Projects

Short Description:

Overall goal

Food insecure people affected by crises across Yemen have access to lifesaving, safe and nutritious food all year.

Expected results

The Yemen ICSP focuses on four inter-linked Strategic Outcomes (SO) that contribute to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 and 17:

• SO1 is related to emergency relief assistance

• SO2 is related to social protection, safety nets and livelihood support.

• SO3 is related to addressing chronic malnutrition and preventing stunting.

• SO4 is related to enhancing global partnerships.

Under SO1, WFP is providing life-saving food assistance to severely food insecure households through cash transfers and in-kind food distributions.

Target group / Beneficiaries

For 2022, the total ICSP targets 16.2 million food insecure individuals. Under SO1, in 2022, 7 million beneficiaries are targeted with in-kind assistance, 2 million with cash assistance and 1.3 million with food vouchers.

The contribution from Austria will support up to 635,354 food insecure individuals with general food assistance for 1 month, of whom 49% will be female, and 51% male.

Activities

Funding from the Government of Austria will enable the delivery of critically needed food assistance to populations whose access to food has been further restricted by the crisis in Ukraine. The contribution will be used to implement WFP’s general food assistance programmes by covering the cost of procurement of key food commodities which are part of the standard ration. New funding support is critically needed given the increase in WFP’s operating costs due to the Ukraine crisis, and the squeeze on available resources.

With this contribution, WFP will be able to provide food assistance by distributing In-kind rations to the most food insecure populations in the country. The contribution of Austria will allow WFP to purchase commodities to be distributed in the monthly food basket, and thus reach 635,354 beneficiaries in Yemen.

Context

Yemen is experiencing one of the world’s worst ever humanitarian crises: one which has brought unrelenting catastrophe into the lives of ordinary people, and which is now compounded by the knock-on effect of the Ukraine crisis. In early 2022, the situation has reached a critical point, with new analysis showing that acute food insecurity is spreading across the country at a rapid rate and reaching alarming levels. Increased conflict, economic volatility, high rates of displacement and severe underfunding of life-saving assistance programmes have exacerbated the crisis. Protracted conflict and the destruction of infrastructure and basic public services, coupled with economic decline and pre-existing structural issues such as widespread poverty, exposed large segments of the Yemeni population to unprecedented levels of food insecurity, malnutrition and disease. In May 2022, the percentage of population with an inadequate food consumption score reached 51% in the south and 46% in the north, similar to the levels of end 2021, the highest levels ever experienced in Yemen. An escalation in conflict in late 2021 and early 2022 exacerbated the already-catastrophic pressure on Yemen’s people, causing a sharp increase in displacement, major economic disruption, and operational constraints on humanitarian and development actors. Now, with the world’s attention focused on the tragic fallout from war in Ukraine, there has been a severe drop in funding levels – forcing cuts in desperately needed assistance for the vulnerable.

The damaging impact of the Ukraine crisis has cut across several of the drivers of food insecurity in Yemen and the wider economy: Yemen imports over 90 percent of its food requirements, leaving the country highly susceptible to global food price fluctuations: and it is heavily reliant on direct imports of wheat from Russia and Ukraine – as are many countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. Unlike in other nations, where shortfalls in grain exports by the two key exporting counties might be partially compensated by alternative sources or increasing domestic production. Yemen’s options are severely limited, due to its reliance on imports. On 27 July, the Black Sea Grain Initiative was launched in Istanbul, enabling Ukrainian grain and Russian food and fertilizer to reach global markets. Under this initiative a WFP-chartered vessel departed Ukraine on 30 August with 37,000 metric tons of wheat bound for WFP’s general food assistance programme in Yemen.