The world must take long-term action to tackle malnutrition in Yemen before it becomes a "death sentence for tens of thousands".

Development Minister Alan Duncan made the stark warning today as he announced a new package of long-term UK aid to help improve nutrition for 1.65 million women and children across the country.

Over ten million people in Yemen are currently thought to be at risk because of insufficient food and in the worst affected parts of the country as many as one in three children are suffering from life-threatening acute malnutrition.

British aid will help more than a quarter of a million people caught up in the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, Alan Duncan said today – but warned that the international community must do more to help the country. The announcement comes ahead of tomorrow's Friends of Yemen meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which brings together delegates from around the world.

The Development Minister is calling on the international community to get behind the new Government of Yemen to address the root causes of the humanitarian crisis and provide the longer term support the country needs.

The world must wake up to a humanitarian crisis in Yemen before tens of thousands of already malnourished children die, International Development Minister Alan Duncan warned today as he announced new support for healthcare, emergency shelter and food.

Following a visit to the country yesterday - where he became the first development Minister to meet the new President – Mr Duncan said that last month's elections were a major milestone on the road to a better Yemen, but that now was no time for complacency.

KEY STATISTICS

• The UK’s Gross Public Expenditure on Development (GPEX) amounted to £9,007m in 2010/11. The DFID aid programme accounted for £7,689m (85%) of this expenditure.

• GPEX increased to £9,007m in 2010/11 from £7,767m in 2009/10. This represents an increase of £1,240m (16%).

• Excluding debt relief, GPEX totalled £8,829m in 2010/11; this represents an increase of £1,161m (15%) over the 2009/10 total of £7,668m.

SANA’A, 21 May 2011 - In cooperation with the UK department for International Development, UNICEF Yemen has delivered life-saving nutrition supplies to the governorate of Sa’ada, in northern Yemen. The three truckloads included life-saving therapeutic food Plumpy Nut, anthropometric scales, antibiotics, micronutrient supplements and other medication and equipment related to the management of acute malnutrition.

Executive Summary

1. The Multilateral Aid Review was commissioned to assess the value for money for UK aid of funding through multilateral organisations. Forty-three organisations were assessed. Nine were deemed to offer very good value for money, sixteen to offer good value for money, nine to offer adequate value for money, and nine to offer poor value for money for UK aid.

2. The organisations covered by the review ranged from multilateral development banks to UN specialised agencies, and from development finance institutions to humanitarian organisations.

UKaid will help build Yemen from the bottom up by working with local communities, Development Minister Mike Foster announced today.

The initiative will provide employment for local people - the equivalent of 30 million days of paid work - and will get 360,000 more pupils into schools. As well as directly improving water, sanitation and education opportunities, it will strengthen the ability of the Yemen government to deliver crucial basic services at a local level.

The UK will provide £100 million over the next five years to address four key areas nationwide. Immediate impact

Jon Bennett, Ines Rothmann, Debi Duncan, Sushila Zeitlyn, Ginny Hill

Introduction

This report is an evaluation of DFID's programme in Yemen from 2004 to March 2009.

Yemen is the only low-income country in the Middle East and is significantly off-track in reaching all but one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (HIV/AIDS). More than a third of the population lives in poverty and the population growth rate is one of the highest in the world. Unemployment stands at 35%. Food security is deteriorating and Yemen has one of the lowest water per capita availability

Every year the deaths of more than three million children under five - equivalent to the total UK population of that age - are attributable to undernutrition and yet the problem is being given low international priority.

This is according to a new report published by the Department for International Development which will form the evidence base for their forthcoming Nutrition Strategy.

80 percent of the world's undernourished children under 5 years of age live in just 20 countries . The strategy,