EU donates for humanitarian aid to IDPs, refugees in Yemen and Yemen safety net

The European Commission announced last week a funding package of €10 million to respond to urgent humanitarian needs exacerbated by a lack of support from the international community. The funds will be used to provide shelter, water and sanitation, food and livelihood support, basic health care and protection. The money is directed to the most vulnerable among the 350,000 internally displaced persons, their host communities, and 170 000 foreign refugees in Yemen.
 
“Yemen is facing two major humanitarian challenges which are overstretching the country’s resources,” said Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Kristalina Georgieva. “Due to the recurrent conflict, we have about 350,000 internally displaced people in the north. There are also over 170,000 refugees, mainly from Somalia, who are trying to escape the instability in the Horn of Africa, scattered all around Yemen. The most vulnerable among both groups of population are largely dependent on international humanitarian aid as livelihood opportunities are scarce and the resources of host communities have been depleted and overstretched over the past few months,” added Georgieva. 
 
The Commissioner continued saying, “We are facing a situation, where humanitarian organisations are confronted with a shortage of funding that could force them to reduce or discontinue their operations. Urgent and immediate financial support is needed to ensure the continuation of the relief effort. I am therefore extremely glad that the European Commission is able to make such a substantial contribution to saving the lives of tens of thousands of people who are living in deplorable conditions in Yemen.”

Provision of humanitarian aid to people displaced by the conflict is hampered by persistent insecurity even outside the former war zone in North Yemen. Part of the Commission funding will therefore be used to ensure the monitoring of the rapidly evolving security situation and to improve coordination among humanitarian actors and donors. Advocacy for the principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence of humanitarian aid is also necessary to enlarge the humanitarian space.
 
The aid will be distributed in particular through UNHCR, Médecins du Monde, Care, Oxfam, ICRC, and WFP. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs will also be supported to provide monitoring, coordination and advocacy.
 
In addition, an EU-funded project of euro 18.3 million to support Yemen’s safety net was launched last week in Sana’a. The project is implemented by the World Bank and designed to address poverty in the most affected communities and contribute to creating temporary job opportunities for thousands of households through more than 100 community projects.  “The EU funding for this important intervention came as part of an EU sustained support to the social safety net given the importance of this scheme in mitigating the suffering of the poorest people in the country,” said EU Head of Delegation Ambassador, Michele Cervone d’Urso
 
The project includes two components: community projects through the SFD and cash flow to the hands of the poor through SWF. More than 100 projects will be implemented by SFD to create temporary jobs to at least 12,000 households for communities most affected by food crisis, drought and floods. These basic infrastructure projects will cover soil protection, maintenance and improvement of feeder roads, and other types of labour-intensive interventions.
 
The SWF will seek to ensure direct cash transfers to 41,000 poorest households in flood affected areas (Hadramout and Mahara), conflict affected areas (Saada and Amran), and areas with high prevalence of child trafficking (Hajja, Al-Mahweet and Hodeidah), covering 58 districts in 7 Governorates.
 
The launching ceremony of this project was held on 26th of July 2010 with attendance of Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Minister of Social Affairs, European Union’ Ambassador to Yemen Michele Cervone D’Urso and the World Bank Country Manager.

Related Content

•  5th Arab Ladies Lunch with a visit of Clinic General Beaulieu in Geneva launched
•   Life-saving group from Yemen wins Nansen Refugee Award
•  Photojournalist Amira Al-Sharif’s Journal 2010-2011 in the Land of dreams
•  Yemen Capital’s Al-Hasaba residents, massive displacement and continued suffering
•  Raufa Hassan, precious philanthropist dies at 53
•  Tears in the storm
•  Protecting Yemen Leopard
•  The Gift Maker wins British Council short film competition
•  Yemeni cartoonist swims freely in his sea of thoughts
•  Qat chewing increases among Yemeni young girls