Attachments
1.Centrality of Protection (CoP)
Progress:
- The Protection Cluster has continued to lead joint advocacy and operational engagement on the Centrality of Protection across the humanitarian response in Yemen. This includes sustained contributions to HCT and ICCG discussions and technical forums, ensuring that protection risks—such as risks linked to airstrikes and other forms of violence (ERWs), barriers to documentation, protection risk indicators and mitigation measures, and gender-based restrictions—are consistently reflected in interagency planning, analysis, and decision-making
- Protection mainstreaming guidance was rolled out across clusters, with specific indicators incorporated into the 2025 HNRP. Technical support and trainings were delivered across key hubs, including to YHF partners. To build on this progress, there is a critical opportunity to establish an accountability mechanism to monitor implementation and ensure that identified protection risks are systematically addressed.
- In 2024, a nationalization working group was launched to promote local ownership in aid delivery. However, without sustained support, this effort risks stagnation.
- In 2024, the Protection Cluster and Cash Consortium of Yemen launched ajoint pilot in the South to strengthen the link between immediate protection responses and longer-term support mechanisms. The objective is to ensure thatCash for Protection and Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) arecomplementary, protection-sensitive, and effectively coordinated to addressurgent protection risks while ensuring the inclusion of the most vulnerablehouseholds in MPCA programmes. This approach seeks to improve their ability to meet immediate basic needs and reduce socio-economic barriers that increase protection risks.
- The pilot has already strengthened coordination between cash and protection actors, particularly in referral pathways, data sharing, and joint follow-upprocesses. It has also highlighted the need for more structured frameworks tomonitor outcomes and ensure sustainability. Early observations point to theimportance of strengthened coordination between sectoral partners, improved field-level data collection and follow-up, and clear Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for joint referrals and outcome tracking. Partners plan to scale up the geographical coverage and refine the model in 2025, ensuring more targeted, accountable, and effective support for at-risk populations.