Since 2016, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has signed USD 720 million in agreements financed through the World Bank Group’s (WBG) International Development Association (IDA), reaching more than 7 million people across Yemen with improved food security, livelihoods, and access to
essential services. This strategic partnership represents one of the largest development delivery platforms operating at scale in an active conflict setting.

The WBG-UNDP Yemen portfolio is currently active with six projects. Beyond restoring livelihoods and productive assets, the portfolio has expanded into building the core capacity of government institutions.
Critically, this joint engagement has helped preserve Yemen’s core national delivery institutions—maintaining essential technical and fiduciary capabilities throughout the conflict—and is now actively driving institutional capacity transfer and direct government readiness.

A core pillar of this evolution is localisation, focusing on building and strengthening national implementation capacity at the central government level to facilitate the phased transition from emergency interventions to sustainable, development-oriented initiatives led and implemented directly by central government
institutions. This shift ensures long-term national ownership, institutional self-reliance, and sustainable state-building.