Main Publications

Main Publications December 11, 2025 03:03 MIN Energy Transition in Yemen: A Path to Justice and Sustainable Development By Abeer Al-Eryani, and Musaed Aklan Yemen’s energy sector is currently facing a severe crisis. For millions of Yemenis, accessing reliable electricity is a daily struggle, characterized by prolonged blackouts, limited fuel supplies, and deteriorating infrastructure, which in turn exacerbate the country's humanitarian conditions. This policy brief underscores the importance of a just and conflict-sensitive energy transition in Yemen, addressing the interconnected challenges of conflict, economic instability, and energy poverty. It emphasizes the urgent need for an energy transition that enhances energy access, promotes decarbonization, and supports peacebuilding and socioeconomic recovery. The brief outlines the current energy landscape in Yemen, identifies critical policy gaps, and highlights both top-down and grassroots opportunities for sustainable energy development. It acknowledges the significant challenges in the energy sector, including its… Continue reading Main Publications September 15, 2025 02:34 MIN Safeguarding the Rights and Freedoms of Yemeni Women and Girls: Stakeholders Advocacy Strategy 2025-2030 Constraints on women’s rights and freedoms, along with gender imbalances, are struggles in Yemen that predate the war. A decade of conflict, political instability, and pervasive insecurity has compounded this situation, posing a serious threat to the role and participation of Yemeni women in public life. Reports of increased gender-based violence, discrimination, and marginalization of women; restrictions on their freedom of movement and expression; as well as harassment and targeting of female leaders and activists are all worrying trends that appear to be on the rise since the onset of war. Without action, they risk pushing women out of Yemen’s political and public life. In response, the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies convened a three-day scenario-building workshop in Amman, Jordan,… Continue reading Main Publications September 15, 2025 01:35 MIN Fostering Opportunities for E-Commerce Growth in Yemen By Aylin Junga Yemen's e-commerce sector holds significant potential to drive economic growth and financial inclusion, particularly for women and rural communities, but faces major challenges, including poor internet connectivity, limited digital payment systems, and the absence of legal and regulatory frameworks. The country remains heavily cash-based, with minimal access to formal banking and fragmented oversight, exposing consumers and providers to fraud and limiting sector development. Internet infrastructure is among the worst globally, with only 17.7 percent of the population online in 2024, though the recent introduction of Starlink offers hope for improved connectivity. Conflict-related damage to transportation networks further hinders delivery services. Despite these obstacles, some businesses have found success, especially in urban areas, by adapting to logistical constraints. Yemen’s youthful, increasingly… Continue reading Main Publications August 11, 2025 01:35 MIN Unlocking Climate Finance for Fragile States: The Case of Yemen By Musaed Aklan, and Sahar Mohammed Yemen is vulnerable to climate change and affected by ongoing conflict, facing worsening environmental crises such as water scarcity, degradation of arable land, and an increasing frequency of extreme weather events. The country’s capacity to address the impact of climate change is severely hampered by limited access to international climate finance. Obstacles include the absence of clear criteria for fund distribution, bureaucratic complexities that exceed local institutional capacity, an emphasis on mitigation over adaptation measures, and a preference for providing loans over grants. Fragmented governance and a decade-long climate data gap further undermine the country’s eligibility for funding. Yemen lacks accredited national institutions capable of directly accessing climate funds, which forces it to rely on international non-governmental organizations (INGOs). This… Continue reading Main Publications August 4, 2025 08:01 MIN Yemen International Forum 2025 Report The third Yemen International Forum (YIF III) took place in Amman from February 16 - 18, 2025, gathering more than 300 participants to discuss peace prospects and stability in Yemen. Since the outbreak of the war on Gaza in October 2023, Yemen has been tested in myriad ways. Attacks on the Red Sea and the rising prominence of the Houthis within the “Axis of Resistance” have thrust Yemen into regional conflict, undermining hope for an end to its decade-long war. Since the last YIF held in the Hague in June 2023, where discussions centered on cautious optimism for a potential peace settlement, Yemen has undertaken a dramatic U-turn. Peace efforts have taken a backseat while international attention has increasingly turned… Continue reading Main Publications March 19, 2025 04:48 MIN Impact Assessment of Aid Interventions in Yemen By Dr. Nadia Al-Sakkaf In aid work, traditional monitoring and evaluation (M&E) processes frequently place a high priority on quantitative indicators and short-term project outcomes. This results in a cursory grasp of the impact of these projects rather than an understanding of the real and long-lasting changes or advantages experienced by beneficiaries and their communities. Furthermore, there is a limited understanding of the complex effects on communities because standard M&E frameworks frequently lack meaningful metrics of stakeholder participation. This research proposes a novel impact evaluation metric, the Genuine Score of Impact (GSI), for assessing aid programs, which is being piloted through a case-study methodology. Through evaluating the impact of aid interventions in Yemen’s Lahj and Marib governorates, the framework examines perceived material wealth, social… Continue reading Main Publications March 18, 2025 14:57 MIN Renewed US Bombing and Houthi FTO Designation Signal Shift in Yemen Conflict By Maged Al-Madhaji, Ned Whalley, Abdulghani Al-Iryani, Hussam Radman, and Salah Ali Salah US military forces recommenced strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on March 15 as part of a new pressure campaign against the group and its primary backer, Iran. The bombing campaign, which so far has killed a reported 53 people and wounded more than 100, followed a Houthi threat to resume attacks against Israeli-linked vessels in the Red Sea in response to Israel cutting off aid to Gaza. US airstrikes so far have been reported in Sana’a, Sa’ada, Al-Jawf, Marib, Dhamar, Hudaydah, Al-Bayda and Taiz governorates. US officials said the strikes would likely last several weeks. Meanwhile, the Houthis have claimed several attacks against US naval ships. Shortly following the US escalation in Yemen, Israel resumed major bombing in Gaza,… Continue reading Main Publications February 18, 2025 02:28 MIN Conflict and Climate: The Need for Green Transitional Justice in Yemen By The Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies and Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic Yemen is facing a severe environmental crisis, the effects of which, combined with climate change and a decade of conflict, have severely undermined Yemenis’ right to a dignified life. Over the last 50 years, Yemen's temperatures have increased by 1.8 degrees Celsius. The increase in heavy rains, floods, cyclones, and other environmental degradation have led to extensive displacement and significant losses in lives, livelihoods, land, and infrastructure. Rising temperatures, heat waves, and irregular rainfall have concurrently aggravated water shortages in one of the most water-scarce countries in the world, with approximately 14.5 million Yemenis lacking access to safe drinking water. As water scarcity increases, related conflicts… Continue reading Main Publications February 16, 2025 11:36 MIN Yemen International Forum III Background Dossier The Yemen International Forum (YIF) is the largest and most inclusive platform for policy dialogues related to Yemen's conflict and ongoing peace process. Unique in its approach, it serves as a continuous civil society-led peace initiative, providing a space for Yemeni, regional, and international engagement aimed at overcoming current crises and paving the way to a peaceful, prosperous, and just Yemen. Since its launch in 2022, the YIF has convened over 500 political representatives, policymakers, peace mediators, experts, and civil society representatives and contributed to multi-thematic peace initiatives, ranging from political and civic engagement to transitional justice, economic deescalation, and the environment-conflict nexus. As part of the YIF, consultations with Yemeni experts and stakeholders and extensive regional and international shuttle… Continue reading Main Publications February 5, 2025 27:58 MIN Houthi Detentions Leave Stark Choices for Aid Sector By Casey Coombs, and Ned Whalley On January 23, the Houthi group (Ansar Allah) detained seven UN staff members working in Sana’a. In response, the UN halted the movement of all staff working in Houthi-controlled territories as Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the UN workers’ immediate release. But the incident is just the latest in a string of disappearances and detentions of UN, NGO, and civil society staff in Yemen, who are often held without charge and denied contact with lawyers or family members. In the early summer of 2024, the Houthis began to forcibly disappear dozens of Yemeni civil society organization (CSO) and non-governmental organization (NGO) workers and UN staff. These detentions were soon accompanied by unsubstantiated charges of espionage and coerced televised confessions. The… Continue reading Main Publications January 6, 2025 31:12 MIN Mahrah University: Paving the Way for Workforce Transformation By Tawfeek Al-Ganad, and Lara Uhlenhaut For decades, Yemen’s higher education system has been characterized by a persistent mismatch between graduates’ skills and the changing requirements of the market. The last labor force survey carried out in 2014 showed that less than one-third of Yemen’s labor force had secondary or tertiary education, and a qualification mismatch was found among some 83 percent of the employed population. Yemen’s struggle to produce a skilled workforce can be attributed to many factors, including inflexible curriculums, outdated teaching methods, failure to adapt to technological advancements, and a lack of strategic vision for admissions and curriculum development. Undoubtedly, the historical absence of a unified and coordinated vision for higher education has been exacerbated by a decade-long war and its detrimental impact… Continue reading Main Publications December 9, 2024 29:01 MIN Rescuing Yemen’s Economy By Ned Whalley, and Wadhah Al-Awlaqi A political crisis has wracked the interim capital of Aden as the internationally recognized government struggles to deal with the plummeting Yemeni rial. The currency now trades at over YR2,000 to the dollar, having lost over a third of its value since the year began. Riven by political infighting and lacking the vision or tools to arrest the slide, an acute economic collapse appears imminent if significant and sustained financial support does not arrive. Both short- and long-term factors have put downward pressure on the currency. The roots of the problem are difficult to unpick from Yemen’s troubled pre-war economy, the stressors and destruction of the conflict, and the broader economic downturn that has accompanied it over the past decade,… Continue reading