Poverty-stricken Yemenis receive $10 million from Institutional Support Project

The aim of the SWF Institutional Support Project is to support the SWF with management methods and tools necessary for it to  fulfill an increasingly effective role as an essential social safety net program.

To offer the poorest and most vulnerable households a quality social service, the Institutional Support Project has granted the Social Welfare Fund $10 million.

 
This grant resulted from a consultation meeting that the Social Welfare Fund (SWF) organized in cooperation with the World Bank, and NGOs who are working on the SWF Institutional Support Project. The meeting was held at the Social Welfare Fund’s headquarters on October 18th, 2009.

 
The meeting was attended by Dr. Amat al-Razaq Hoummad, the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor, Mr. Benson Ateng, the World Bank Country Manager, and Mr. Mansoor al-Fyaadhi, the Director of SWF.

 
Dr. Hoummad started by thanking all the various attendees from either civil society organizations (CSOs), the parliament, the media, academic institutions or the government. Then, she talked about the history of the Social Welfare Fund and its achievements. She said that since 1996, the SWF has been operating for the sake of helping and improving the lives of those in the poorest situations.

 
She added that the poorest people can be divided into two categories. First, there is the social category which contains the disabled and the elderly who need constant attention. Second, there is the economic category, which contains poverty-stricken individuals who can be trained and rehabilitated to be productive members of their communities.

 
In regards to the second category, Hoummad went on to say that one man was paid only 4000 YR, and has now become the owner of an aluminum workshop, additionally helping eight other men who work with him. She proudly talked about such achievements which are now the new direction and real aim for the SWF.

 
Dr. Hoummad expressed her appreciation that such a broad range of society was meeting to consult and exchange ideas about this new project.

 
Mr. Ateng also thanked everyone who attended the meeting and talked about the historical cooperation between the World Bank and Yemen and how the country was witnessing a number of new developments. He also made mention of the World Bank’s announcement last year that the financial assistance provided to Yemen would be grants and not loans, until further notice.

 
He added that now under the current Country Assistance Strategy of 2010-2013, more than 14 new or extended projects would be funded by the World Bank Group through the IDA and IFC, for a total of about $480 million USD.

 
Regarding the new policy of the World Bank, he confirmed that the bank is now steering towards consulting with CSOs and researching different social and economic issues to find out the development needs so as to address them effectively.

 
Ateng explained that the meeting had a three-fold purpose. First, to announce the support provided by the bank in the area of social welfare. Second, to inform the CSOs of the SWF’s mandate and methods in social welfare. Third, consult with all the participants about the proposed concept for the SWF Institutional Supports Project.

 
The new project concept, according to Ms. Afrah al-Ahmadi, the Senior Human Development Specialist for the World Bank’s office, has three components. The first is institutional development at the central and regional levels, in order to strengthen service delivery at the district level, which is the level closest to the beneficiaries. The second is to strengthen the SWF’s beneficiary development role, in order to increase beneficiaries’ access to strategic capacity building and income-generation and employment opportunities. The third component is project management support and impact evaluation, which is meant to support project management as well as execute an impact evaluation study.

 
The one key issue that resonated with all the participants was the necessity of establishing a smaller group of key civil society organizations (CSOs) to work closely with the Bank on monitoring the progress of its projects.

 
The unanimous support for this idea is a result of the SWF program suffering in the past from a combination of low benefits and poor targeting, resulting in chronically low coverage of the poor and little impact on overall poverty. The 2007 Poverty Assessment concluded that the SWF covered only thirteen percent of the poor population and nearly two thirds of the beneficiaries were not considered poor according to the national poverty line. As a result of these findings, the Government of Yemen has authorized a program of fundamental reforms for the SWF, including improved targeting of the poor, strengthening its service delivery capacity, and implementing a new legal and policy framework.

 
To support the necessary SWF Reforms, in 2008 the government of Yemen drafted a new law concerning social welfare.  The 2008 law addresses challenges faced by the SWF under the previous law, and contains important reorientations of SWF objectives in that (a) poverty is the primary focus of assistance and is more clearly defined; (b) beneficiaries include those in economic difficulty (unemployed, etc.) as well as the poor covered by previous social categories (female-headed households, widows, elderly, disabled, etc.); (c) the requirement of a case management system; (d) the SWF’s role in beneficiary development is legally mandated.

 
The objective of the SWF Institutional Support Project is to support the SWF with management methods and tools necessary for it to fulfill an increasingly effective role as an essential social safety net program. The project will assist the SWF in pursuing its revised mandate, as outlined in the Law on Social Welfare of 2008, including its role in mitigating economic and other shocks, such as those expected when the energy subsidy is lifted.

 
In order to improve performance, a core SWF team has been assigned to work with the Bank’s team during project preparation. The team includes the SWF Managing Director, the Director General of Policy, and the SWF Donor Coordinator. This team will take the lead in project preparation activities and facilitate Bank preparation missions.

 
The Social Welfare Fund is part of the social safety net and was created to counter the negative affects of the economic adjustment program on the poor and destitute in the Yemeni population. The social safety net is intended to provide social protection for limited income families and families without an income by providing cash allocations for legally defined categories of the population on a regular or temporary basis.

Related Content

•   Yemen PM: Effective turn out in election will give change more legitimacy
•   Russian President’s envoy to visit Yemen soon
•   Children prosecute Yemen crisis in a film screened on al-Aqeeq TV
•  Yemen VP launches presidential election campaign amid different factions’ rallies of anti election
•   Confrontations break out between Sothern militants and Yemen forces, two killed
•  Innovative technology enables grass-roots election monitoring in Yemen
•   Yemen VP launches early presidential election campaign officially
•   Yemen VP, US diplomat review political settlement progress
•   Tens killed in confrontations between Houthis and Salafies in North Yemen
•   Yemen PM receives Cuban diplomat