are treated once a year. Several rounds of drugs are administered over several years to get rid of a community of the parasite. The Emergency Health and Nutrition Project (EHNP), funded by IDA, the World Bank’s fund for poorest countries, has helped to eliminate schistosomiasis as a public health problem in Yemen. “Nothing beats a child’s smile. This project represents a critical opportunity to decrease the disease burden among vulnerable Yemenis, particularly children. The project is part of the World Bank’s strategy to invest in Yemen’s most important assets: its people” said Tania Meyer, World Bank Country Manager for Yemen. During a recent four-day mass campaign, almost 860,000 children and adolescents between 6- and 19-years-old, were targeted (whether enrolled in school or not) across seven southern and eastern governorates, Abyan, Hadramout/Mukalla, Hadramout/Sayoun, Lahj, Mareb, Shabwa, and Taiz. In total, 37 districts, 373 team leaders, 1,070 team supervisors, and 2,140 drug distributors were involved and over 80% of the target population reached. Yemen is making progress against other neglected tropical diseases as well. Lymphatic filariasis, which causes swelling of limbs and is spread by infected mosquitos, was eliminated as a public health problem in 2019. The administrative certification of the elimination of leprosy in Yemen is underway, and technical teams are working hard to eliminate blindness of infectious origins: trachoma by 2024, and onchocerciasis, or river blindness, by 2030. “This progress is encouraging, and a sign that the elimination of schistosomiasis as a public health problem may be within reach in Yemen in the next five years,” said Dr. Adham Rashad Ismail Abdel-Moneim, WHO’s Yemen Representative. “Reaching it, however, will depend on continued support from partners.” The campaign was carried out in close collaboration with Yemen’s Ministry of Education and th Health Education Center, which is part of the Ministry of Public Health and Population. Technical and statistical local plans were prepared, a training of trainers’ session carried out, and workshops given to drug distributors and the heads of teams in charge of both fixed and mobile treatment facilities. A third-party team conducted direct monitoring of the activities and interviews with around 4,000 people across 1,000 randomly selected households. The campaign in January 2021 targeted 2.4 million people at 3,300 sites across 32 districts in seven northern governorates, involving 6,700 drug distributors. Approximately, 4.8 million praziquantel tablets and 2.4 million albendazole tablets were distributed. More mass campaigns against soil-transmitted helminths and schistosomiasis are planned in  2022, with more investment to improve community engagement made in order to reach more than 80% of the targeted population in future.

"We – women – help each other on our farms. When I want to take care of my farm, I call my fellow women to help me. The next day, I go to help one of them. That is how we’ve always done things, and we will continue to do so,” says Hailah, a smile across her face. After seven years year of conflict, Yemen has become increasingly unstable, experiencing the collapse of critical services, growing unemployment and severe disruptions to the economy, including the agricultural sector. Even though only a small portion of the country’s food is produced domestically, almost two-thirds of Yemenis rely on agriculture for their livelihoods.

Women are the backbone of the global rural economy, making up about 43 per cent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries. Rural communities in Yemen have grown equally dependent on women for agricultural work, with women farmers, planting, irrigating, weeding, and harvesting crops.

From her home window in Bani Hushaish, Hailah, 60, watches her vineyard grow. For over 50 years, she has used many of the practices she learned from her ancestors. Just like her parents before her, Hailah plans to leave her farm to her children so that they can carry on the tradition and profit from their hard work.

This region, she explains, “has been growing grapes since ancient times”, and people use them for everything from vinegar, juice, and raisins to medicine. Of course, growing grapes requires a lot of effort and a depth and breadth of knowledge.

Even though Hailah has been growing many types of grape for many years, she saw a dramatic decline in their quality last year due to heavy rainfall, aphids, fruit flies, and mildew. By the end of the season, she and her family did not earn a profit because of a lack of sales, an increase in the cost of diesel, and the constant need to spray the plants to ward off pests.

As more than 75 per cent of Yemen’s population lives in rural communities and are engaged in farming practices, they are highly reliant on the local growing conditions. As a result of droughts, extreme flooding, pests, sudden disease outbreaks, changes in rainfall patterns, increased storm frequency and severity, many farmers and agricultural workers have been displaced, and their land has been abandoned.

Irregular rainfall and a spate of fungal diseases damaged a large portion of Hailah’s crop, a setback she shared with many others in her area. She reflects on her losses, “During last year's agricultural season, I couldn’t cover the cost of diesel used for water pumps to irrigate the farm and even the wages of the workers, the loss was significant." By far, the greatest barrier to agricultural production is water scarcity and fuel shortages, which have made irrigation costly. In 2016, cultivated land decreased by an average of 38 per cent. As a consequence of longer-term climate change, rural households are projected to lose an accumulated US$ 3.5 to 5.7 billion by 2050. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has long recognized rural women as a potent force in building household and community resilience to respond to, and withstand, food insecurity and the effects of climate change. By supporting development initiatives, which help rural women access productive resources and equally participate in identifying priority needs of their communities, women are empowered to act as the important engine to sustainable recovery that they are.

UNDP, through its partnership with the World Bank, and in collaboration with its national partners - the Social Fund for Development and the Public Works Project – have introduced durable solutions, rehabilitating agricultural land, building and improving irrigation canals and networks, drip irrigation and supporting water conservation and integrated watershed management practices. These initiatives have contributed to the rehabilitation of 24,000 hectares of agricultural land and an increase in income and crop production for 7,720 of farmers across Yemen.

Through this partnership, Hailah - and another 70 grape farmers like her – were provided with trellises and hand tillers to help improve their agricultural production and income. Trellises help Hailah ensure that grapes are exposed to sunlight and airflow and train the vines to maintain a particular shape. *** Funded and supported by the World Bank’s International Development Association, the Yemen Emergency Crisis Response Project (YECRP) is implemented by the Social Fund for Development (SFD) and the Public Works Project (PWP) in partnership with UNDP Yemen. The US$ 411 million project provides economic stimuli in the form of large cash-for-work projects, support to small businesses, and labour-intensive repairs of socio-economic assets, benefiting vulnerable local households and communities across Yemen.