Islamic Relief has joined 98 organisations – including Yemeni civil society, international NGOs and UN agencies – for a joint statement on the ongoing but largely ignored crisis in Yemen.
Already exhausted by more than eight years of war, over 21.6 million people, 75 percent of the Yemeni population, are grappling with humanitarian needs.
The people of Yemen need and want to look into the future and move away from humanitarian assistance towards self-reliance and rebuilding their country.
Yemen stands at the historic opportunity for a shift towards lasting peace. The humanitarian community is committed to supporting this shift.
Today, we are still faced with 17 million people who are food insecure. This includes 6.1 million people in the emergency phase under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which signifies extreme food shortages and acute malnutrition, especially affecting women and children, with a risk of hunger-related deaths. Yemen faces critical water shortages for both agricultural production and human use. Nearly 15.4 million people require access to safe water and sanitation to avoid being at risk of cholera and other deadly diseases. Overcrowded living conditions in camps, low immunization rates, and inaccessibility to many children, have seen an increase in measles and rubella cases. Yemen’s health system continues to crumble under the pressure to meet increasing needs with little or no resources, resulting in an estimated 20.3 million people lacking access to healthcare. Across the country, one woman dies every two hours during pregnancy or childbirth, while 6 of 10 births occur without a skilled birth attendant. Mine clearance must be highly prioritised, as Yemen remains one of the world’s most contaminated countries with explosive remnants of war (ERW) leading to death and maiming, particularly children.
At least 17.7 million people require protection assistance and services. Women and girls, in particular, face increased risks of violence and exploitation while trying to access basic services due to distant, challenging journeys. More than 9 million children are at risk and need protection and essential services. Nearly one in four Yemenis, or over 5.5 million people, suffer from mental health disorders, mainly as a result of living for years in conflict, and require medical intervention. Tens of thousands of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers travelling on one of the world’s most hazardous routes between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East are exposed to many dangers, including violence, being caught in the conflict frontline, trafficking, and detainment. An estimated 209,000 migrants and more than 71,000 refugees and asylum seekers remain in dire need of humanitarian assistance throughout the country, particularly children who are extremely vulnerable to severe dangers.
Despite the magnitude of these humanitarian needs, the decreasing funding trends continue to worry the humanitarian community in Yemen, with a huge funding gap, steadily rising over the past 5 years, further compounding the situation. By August 2023, the Humanitarian Response Plan has seen only 31.2 percent of the USD 4.34 billion needed in funding, resulting in drastic and concerning cuts to aid, impacting the most vulnerable in Yemen. Among these, the recently announced global funding cuts by WFP will lead to a suspension of malnutrition prevention interventions in Yemen from end of September, affecting 2.4 million people. Funding cuts are leaving millions of already vulnerable people exposed to circulating disease outbreaks, hunger, and limited access to health care, as support to health facilities in the most vulnerable areas is also reducing. After 2019, when humanitarian funding was at 87 percent, the funding coverage repeatedly fell well short of needs, eventually amounting to barely over 50 percent in 2022.
In 2022, 43 percent of Yemen Humanitarian Fund (YHF) reached local organisations and while this percentage is a promising increase within this funding mechanism, it has amounted to $32.2 million. This represents a very low percentage of overall funding for Yemen. Concerning levels of funding in 2023 will also negatively impact the thriving and active civil society space and their ability to operate. Increasing quality funding for Yemeni civil society organisations, including women-led organisations, will ensure improved outreach to communities and a positive step towards honouring commitments to localisation.
The country’s economy has also been ravaged. The continued challenges over fuel, weak and contradictory currencies and fiscal policies, and ongoing inflation are impacting the ability of the population to afford essential goods and services, pushing them to resort to irreversible negative coping strategies. The international community must, alongside humanitarian assistance, support Yemen by investing in an economic financial package aimed to stabilise local currencies, support and enable commercial import of commodities into the country, and support solutions towards a mechanism to pay civil servant salaries. Furthermore, with the hope of peace, there is strong momentum to invest in durable solutions to displacement. This is positive as the international community must work to support Yemenis to find alternatives to displacement as soon as safe, dignified, and sustainable options become available.
Humanitarian and development response plans designed to find pathways towards durable solutions to displacement must be informed by the views and preferences of displaced persons, especially in a context where conflict is ongoing. To fully do so, unhindered access is required to all communities to identify their needs and intentions. We hope the forthcoming 2023 Internal Displacement Solutions Fund (IDSF) will prioritise Yemen. This, in time, will also alleviate dependence on humanitarian assistance.
Humanitarian partners continue to deliver aid to an average of 9 million people each month. Between January and July 2023, over 13.6 million people were reached with food assistance, over 4.7 million people were provided with water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, over 2.6 million people received healthcare assistance and over 3 million people received nutritional support.
As international and national actors within the humanitarian and development communities in Yemen, we acknowledge the generosity of the donor community in supporting the response over the years and urge donor Member States to urgently consider:
• Upscaling of quality and flexible humanitarian funding, in line with the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan so that UN, INGOs, and particularly to Yemeni civil society organisations, including those supporting women and girls, are empowered to meet needs and to avoid a regression of gains made towards strengthening the resilience of the people of Yemen and support them to regain self-reliance. Yemen’s humanitarian response requires an expanded and more diversified number of donors.
• Ensuring equity of funding across sectors, including those that have traditionally seen underfunding, such as health, education, and protection, mindful that humanitarian support in these sectors has a determining role in longer-term recovery and the country’s future.
• Ensuring humanitarian funding is made available as early as possible in the year and continued at regular intervals across the year to enable uninterrupted service delivery.
• Working closely with the undersigned towards collectively increasing coherence between humanitarian and development aid, within a space that supports and encourages inclusive peace efforts. Upscaling of development funding must be a priority, while at the same time not undermining humanitarian funding to address ongoing needs.
As Maya, 10, a landmine survivor, said, “Children and the young generation of today will have a bright future, if the resources are made available. But the leadership must come from the world. My message is to help the children of Yemen live in peace.”
