Oxfam reaction to Saleh’s signing of Yemen power transfer deal

Oxfam today called on governments to inject significant levels of aid into Yemen so that the country's poorest and most vulnerable benefit from this tentative move to reform.

Yemen's step towards an end to political conflict is fragile and further efforts to build a better future for ordinary Yemeni women and men will be difficult without substantial support from the international community.

Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East. A third of Yemenis – some 7.5 million people – go hungry everyday, and child malnutrition rates are dangerously high, particularly in rural areas. Basic services, such as health clinics, are struggling to function.

Donors, such as the US, UK and European Union, have recently increased their funding of humanitarian work. But unfulfilled aid promises are making live harder for the poorest and marginalised. For example, a lack of funding means that millions of vulnerable men, women and children are not able to get the food that they desperately need.

The international community - particularly ‘Friends of Yemen’ and the Gulf Cooperation Council member states - must also step up their leadership towards building a transparent and inclusive transition process that includes ordinary Yemenis and civil society. United Nations Security Council members should explicitly uphold their obligations to improve women’s participation in the transition process.

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Oxfam published a report on the food crisis in Yemen this September: Yemen: Fragile lives in hungry times