@fao rne Salah El Hajj Hassan, FAO Representative in Yemen during distribution of cereal and vegetable seeds as well as animal feed and animal vaccination campaigns, contributing to the food ration of people

August 18^st, 2016, Sana’a, Yemen: The project “Emergency provision of livelihoods inputs to internally displaced people (IDPs) and host communities in conflict affected Governorates of Yemen” funded by KSC has reached about 414,000 people (10,350 internally displaced households and 58,650 host families) from 24 conflict affected districts in Sa’ada, Taiz, Amran, Hajja, Al Hodaida, Abyan and Laheg Governorates so far.

According to the June 2016 Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, populations from six of the targeted governorates are living in Emergency (IPC phase 4 of 5) – Sa’ada, Taiz, Hajja, Al Hodai, Abyan and Laheg – and in crisis (IPC phase 3) in Amran, where the situation is likely to deteriorate as fighting continues. The most vulnerable people among them were carefully selected through consultations with community leaders and efforts were made to ensure that at least 30 percent of the direct project beneficiaries are women.

Livelihood specific and seasonal agriculture inputs and assets – including sorghum and wheat seeds, fertilizers, farming hand tools, water tanks, animal health parasite treatment and green fodder – were procured and delivered to the targeted families, farmers and agro-pastoralists to promote food production in parallel to humanitarian food distributions. “It is critical that we help people feed themselves as food needs are already much greater than humanitarian assistance can provide and it is likely that the food situation continues to deteriorate in areas where the conflict is enduring” said Salah El Hajj Hassan, FAO Representative in Yemen.

So far, FAO procured and delivered over 371 tons of cereal seeds (wheat and sorghum), 311 tons of fertilizers, 6,220 farm tool kits, 6,220 vegetable seed kits, 11,981 bags of animal feed concentrate, 93 ice boxes for community animal health and 23 solar refrigeration units.

In addition, FAO was able to participate to two UN convoys to districts affected by heavy flooding in Taiz and Amran in April 2016 to provide emergency livelihood assistance to 31,032 people with the delivery of animal treatments and vaccines, water tanks, vegetable seeds and farming hand tools.

However, security regulations and access restrictions to the project sites due to ongoing fighting remain a major challenge to the project implementation. Several requests to access the areas were not granted. FAO urges all parties of the conflict to respect humanitarian laws and grant safe access to remote areas to reach populations in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

FAO and the project implementing partners are currently intensifying efforts to reach the total 92,431 families (554,586 people) identified from the most vulnerable IDPs (13,890 households) and host communities (78,541 households) in the coming months.

The flash appeal project is executed in collaboration with local authorities and community leaders, UN partner agencies, and six implementing partners – the National Foundation for Development and Humanitarian Response (NFDHR), the Yemen Family Care Association (YFCA), the Millennium Development Foundation (MDF), the Rawabi Al-nahda Foundation (RAF), the Abna Saada Development Association (ASDA) and the Yemen Women Union (YWU).