UN sets out $716m relief plan for Yemen

Dubai: The United Nations Yemen 2013 Humanitarian Response Plan was revealed early Tuesday at the International Humanitarian City (IHC) in Dubai, with a total requested funding of $716 million (Dh2.62 billion) to focus on food insecurity, water, health and shelter among other priorities.

According to the plan’s appeal, Yemen is experiencing one of the world’s major humanitarian crises, with more than half the population affected. It stated that 13 million people do not have access to safe water and sanitation, 10.5 million are food-insecure, 431,000 are displaced, and 90,000 children do not have access to education.

The press conference announcing the plan was organised by The Yemen Humanitarian Country Team, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Gulf Office, in collaboration with the IHC.

Government and humanitarian officials from Yemen and the UAE spoke about the situation in Yemen and the problems facing the population there, in order to raise awareness about the crisis there as well as seek support on humanitarian partnerships and emergency response coordination.

Esmail Ould Al Shaikh Ahmad, resident representative of the UN Development Programme in Yemen, said that last year the humanitarian plan only received $343 million, which covered just 58 per cent of the required funding, which was $585 million.

With this year’s increased budget, which Ould Al Shaikh Ahmad said was 22 per cent higher than 2012’s, Yemen’s people still need all the support they can get.

The number of parties participating in the plan, whether non-governmental or UN-related, has increased from 62 in 2012, to 89 he added.

Yemen also has a major refugee and displaced people problem, with 250,00 registered refugees from the Horn of Africa, said Omar Abdul Aziz, deputy of the minister of planning and international cooperation in Yemen. “But the real number is closer to one million refugees,” he added.

He added that there is a large number of displaced people — around half a million — who have moved from conflict areas in the South of Yemen, who have no shelter and are struggling to meet their basic needs.

Other problems Abdul Aziz mentioned were unemployment, negative economic growth, and lack of investment.

According to the plan, almost one million Yemeni girls and boys under five are suffering from acute malnutrition, of whom more than 250,000 have life-threatening severe acute malnutrition.

Epidemics too are a significant concern, with 170 children having died from measles this year. Apart from disease, children continue to be subjected to extreme violence; for instance 174 children have been killed or maimed, including 49 victims of mines, surpassing the numbers for 2011.

Hazza Mohammad Falah Al Qahtani, director general of the UAE Office for the Coordination of Foreign Aid, said that between 1971-2011, the UAE government and its organisations have funded humanitarian efforts in Yemen worth Dh5.1 billion. “Most of the money was used to fund infrastructure projects and services, for example Marib Dam,” he said reiterating the UAE’s continued support for Yemen.