OVERALL PROGRESS
Context
Yemen is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world due to a combination of prolonged conflict, an economic crisis and recurrent climate-related hazards. These hazards include temperature increases, rising sea levels and changing patterns in rainfall, causing floods, droughts, reduced water availability and soil degradation. Climate change exacerbates vulnerabilities, threatens livelihoods and contributes to increased conflict. The political environment in Yemen and the security situation have somehow changed since April 2022, after the UN-brokered truce. However, essential services and the economic situation continued to deteriorate.
There have been drastic cuts in humanitarian funding for Yemen, impacting the most vulnerable.
In the first six months of 2023, the extent of the rainfall and flooding has caused and continues to cause severe infrastructure damage, including damage to dams, particularly those that are not regularly maintained and located in the mountains surrounding cities and populated areas. It is likely that the risks of flooding will increase during the next rainy season (August–September). In May 2023, the Yemen Red Crescent Society requested support from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ (IFRC) Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF) to manage and mitigate the consequences of the floods in Sana’a and other governorates.
Key achievements
In the first half of 2023, the Yemen Red Crescent Society continued to make significant progress in disaster management, health and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), benefiting around 860,320 people. This is an excellent achievement considering overall humanitarian funding constraints for the country.
With regard to evolving crises and disasters, some key achievements include the provision of food baskets and livelihood support activities to 41,759 individuals as well as the provision of unconditional cash assistance to 31,434 individuals. The Yemen Red Crescent Society has also offered assistance to households impacted by the 2023 foods in various governorates as part of its emergency response efforts.
In the area of health and wellbeing, the National Society’s key achievements were obtaining two mobile clinics to enhance the Yemen Red Crescent Society’s healthcare services and training 450 individuals on first aid. Additionally, the National Society has initiated discussions with the Ministry of Health to be included in its referral system. Regarding WASH, the Yemen Red Crescent Society’s water rehabilitation initiative has benefited 28,270 individuals. The National Society, in collaboration with the IFRC, has improved water quality testing capacity of the Sayoun Local Water Corporation of in the Hadramout governorate by providing chemicals and reagents for their water testing labs. This was implemented through the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO)’s Pilot Programmatic Partnership (PPP), implemented with support from the German Red Cross, Norwegian Red Cross, and the IFRC country office. GIS training has been provided by the IFRC to the National Society’s WASH engineers and IM staff at headquarters.
The Yemen Red Crescent Society is part of the global PPP between the IFRC and the DG ECHO. This partnership benefits from the support of the Danish Red Cross as lead EU National Society, as well the German Red Cross, the Norwegian Red Cross and the IFRC for the implementation of activities in Yemen in the areas of disaster risk management, epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response, and community engagement and accountability. Through the implementation of the PPP, the National Society has increased focus on scaling up and mainstreaming anticipatory action with the aim of ensuring faster, more dignified approach to humanitarian interventions by predicting the onset and trajectory of crises and protecting affected communities with tailored support. The PPP’s multi-year humanitarian financing has also provided ambit for longer-term adaptive programming for the National Society’s epidemic and pandemic response programming.