Locations
Yemen Food Security Response and Resilience Project (FSRRP)
Summary
Violent conflict, now in its seventh year, has crippled Yemen’s economy and created an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Over 24 million people (or 83 per cent of the total estimated population) are food insecure, including a staggering 16.2 million people in IPC Phase 3+ requiring emergency assistance. Food insecurity in Yemen is driven by constrained food production, supply and distribution and households’ diminishing purchasing power. An estimated 4.3 million people have fled their homes since the start of the conflict and 3.3 million remain internally displaced.
Hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition are among the most pressing and overwhelming challenges Yemen now faces - all at a scale that is not being fully met by national authorities and the international development and humanitarian communities. Low food access has resulted from a combination a high household dependence on food imports, high food prices and significantly reduced household income. It is estimated that Yemen imported 8 per cent less wheat per month between January and May 2020 than during the same period in 2019 due to limited funds, which is an insufficient amount of wheat to meet the 2020 consumption requirement.
In response to this deepening crisis, UNDP Yemen has partnered with the World Bank’s International Development Association, the Social Fund for Development and the Public Works Project to implement the Yemen Food Security Response and Resilience Project (FSRRP). FSRRP aims at improving household food security and building resilience by: increasing food availability and accessibility and preserving human capital and basic economic recovery.
The project will also directly contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions through promoting livelihood interventions for food insecure populations through resilience-building measures. Climate-resilient irrigation and water conservation and management practices will restore degraded lands (including terracing) and replace affected water infrastructure with subsequent productive, climate-smart technology for agricultural production, allowing project participants to earn much needed income from their repair and maintenance through cash-for-work.
Women’s Empowerment
Despite women comprising approximately 60 per cent of labour for crop farming, 90 per cent for livestock breeding and 10 per cent of overall wage labour, they are also one of the most at risk groups to the effects of conflict, food insecurity, climate change and the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. As food prices and water scarcity continue to increase, women – as the primary domestic carers for their children, parents and spouse – are left with few options to feed their families adequately and safely.
FSRRP aims to provide Yemeni women with temporary employment opportunities through cash-for-work, with a target of 10,000 women participants (from 60,000). This will not only help them to generate income, but by economically empowering women, we can help to improve household living conditions.
Cash-for-work participants will support the rehabilitation of community agricultural which will improve access to water, irrigation, and renewed land and rural roads for farmers; making food more accessible and affordable.
Additionally, training and awareness raising opportunities will support women and girls by focusing on the development of new skills and, 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, gender based violence and sexual exploitation and abuse, to ensure the safety and respect of all workers.
Objectives
The development objective of FSRRP is to improve the availability of and access to food and nutritious diets – both in the short and medium term – for targeted households in the project area. The objective will be achieved through the following outputs:
- Output 1: Income opportunities for targeted vulnerable households enhanced
- Output 2: Small-scale agricultural production community infrastructure rehabilitated
- Output 3: Project management, monitoring and learning ensured
Expected results
- 1,000,000 workdays created by community-based infrastructure improvement works, out of which 35,000 workdays are for women.
- 60,000 people benefiting from community-based climate-resilient infrastructure improvements, out of which 10,000 are women recipients.
- 50,000 smallholder farm households with improved access to water resources, out of which 15,000 are female-headed smallholder farm households.
- 3,500 smallholder farm households with improved access to land resources, out of which 800 are female-headed farm households.
- 15,000 cubic metres of constructed rainwater harvesting reservoirs.
- 3000 hectares of constructed and improved irrigation canals.
- 2,000 hectares of improved and protected agricultural lands.
- 64 kilometres of improved rural roads to improve access to markets for farmers.
Achievements
- Over 567,000 workdays created, out of which nearly 76,000 workdays were for women.
- Almost 16,000 households with improved food security, out of which 30% expected to be female-headed households.
- Over 18,300 people benefited from work opportunities, out of which 2,621 are women.
- More than 1,880 farmers with improved access to water resources, out of which 905 are women.
- More than 7,400 farmers with improved access to land resources, out of which 1,511 are women.
- Around 6,850 hectares of improved and protected agricultural lands.
- Over 19,000 metres of constructed and improved irrigation canals.
- Almost 16,900 cubic metres of constructed and improved rainwater harvesting reservoirs.
- 90 kilometres of improved agricultural roads to improve access to markets for farmers.
