education

Yemen Review section April 9, 2024 10:43 MIN Quarterly: January-March 2024 Al-Aqsa Flood and the Battle of the Promised Conquest: How the Houthis Mobilize Popular Support By Nasr Rushdi Since day one, the Houthi group (Ansar Allah) has openly supported and praised the Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched by Hamas on October 7. The group has pledged its full support to the Palestinian resistance in its war against the Israeli army, which is waging a military campaign in the Gaza Strip aimed at dismantling Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions. The Houthi stance on the Gaza war has reverberated domestically within areas under their control. The group has unequivocally embraced religious rhetoric in support of Palestine and the Palestinian resistance through official media outlets, which are largely influenced by or affiliated with the Houthis. Local radio channels have adjusted their program schedules, airing political songs in support of Palestine and… Continue reading Main Publications March 21, 2024 31:19 MIN The Impact of Flooding on Agricultural Communities in Yemen By Musaed Aklan Yemen's agricultural communities face a perfect storm of growing ecological threats amid protracted conflict. Flash floods destroy farms, crops, and irrigation systems. Late rains risk drowning mature harvests, and waterlogged fields hinder root growth. Coastal areas battle salinization, and collapsed roads and buried wells hamper recovery. As flooding and changing rainfall patterns undermine yields, farmers struggle to sustain their livelihoods. Over half of Yemen's population is dependent on farming and agricultural work for income. Terrain altered by flooding has stirred tensions as property lines and irrigation channels shift, displacing communities already uprooted by the war. Traditional flood management faces pressure from uncoordinated development and fading communal cooperation, and information gaps persist due to outdated estimates and limited monitoring capacity. Stakeholders… Continue reading Main Publications March 20, 2024 19:06 MIN A War of Attrition: Higher Education in Yemen By Fahmi Khaled The war has broken many of the basic elements of Yemeni society — but the legacy of its now-shattered higher education system will endure far beyond the cessation of hostilities. Unpaid salaries, plummeting enrollment, and unregulated privatization have eroded the quality of Yemen’s higher education system and left it teetering on the brink of collapse. The consequences of this collapse are far-reaching, for educators, students, and the country at large, with economic and social effects that will be felt far into the future. Academics are struggling to cope with the basic costs of living without regular salary payments, and some have been forced to seek alternative employment not considered commensurate with their educational background and social status. As teachers have… Continue reading Analysis February 21, 2024 28:54 MIN Yemen’s Vulnerability to Climate Change: How to Strengthen Adaptation By Helen Lackner This policy brief summarizes the environmental issues Yemen faces and outlines policy and technical responses to limit their impact. These include environmental problems caused by the absence of state intervention or by misguided policies, and those that are symptoms of global warming, pointing out the frequent synergy between them. Yemen, like other developing countries, suffers the consequences of climate change while having insignificant responsibility for causing them. Water scarcity is Yemen’s major environmental problem, which demands urgent attention. Other environmental issues include the deterioration of ecosystems, oil related and other pollution, sanitation issues, waste disposal, fisheries, and rising sea levels. The problems are due to a synergy between human interventions and external global warming features. In the course of earlier… Continue reading Main Publications February 20, 2024 20:32 MIN Safeguarding a Dying Practice: The Role of Shabwani Women in Tribal Mediation and Reconciliation By Samah AlKhader This study explores the rich tradition in tribal mediation and reconciliation work carried out by women in Shabwa, charting their role in resolving family-related disputes as well as larger political conflicts. It argues that despite the prevalence of female mediation in Shabwa today, such practices are on the decline, and find little resonance with the younger generation of Shabwani women, many of whom believe that tribal customs, and accompanying tribal roles, limit their horizons and are unsuited to modern-day life. The advent of war has also brought about new dynamics that further threaten the role of women in mediation and reconciliation, including the emboldenment of patriarchy and the ensuant regression in women’s rights and social roles over the years. Given… Continue reading Main Publications October 30, 2023 38:38 MIN Yemen International Forum 2023 Report The Yemen International Forum (YIF) began life as an ambitious if improbable idea. The aim was to have a forum conceived and implemented by Yemenis that would provide a powerful platform for bringing together as many elements of Yemeni society as possible, along with international actors, to discuss the country’s manifold problems. By attempting to build a common vision among the diverse parties beyond the formal peace process, progress might be made, even in small ways. Having a local organization lead an initiative on peace and dialogue at this scale would also empower Yemenis, ensuring solutions brought to the table are locally conceived and led. Two years later, this homegrown approach to peacebuilding is bearing fruit. The YIF provides a… Continue reading News May 17, 2023 06:18 MIN Sana’a Center Briefs the Security Council for the Second Time By Yasmeen al-Eryani PRESS RELEASE – Wednesday, May 17, 2023 New York – Yasmeen al-Eryani, the Co-Executive Director for Knowledge Production at the Sana'a Center, briefed the UN Security Council today, focusing on the ongoing negotiations, transitional justice, women’s rights, economic insecurity, and ecological justice in Yemen. In her address, Al-Eryani said that the ongoing talks between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi movement are important, but the interests of the country and its people as a whole must be considered, emphasizing that all talks must be coordinated under the UN umbrella and engage local peace efforts. “Yemenis are fully capable of rebuilding their country and shaping its future," said Al-Eryani, but “there is a shared international responsibility to steer Yemen out of its… Continue reading Yemen Review section May 15, 2023 10:11 MIN April 2023 Returning Home: An Arduous Journey to a Changed Yemen By Redha Qarhash After eight years of absence from Yemen and my hometown of Sana’a, I decided to travel home, longing to see my family and loved ones after a long separation enforced by the war. The flight from Amman took three-and-a-half hours, landing in Aden in the early hours of the morning. My older brother came to pick me up and accompany me on the 16-hour car journey home. We headed straight to Sana’a, stopping just once, at 3 am, to buy the popular Adeni delicacies of Khobz al-Tawa and Chai Adeni (thick flatbread and sweetened milk tea). Our driver, who knew the roads well, advised us not to waste time in Aden so as to avoid problems at checkpoints. In his… Continue reading Publications April 14, 2023 02:41 MIN March 2023 Back Yemen’s Private Sector to Promote Economy Recovery By Abdulwahab Alkebsi In light of ongoing negotiations between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi movement and reports of progress toward a permanent ceasefire, the need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to peace and reconstruction in Yemen is more urgent than ever. Any political solution must be paired with a robust economic strategy in order to tackle underlying economic and social issues, and prevent a surface-level fix to the conflict. Here, Yemen’s private sector can play a crucial role. The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), a Washington-based organization where I serve as Managing Director for Programs, sees the Yemeni private sector as a key driver of economic growth, poverty reduction, and the promotion of social stability in a post-conflict Yemen. The need… Continue reading Yemen Review section March 10, 2023 05:07 MIN January-February 2023 Book Review – Yemen: Poverty and Conflict By Ned Whalley Yemen: Poverty and Conflict, by Helen Lackner, Routledge, 2022, 184 pp., $48.95 (paperback), ISBN 9780367180508, $170.00 (hardcover), ISBN 9780367180492. An explosion of writing accompanies a war. Conflict journalism typically focuses on immediate outcomes of the fighting, humanitarian publications highlight the terrible human cost, and political and diplomatic observers proffer opinions on various strategic implications. But there is often a temporal gap in English-language literature between descriptions of contemporary violence and the most recent available histories of the belligerents. This is perhaps unavoidable. Comprehensive histories take time to research. Government archives and accurate data, and the trends that can be ascertained from them, are not available right away. Any modern history concludes the day the author finishes writing. They cannot know… Continue reading The Yemen Review March 3, 2022 279:55 MIN The Graveyard of Hubris – Yemen Annual Review 2021 Through most of 2021, the armed Houthi movement appeared unstoppable. As their forces pushed relentlessly toward Marib city, the fall of the last government stronghold in the north began to seem inevitable. Rich in oil and gas, its loss would be a mortal blow to the spiraling economy and political legitimacy of the internationally recognized government. Along frontlines across the country, Houthi forces either held their ground or advanced, showing a cohesiveness, discipline and effectiveness unmatched by the motley array of armed groups opposing them. Houthi drones and ballistic missiles flew across the border into Saudi Arabia, and continued even in the face of retaliatory airstrikes, heightening the cost of conflict for the coalition. Houthi military efforts were buttressed by… Continue reading The Yemen Review July 14, 2021 94:51 MIN Eye on the East – The Yemen Review, June 2021 Through periods of tolerance and persecution, marginalization has remained a constant in the treatment of racial and religious minorities in Yemeni society. During the ongoing conflict, however, violence and subjugation against these marginalized groups has increased dramatically, to the point that it is fundamentally reshaping Yemeni society. For Yemen as we know it to continue to exist it needs to assure the existence of its minorities, as something fundamental to the makeup of a nation dies when its minorities perish. Yemen’s Jewish community, with a history tracing back millennia, played a foundational role in developing Yemeni culture and commerce, and creating much of the artisanal industries for which the country is known. While the community had already been dwindling in… Continue reading