Funded and supported by the World Bank's International Development Association and in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Emergency Social Protection Enhancement and COVID-19 Response Project (ESPECRP) is implemented across Yemen by the Social Fund for Development (SFD), the Public Works Project (PWP), and the Small and Micro Enterprise Promotion Service (SMEPS).

The US$ 232.9 ESPECRP is designed to support geo-focused interventions through a combination of emergency and development initiatives and target them to areas with high food insecurity and malnutrition—this is in line with the World Bank’s approach to improve food security resilience and sustainable livelihoods for Yemenis through:

• Providing cash assistance and much-needed services for vulnerable households that are most at risk of malnutrition.
• Creating employment opportunities for vulnerable populations, improving productivity, strengthening social cohesion, and responding to the anticipated effects of climate change.
• Building valuable socio-economic assets for local communities that help improve access to key services and small infrastructure.
• Financing MSMEs affected by the conflict and COVID-19 crisis to support economic activities that strengthen the domestic food market and improve food security and livelihoods.

Women’s Empowerment

Yemen has significantly faced challenges with regard to women’s access to education, health, productive employment and food security, they are disproportionately affected by the indirect and often lasting effects of conflict. Women-headed households are at higher risk of food insecurity and malnutrition due to their limited work opportunities and reduced access to productive resources, services, and rural institutions.

The ESPECRP will ensure that gender sensitive interventions are mainstreamed across all project components creating pathways for women’s employment and participation in society and playing a key role in building resilience to shocks, improving livelihoods and mitigating social constraints. This is relevant in the current country context as empowering women’s full productive potential can yield enormous benefits in reducing gender gaps in education, employment and access to services.

The ESPECRP aims to provide Yemeni women with nutrition-sensitive cash transfers, and target at least 30% with gender sensitive temporary employment, and increased access to basic services and economic opportunities to food-insecure populations affected by COVID-19. This will not only help them to generate income, but by economically empowering women, we can help to improve household living conditions.

Additionally, training and awareness raising opportunities will support women and girls by focusing on the development of new skills, health and hygiene knowledge, including COVID-19 preventive measures. All cash-for-work employees will also complete compulsory training and awareness raising on occupational health and safety and reporting any case of gender-based violence and sexual exploitation and abuse to ensure the safety and respect to all workers.