UNDP Yemen and the UN

UNDP works with the entire UN System in Yemen through a number of mechanisms. The UNDP Resident Representative, Auke Lootsma, and other UN agencies heads form the UN in Yemen Country Team (UNCT), which coordinates programmatic development assistance and the development of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for the period 2022-2024.. This framework enables the UN to act as one in supporting Yemen’s development priorities within the crisis context. Technical and managerial oversight of programmes is then managed through the UN Core Group (UNCG).

Based on the mandates, direction and supervision of the UNCT, UNDP engages in various cross cutting thematic groups and task forces including:

• UN Humanitarian Country Team (UNHCT)
• UN Operations Management Team (OMT)
• Harmonized Approach to Cash Transfers (HACT) Inter-Agency Task Force
• UNSDCF Outcome Group 

The UNSDCF Outcome Group monitors the implementation of UNSDCF programmes and works on joint programming. The group consists of four sub-groups one per each of the UNSDCF pillars:1. Food security; 2. Local development; 3. Inclusive economic; and 4. Social services.

The UNSDCF (2022-2024) prioritises the population groups in Yemen that have the highest risk of being left behind due to the impact of conflict; economic, social, geographic or political exclusion; and marginalisation. Enacting the central transformative principle of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, whilst challenging in the Yemen context, does provide the lens through which the UNSDCF targets the most vulnerable and prioritise Leaving No One Behind.

Yemen is a country in conflict. The priorities of this UNSDCF are derived from the analysis of the impacts of this ongoing crisis on the people of Yemen, and the needs and opportunities as outlined in the UN’s Common Country Analysis (CCA) conducted in 2021. The UN has prioritized four pillars that resonate with the SDG priorities of people, peace, planet and prosperity that aim, as a matter of urgency, to improve people’s lives in Yemen and build resilience that is equitable, inclusive, people-centred, gender responsive and human rights based, through outcomes that:

1. Increase food security, improving livelihood options, and job creation
2. Preserve inclusive, effective and efficient national and local development systems strengthening
3. Drive inclusive economic structural transformation
4. Build social services, social protection, and inclusion for all

Other 

UNDP participates and engages with the larger donor community through bilateral and multilateral meetings and initiatives in relation to Yemen’s development concerns and priorities, as well as through the Donor Forum Meeting for UN Agencies and Donor Governments/Organizations.