After 8 years of war, millions of people in Yemen are suffering from the complex effects and accompanying economic crisis, disruption of public services, the collapse of the national currency, decline of national income, high inflation, and a halt to various aspects of life. It is estimated that 21.6 million people (72 percent of the total population) need humanitarian assistance and protection services, and 12.9 million of them are in urgent need (severe or catastrophic levels). This figure includes approximately 5.5 women. 8.6 Child.
Nearly 17 million people, or more than half of Yemen’s population, are likely to suffer from high levels of acute food insecurity (phase III).
While overall funding levels for the 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan only reached 52.5 percent of the total need, many sectors were under-resourced. This led to the suspension of many of its services and projects, which led to its reflection on the humanitarian situation in the country. Under the protection plan, gender-based violence and child protection received only 6.2 percent of the requested funding.
Health Cluster partners continue to support and strengthen the public health system to ensure the provision of essential life-saving health services to respond to the urgent health needs of the Yemeni people. However, funding shortfalls during 2021 and 2022 respectively led to further deterioration of the current health system. Of the US$438.8 million required for the health sector, 21% was funded. The share of implementation of ERP projects is only 0.75 of the total funding for various humanitarian sectors by civil society organizations.
The continued fragility of the Yemeni economy has exacerbated vulnerabilities among poor households, including as a result of the devaluation of the Yemeni Rial, macroeconomic instability, the de facto separation of economic institutions, the issuance of competing monetary policies, and the decline in household purchasing power. Being largely dependent on imported food and goods, Yemen is highly vulnerable to world price fluctuations. Despite the devastating effects of war, famine, and economic insecurity, local national civil society organizations continue to offer continuous offers of support to multiple crises due to their proximity to society and affected groups, and an understanding of political, cultural, and social dynamics.
Amid these statistics and figures, which are increasing day by day, we also collide with numbers that limit our ability and reach the most vulnerable and vulnerable groups as a result of the scarcity of financial resources and lack of funding in recent years, especially civil society organizations. In addition, the current practice of providing overheads (indirect cost) to NGOs is inconsistent with many donors and intermediaries (referring to UN agencies, and international NGOs), according to our experience through partnerships with UN agencies and some international NGOs, some adopting this ratio based on negotiations, and some believe that the national partner can recover indirect costs from the direct costs of the project. Indirect costs are often not provided to the national local partner, which in turn undermines the quality and effectiveness of the humanitarian response by trapping national NGOs in ‘famine homes’.
While saving on public expenditures (indirect costs) will not ‘solve’ the issue of localization independently, it is an important step in enabling more locally-led humanitarian practices and an important step towards correcting some inequalities in humanitarian action based on the principles of the international legal framework.
Public expenditures are very important for the survival and sustainability of civil society organizations, which is an effective partner in the development process and humanitarian response in Yemen. And that the humanitarian situation in Yemen and practices oblige us as civil society organizations to take upon ourselves social accountability to our societies to move seriously, and to actively appeal for an increase in funding to Yemen in line with the Humanitarian Response Plan 2023, and to ensure fair distribution, and full transparency in practices regarding partnerships, and to highlight the issue of not adopting the operating cost ratio for the national local partner.
We, the undersigned, civil society organizations (national), demand the following:
- We urge donors to respond to these urgent needs to address Yemen’s complex, large-scale, and protracted crisis by committing the required funding based on the 2023 Response Plan.
- Increasing the shares of implementation of response plan projects equivalent to 50% of the total funding for various humanitarian sectors by civil society organizations.
- Donors and intermediaries should commit to covering the full direct and indirect costs incurred by all implementing partners in the implementation of activities, and request policies on providing public expenses to organizations from UN agencies and NGOs, this would send a clear signal to the mediators fully seriously funders in approving this element of the budget for the local partner.
- Increase and support multi-year investment in the institutional capacities of local and national responders, including preparedness, response, and coordination, particularly in fragile contexts and where communities are vulnerable to armed conflict, disasters, frequent disease outbreaks, and the effects of climate change. We should achieve this through cooperation with development partners and the inclusion of the concept of capacity-building in partnership agreements.
We present this advocacy statement to you and hope that all messages and demands will be taken into consideration to respond to the complex humanitarian situation in Yemen.
Signatories:
- Abs Development Organization for Women & Children
- Democracy School
- Basma Foundation for Child Development and Woman
- Tomorrow Foundation for Sustainable Development and Humanitarian Relief
- Wa’am Foundation
- Social Development Hodeidah Girls Foundation
- White Hands Association for Women’s Development
- Rawabi AL-Nahdah
- The Association for the Care and Rehabilitation
- Nasaem Foundation for Development
- Red Crescent Division Abs
- Al Shafaqa Foundation for Kidney Failure and Cancer Care
- Musahmah Orgnization for Human Development
- Knoz yemen organization humanity development
- Human Aid Organization
- Ramz Development Foundation
- Nabd Development and Evolution Organization
- National Prisoner Foundation
- Medical Mercy Foundation
- Khadija Foundation for Development
- Rifa Foundation for Community and Human Development
- Humanitarian Action Library – Yemen
- Sustainable Development Foundation
- Future Makers Association
- Itar Foundation for Social Development
- Hajjah Cultural Developmental Foundation
- For All foundation
- Make Hope for Development and Relief (MHDR)
- Ablity Foundation for Sustainable Development
- Humantarian aid association
- National foundation for development and healthcar
- For us foundation
- Peace foundation
- Yemeni Development Network For NGO’s
- Light Foundation
- Youth Start Organization for Sustainable Development
- Gisr Al Atta Association
- Nahda Makers Foundation
- Soul For Development
- Rowad Foundation for Development and Human Rights
- Socotra Foundation for Sustainable Development and Humanitarian Relief
- Tamdeen Youth Foundation
- Association Trend of Human Development Mahweet Governorate
- THE HUMANITARAIN FORM YEMEN
- Preservation of Grace Association
- Ambassadors of Hope for People with Special Needs Association
- FNAR ADEN Foundation For human Work
- Yemen Family Care Association
- Angela for Development and Humanitarian Response
- Commination for Development and Relief
- Building Foundation for Development (BFD)