Humanitarian Aid

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 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 Yemen Review section April 21, 2025 18:21 MIN January-March 2025 The Economy — The Yemen Review, January-March 2025 By Wadhah Al-Awlaqi, and Aylin Junga The first quarter of 2025 saw escalating US sanctions against the Houthis. The sanctions, intended to suffocate the Houthis financially, could have a negative impact on Yemen’s already fragile financial system, and threaten to disrupt flows of crucial humanitarian aid and remittances, further destabilizing the economy. In mid-January, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the Yemen Kuwait Bank for Trade and Investment for providing financial support to the Houthis. OFAC accused the bank of allowing the Houthis to exploit the Yemeni banking sector to launder money and transfer funds to their allies, including the Lebanese group Hezbollah. The bank was also alleged to have helped the Houthis establish and finance front companies involved… Continue reading Publications February 27, 2025 18:32 MIN Recovering from Attacks on Education in Yemen By Alexander Kochenburger Education is often one of the greatest casualties of war. In Yemen, this reality is borne out by the thousands of damaged and destroyed schools, tens of thousands of child soldiers, hundreds of thousands of teachers working without regular pay, and millions of students out of school. Mere numbers, however, are not sufficient to encapsulate the true toll. A generation of Yemenis have had their right to education and hope for a better future stripped away by airstrikes and fighting, by landmines and armed groups in and around their schools, and by beleaguered teachers presiding the best they can in over-crowded classrooms. This policy brief examines the effects of Yemen’s armed conflict on the country’s education system, focusing in particular… 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 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 Main Publications October 25, 2024 01:50 MIN Localizing Aid and Development in Yemen By Dr. Nadia Al-Sakkaf This study examines the key barriers and opportunities regarding localizing humanitarian aid in Yemen. The findings reveal a significant gap between the international community’s intent to localize aid and the reality on the ground. Challenges include Yemen’s fragmented political landscape, weak governance, and a limited understanding of what localization entails. Further, the lack of sustained investment in local organizations, especially those in rural areas or led by women, has hampered efforts to empower Yemeni actors. Internal issues within Yemeni civil society, such as monopolies over donor partnerships, also exacerbate the problem. These issues leave international entities struggling to find effective Yemeni partners. At the same time, Yemeni local communities, civil society, and the private sector are desperate for genuine leadership.… Continue reading Yemen Review section October 16, 2024 04:42 MIN Quarterly: July-September 2024 Extreme Weather Puts Lives at Risk, Worsens Cholera Crisis By Musaed Aklan, and Solenn Al-Majali Between July and September 2024, heavy rains and severe flooding caused widespread devastation across Yemen’s governorates. More than half a million Yemenis were affected, according to the UN, with significant loss of life, disrupted public services, and severe damage to agriculture, homes, and historic landmarks. Yemen’s vulnerability lies in the intensity of rainfall rather than the amount, coupled with the rapid onset of flooding. By mid-August, the civilian death toll neared 100, with 600 injured and around 69,500 households impacted through the loss of their homes or livelihoods. Over 6,000 families were displaced in Hudaydah, 3,500 in Hajjah, and more than 7,000 in Marib. In regions such as Tihama and Al-Jawf, where around 80 percent of homes are made of… Continue reading Main Publications September 16, 2024 37:17 MIN Child Soldiers in Marib and Shabwa By Ali Al-Sakani, Majd Ibrahim, and Casey Coombs The prevalence of child soldiers fighting in Yemen’s war has become common knowledge as Houthi (Ansar Allah) forces continue to publicly recruit and deploy children in military operations. Other armed groups in Yemen also recruit minors, although on a smaller scale and in a less public manner. In order to understand what accounts for that disparity and other aspects of child recruitment in Yemen, this policy brief seeks to explore the reasons why children have joined armed groups in Marib and Shabwa, two frontline governorates in which Houthi forces, Saudi-backed pro-government forces, and UAE-backed forces affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council (STC) are present. The warring parties have battled fiercely over control of Marib and Shabwa – two of only… Continue reading News March 18, 2024 01:30 MIN Development Report Launch Concludes in Amman, Jordan On March 14, 2024, the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies announced the launch of its latest report, titled "Development is Coming: Be Careful What You Wish For." This report is part of a series of publications which aim to assess the aid sector in Yemen, "Applying Economic Lenses and Local Perspectives to Improve Humanitarian Aid Delivery in Yemen," a project which is directed by the Sana’a Center and funded by the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC). The report launch was hosted by the Swiss Embassy in Amman, Jordan. This analysis, which was led by researchers Alex Harper, Dr. Nadia Al- Sakkaf, and Joel Thorpe, focused on the shifting approaches to aid operations in Yemen from emergency to long-term and… Continue reading Main Publications March 8, 2024 47:08 MIN Development is Coming: Be Careful What You Wish For By Dr. Nadia Al-Sakkaf, Alex Harper, and Joel Thorpe Since 2021, Yemenis have become more strident in their calls for new and better ways of providing aid. Yemeni experts have warned that prolonged cycles of short-term humanitarian aid can entrench dependence and have called for a transition toward development approaches that could set the foundation for a sustainable post-conflict economy. Despite vastly different interpretations and positions over what development means in practice, this shift is now happening, albeit slowly. New frameworks and coordination mechanisms are emerging from the UN compound in Sana’a, the World Bank offices in Amman's Abdali Boulevard, and the conference rooms of Riyadh and Brussels, which are set to fundamentally change the way aid is delivered in Yemen over the coming decade. The effect of these… 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