After more than five years of protracted conflict, Yemen continues to face an unprecedented humanitarian, social and economic crisis. Conflict, displacement and economic decline are placing immense pressure on essential basic services and the institutions that provide them. Humanitarian needs have sharply increased across all sectors since the escalation of the conflict in 2015, which has exacerbated pre-existing vulnerabilities, degraded community resilience and accelerated the collapse of public institutions. Due to the need for reliable and timely food security and nutrition information to inform decision-making at the national and governorate levels, FAO and the Yemeni Government, with support from the European Union (EU), implemented a comprehensive information system approach with two initial phases between 2013 and 2020.

This promising practice factsheet focuses on the third phase of this programme called “Strengthening food security and nutrition information and early warning system” (2019-2021). It is a two-year EUR 5.9 million programme aimed at scaling up the geographic coverage of the food security and nutrition information systems (FSNIS) in Yemen. The programme addressed the main challenges associated with food security and nutrition information collection, analysis, and management systems in the country by supporting the setting up of a sustainable Food Security Technical Secretariat (FSTS) and food security and nutrition Governorate Focal Units (GFUs). The third phase focused on expanding the programme coverage from 12 governorates to all 22 governorates of Yemen.

SOME KEY TAKEAWAYS

• On the HDP Nexus: The comprehensive information system approach implemented by the national and governorate levels, FAO and the Yemeni Government is an example of how working with various sectors contributing to food security and nutrition, both in data analysis and community interventions, can be an important success factor in operationalising the humanitarian—development—peace (HDP) development nexus. This includes joint targeting and vulnerability mapping among all relevant clusters or working groups, where applicable. Simultaneously, for an effective operationalization of the HDP nexus, it is important to develop the capacity of government institutions and government officers in the collection, analysis and communication of food security and nutrition information.