Food security assistance through support to agricultural and livestock production and 'cash plus' in the most vulnerable districts of Amran, Hajjah, Lahj and Taiz governorates in Yemen Project Summary :	After over four years of turmoil, Yemen remains the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. With an estimated 67 percent of the country’s population (20 million people) estimated to be severely food insecure without humanitarian food assistance, it is critical to safeguard agriculture-based livelihoods in order to support families’ ability to sustain or resume food production. If scaled-up, multi-sector humanitarian assistance is not maintained throughout 2019 and into 2020, a further deterioration in the food security and nutrition situation is likely.

In response, FAO plans to implement the proposed project  over a period of 14 months with a budget of USD 4 million. The project seeks to directly benefit 21,450 of the most vulnerable households in Yemen (150,150 people) (22,522 women, 55,555 girls, 19,520 men and 52,553 boys) through emergency livelihoods support.

The project will contribute to the prevention of famine and mitigation of hunger by enhancing food security of vulnerable families in six districts of four governorates at high risk of famine including : Al Khawkhah, Milhan, Al Qubbaytah, Tur Al Bahah, Al Madaribah Wa Al Arah, and Hayfan Districts. Project design has considered the specific needs of each gender and various age groups by recognizing the different roles that women, girls, men and boys have in their productive activities.

The project will contribute to Cluster Objective 1, “Increase access to food for highly vulnerable families across the country”, through the implementation of Cash+, agricultural and fishery activities to benefit 3,500 extremely vulnerable individuals (525 Women, 455 Men, 1,295 girls and 1,225 Men). This will combine unconditional cash transfers with poultry and related inputs to ensure beneficiaries’ immediate basic needs are met and to enable the production of protein-rich foods for dietary diversity and income generation.

The project will contribute to Cluster Objective 2, “Increase household incomes and rehabilitate food security assets in areas with high levels of food insecurity”, through the provision of agricultural and fishery inputs and training to improve the food production to benefit 146,650 people (21,997 women, 19,065 men, 54,260 girls, 51,328 boys). Beneficiaries will receive production packages according to their main source of livelihood to increase the availability of nutritious foods while enabling beneficiaries to sell excess production at local markets. Awareness raising sessions on good practices and nutrition messaging will be also provided.

Distribution activities will be conducted by FAO’s implementing partners, while awareness trainings will be conducted by extension services of MAI and MoFW. FAO will manage the project implementation with technical oversight, ensuring close supervision of each activity conducted in the field, monitoring and evaluating the impact of the interventions.

FAO is implementing projects in all the 22 governorates of Yemen and is co-leading FSAC, providing technical support and harmonizing the efforts of humanitarian partners engaged in the sector. FAO’s technical expertise in agriculture, food security and nutrition, as well as operational and administrative support capacity in-country and at regional, subregional and headquarters level, will contribute to implementation.

FAO has also considered the main risks that the project implementation could face, including: (i) delays in clearances from authorities (ii) diversion of assistance (iii) increase of tensions in targeted area due to assistance (iv) security threats and (v) fluctuating exchange rate. Floods and crop and animal disease incidence. These will be mitigated by having a liaison officer working with authorities, careful selection of implementation partners and modalities, monitoring, ensuring conflict-sensitive programming, compliance with security standards, and rigorous market monitoring.