Projects

Short Description:

Overall goal

UNICEF’s humanitarian strategy in Yemen has a dual focus on direct life-saving assistance and system strengthening, in line with efforts to strengthen the linkages between humanitarian action and development programming.

Expected results

UNICEF requires US$576.9 million to respond to the humanitarian situation in Yemen in 2021. Over 70 per cent of funding requirements are for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), health and nutrition. UNICEF aims to achieve following key results among others, targeting 11.3 Mio. people, including 8 Mio. children:

- Nutrition: 289,402 children aged 6 to 59 months with severe acute malnutrition admitted for Treatment;

- Health: 2,500,000 children and women accessing primary health care in UNICEF-supported facilities;

- Water, sanitation and hygiene: 6,800,000 people accessing a sufficient quantity of safe water for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene;

- Child protection, Gender Based Violence in Emergencies and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse: 6,100,000 women, girls and boys accessing gender-based violence risk mitigation, prevention or response interventions;

- Education: 850,000 children accessing formal or non-formal education, including early learning;

- Social protection and cash transfers: 30,000 households reached with humanitarian cash transfers across sectors;

- Rapid Response Mechanism: 500,000 vulnerable displaced people who recieve rapid response mechanism kits.

Target group / Beneficiaries

UNICEF's humanitarian strategy in Yemen is aligned with the Humanitarian Needs Overview, Humanitarian Response Plan and cluster priorities. With Austria’s contribution of EUR 1.000.000, an estimated total of 22,495 beneficiaries including internally displaced persons, will be supported with live saving interventions. UNICEF will implement activities nationwide with local implementing partners, which will be selected after an open, transparent tender process.

Activities

Activities may include, among others:

- Provide life saving health and nutrition interventions through community-based activities for affected populations, including internally displaced persons, while sustaining and strengthening access to a set of high impact preventive and curative services at the community and facility levels.

- Sustain existing WASH services to mitigate exposure to disease in high-risk communities and avert further deterioration of humanitarian needs;

- Support public institutions to reduce risks of COVID-19 and support health actors to reduce secondary contamination in health facilities.

- Improve access to and enrolment in safe learning environments through the rehabilitation of damaged schools and the establishment of temporary safe learning spaces and safe COVID-19 school protocols.

Context

More than five years since the conflict began, Yemen remains the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, with 24.3 million people – 80 per cent of the total population – in need of humanitarian assistance. The conflict has left 3.6 million people, including 2 million children, internally displaced, and 422,000 people are now migrants and asylum seekers. Children are the primary victims of the war: nearly 3,200 have been killed, over 5,700 have been injured and nearly 3,500 have been recruited into armed forces and groups. The war's impact on children has been staggering. More than 325,000 children under 5 years are suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), and more than 20.5 million people urgently need WASH services. Nutrition needs are continuing to rise in the south, and lack of funding for WASH is undermining the WASH response. These conditions are heightening the risk of cholera, malnutrition and other WASH-related diseases, including COVID-19. At least 2 million children in Yemen were out of school before the COVID-19 outbreak; and following COVID-19 school closures, an additional 5.8 million children have had their educations disrupted. School closures and the worsening economic situation due to COVID-19 restrictions have increased the vulnerability of children and women to exploitation, violence and abuse, including child labour, domestic and genderbased violence and child marriage.