Yemen in Crisis

Yemen is a country in continuous crisis. More than half its population live below the poverty line and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Fuel shortages, corruption, unemployment and violence have all become part of daily life. Now, a new crisis is unfolding: as fuel supplies run dry, food prices are soaring and water is becoming inaccessible. Fuel shortages and rapid inflation are sending shock waves through rural communities across the country.

Millions of Yemenis are going hungry, drinking unsafe water and increasingly falling between the cracks of an inadequate social safety net, as they bear the brunt of yet another fuel crisis.

Yemen’s government and donors must address immediate human impacts alongside the root causes of the fuel crisis. They must in-crease the provision of social welfare while also undertaking public finance reform, to ensure the safety of all Yemenis, the country’s sta-bility and political transition.

Key recommendations from the report

The Government of Yemen should:

• Fulfill its obligations outlined in the Mutual Accountability Framework, to immediately provide Yemenis with emergency humanitarian support, ensure the delivery of basic services, including healthcare and education, and address the country‟s macroeconomic stability. 
• As an urgent priority, reallocate state resources to fill the gaps in the social protection system, including an immediate injection of funds into the Social Welfare Fund, in order to extend payments to all 400,000 wait-listed applicants, double the amount of payment, and ensure the maintenance of payments during this critical period. 
• Ensure that the constitutional drafting process upholds the right for all to social security and a standard of living adequate for health and wellbeing, as outlined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). 

Donors and the Friends of Yemen should:

• Urgently ensure an adequate response to the fuel crisis, including immediate cash transfers to the most vulnerable, through addressing aid shortfalls in the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, reallocating aid from existing unspent pledges. 
• Immediately scale-up predictable and longer-term funding and technical support to the Government of Yemen, in order to build a social protection system that ensures all women, men and children have the support system they need to better withstand future shocks.