Hamoud Ali, a beneficiary of FAO’s Emergency Livestock Restocking project in Yemen, tending to his sheep.

16 October 2017, Sana’a, Yemen – While countries around the globe celebrate World Food Day, millions of Yemenis continue to hope for greater international assistance to alleviate their food insecurity and malnutrition.

Yemen currently suffers from the worst humanitarian crisis in the world with 17 million of its people – nearly 60 percent of the country’s population – in “crisis” or “emergency” conditions. The latest Food Security report, issued in September, stated that almost three-quarters of the Yemeni population faces starvation as food security in the country continues to worsen.

According to the report, large-scale acute food insecurity continues to worsen and the October/November harvest will most likely not offset the local food production deficits, adding that 1.25 million civil servants and their families face destitution, economic pain, and poor food purchasing power, as their salaries are irregularly paid for the past 11 months.

“On the occasion of the World Food Day, it is important not only to remember the commitment we have shown to Yemen – all of Yemen – but how much farther we need to go. Complacency is a recipe for disaster. We must not just honor our existing pledges but work earnestly to deliver those and more,” said Salah El-Hajj Hassan, Yemen Country Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 

“One of the areas in which we are active is helping an estimated 3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and returnees with food and nutrition assistance so they can sustain themselves and their families, and produce agricultural and dairy products, all the while remaining actively employed until they can return to their homes,” he added.

Changing the future of migration by investing in food security and rural development is the primary theme of the 2017 World Food Day.

FAO, which has been active in Yemen since 1990, currently has operations in 13 of Yemen’s 22 governorates across conflict lines, including all the governorates hosting the largest number of food insecure households.

Its projects tackle a range of strategic and tactical problems, ranging from providing food assistance and equipment to alleviate immediate needs across the country, to providing training, equipment and knowledge that would boost agriculture infrastructure in a country badly affected by years of poverty and conflict. 

Prior to the outbreak of the conflict, Yemen’s agriculture sector employed more than half (54 percent) of the workforce and was the main source of income for 73 percent of the population either directly or indirectly through the services and industries serving the agricultural economy.

However, more than two years of conflict has devastated the economy, including the agriculture sector. Land under cultivation and agricultural production were 38 percent lower in 2016 than before the crisis. Around 2 million people engaged in agriculture now lack access to critical agricultural inputs and are in urgent need of emergency agricultural support.

FAO’s Work in Yemen

Caught in Yemen’s two-year conflict are tens of thousands of families forced to migrate to other parts of the country only to be able to support themselves and their families until they can return home one day.

Displaced and uprooted from their livelihood and familiar surroundings, the internally displaced persons (IDPs), often face severe social and economic transformation under conditions worsened by unemployment, food insecurity, and malnutrition.

FAO in Yemen is engaged in a number of projects across conflict-lines that, directly or indirectly, benefit many thousands of IDPs through a wide variety of assistance, ranging from food assistance to distribution of live animals.

The theme of the 2017 World Food Day is “Changing the future of migration: Investing in food security and rural development”.

One such FAO program in Yemen is the three-year Emergency Livestock Restocking implemented in Taiz and Hajjah governorates, along the Red Sea in the south and the north of the country, respectively, benefitting many of the IDPs.

Beneficiaries receive two goats or sheep in the first round with the third to follow three months later, conditional on the successful upkeep of the two, along with relevant vaccinations. They also benefit from 32 training sessions to cover topics on improved breeding, feeding and disease prevention and treatment practices, to ensure that the sheep or goat herds are given the opportunity to express their maximum potential. 

Nabila Al-Hakim, 39, and Hamoud Ali, 45, are two IDPs whose stories are testimonial to FAO’s contributions in Yemen.

Al-Hakim fled with her four kids from Taiz city to Damna Khadeer village a year ago due to the conflict. Her husband, who used to work in car maintenance, passed away three years ago.

"The situation is unbearable. We have been displaced for a year due to the conflict and we have no source of income. We are depending on aids. The situation is getting worse day by day,” she said.

Al-Hakim has to pay 20,000 YER (55.5 USD) per month for the new house rent.  "My husband’s pension stopped almost a year ago. If I had enough money, I would buy wheat to feed my children," she added.

The two sheep she received from FAO in April might just be the immediate help she needs. Once her sheep give birth and grow for 4-5 months, she can sell the new sheep for 55 USD – the amount she needs to pay rent.

‘’We are waiting impatiently for the new sheep to be born. I will sell them, which might mitigate the situation of displacement. I hope my kids will lead a secure and easy life. I do not know how long I will live. I keep thinking about my four kids and do my best to be strong for their sake," she said.

Further north in the governorate of Hajjah, Ali, who lives with his wife and 10 kids in a two-room house, is equally eager to end life as an IDP.

"Nobody can feel what it means to be a displaced a person just those who have lived away and were forced to leave their houses searching for safety. I lost my job because my employer couldn't afford to pay salaries and, eventually, he shut down his store," he said.

Like Al-Hakim, FAO has provided Ali with live animals and the necessary training to equip him to rear them properly and benefit from them, leading to his improved livelihood.