SRHR Yemen Context Analysis Yemen Sept 2020

The war that started at the beginning of 2015 has escalated over time. It is impossible to give a brief and complete overview that includes all the nuances and complexities. The war between the Houthi movement and the internationally recognized government of President Hadi is the result of a failed political transition after the Arab Spring in 2011. In the meantime the Houthi movement has taken the capital of Sanaa and is still expanding its zone of control. The international recognized government -  that is in  exile in Saudi Arabia – is losing territory over time. Saudi Arabia is supporting the Hadi government. Iran is supporting the Houthi movement. The war is now fragmenting. The main warring parties are fragmenting regionally and locally in different groups. There are now more warring factions and frontlines than ever. Also aerial bombardments still occur. The escalation of the war has devastating humanitarian consequences for the population.

The crisis in Yemen is the worst in the world, and all indicators point towards a massive deterioration. There is no other country in the world with a higher percentage of people in need of some sort of humanitarian assistance or protection in order to survive. 80% of Yemen’s population need our help – there is no other country with comparable statistics. Half of all of the people in Yemen are what we call acutely vulnerable, meaning that they will not make it without the assistance we provide them. There is no other country on earth where half the population is acutely vulnerable. 
•	2/3 of the entire population wakes up hungry everyday 
•	1/4 of the population is malnourished 

The UN-run humanitarian operation in Yemen is the largest UN humanitarian operation in the world – 11 UN agencies and 215 frontline partners are providing all kinds of aid and assistance throughout the country. One of the largest food programs in UN history is being run in Yemen, with the World Food Programme delivering food to 14 million people – half of the Yemeni population. We reached close to 11 million people with healthcare before the pandemic, and we were reaching 9 million people with water and sanitation before the funding crisis. 
The crisis has gotten significantly worse throughout the war. While Yemen was always poor, but with every year of war the number of people humanitarian assistance has increased. 
From 15 million people in need of help when the war started, next year 16 million, after that 20 million and now 25 million. 
The crisis has multiple waves: 
- Yemen has experienced the worst cholera outbreak in modern history 
- Famine 
- Once-in-a-generation flooding 
- Unchecked, unmitigated spread of COVID-19, with probably the highest case mortality rate in the world 
- Once again a famine is appearing.

The situation is going to get worse until the warring parties put down arms. 

Funding and operational crisis 
The International Community (IC) has a funding crisis and an operational crisis too.
While commending the generosity of donors throughout the war, this year the I.C only received USD $1 billion of the $3.2 billion needed. 
The UN has 41 major programmes, and the past 4 months we have been forced to shut down or reduce 15 of the programmes. Without additional funding the next few weeks, another 26 programmes face the same risk. The consequences will of course be death and suffering. 
The operational crisis referred to has to do with our abilities as humanitarians to deliver assistance in accordance with the four core humanitarian principles. These are the principles of humanity, independence, impartiality and neutrality. 
Most of the problems we face are in northern Yemen. 
When faced with cases where the IC simply cannot deliver in accordance with those principles, it is forced to roll back the assistance it is providing until it is able to manage the level of risk we are facing. There is no more restrictive, non-permissive operating environment in the world than the one in Yemen. Project goal: To improve the health system and Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) service and education in hard-to-reach areas with specific attention for adolescents and women. 

Specific objectives: 

* To strengthen the capacity and supply of the health facilities in the program area to deliver health services; 
* To improve the access of adolescents to SRH information, education and services; 
* To improve access of women to maternal health and family planning services. For the voucher program we will to work in one health district which is Utmah in the governate of Dhamar,26 with a population of 235,000 people.