Programmatic Areas of Focus:

Objective 1:  Improved Delivery and Access to Services (or Early Recovery)

Interventions under this objective will focus on access to improved essential services. These activities will provide coping strategies to local partners who share USAID’s development principles and who will need to work across conflict lines when the fighting stops to cooperate on a sub-national level to meet basic health, sanitation, and education needs of the population.

Objective 2:  Improved Economic Recovery and Resilience

Interventions under this objective will target both macro and micro levels. USAID will provide technical assistance to key stabilizing economic institutions to restore and strengthen key macroeconomic and fiscal functions that can help mitigate and reverse economic collapse; provide support and technical assistance to the trade and customs facilitation authorities to improve the flow of goods within, into, and out of Yemen; and strengthen the performance of targeted sectors and value chains to improve real income and the business enabling environment for enterprises and households.

Objective 3:  Improved Governance and Social Cohesion

Interventions under this objective will strengthen social cohesion and the ability to address grievances at the community level and strengthen the commitment to and implementation of transparency and accountability.

4. Cross-Cutting:  Humanitarian Assistance

Yemen is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, with more people in need of assistance than any other country. For 2019, donors provided nearly $2.7 billion in humanitarian aid. USAID’s contribution from Fiscal Year 2019 to date is over $1.2 billion. USAID will continue to strengthen programmatic coordination and coherence between humanitarian and development objectives and activities.

USAID/Yemen Guiding Principles:

1. Greater Collaboration, Coordination, and Learning

USAID will support interventions at individual, local, regional, and national levels, where appropriate, within each objective. The Mission will build understanding of USAID-funded activities across partners and with other donors, identifying organic, cross-sector linkages to achieve greater impact. Integrated cross-sectoral programming will be concentrated in specific geographic areas where the Mission concludes that synergies add value. Active learning for adaptive management will refine program interventions as well as increase collaboration and coordination.

2. Focus on support for individual citizens, local institutions, and targeted national institutions

Project interventions will target and work with individuals. USAID will work with and utilize the existing structures and capacities of national and local institutions that are unlikely to substantially change when controlling authorities change. USAID will look for targeted opportunities at the national level that will have greater systemic impact.

3. Geographic and security considerations will drive programming

USAID will respond to humanitarian and development assistance needs in all regions, as long as the operating environment is sufficiently permissive. The Mission will utilize diverse resources, including the local expertise of implementing partners, to deal with challenges posed by the controlling authorities.

4. Conflict sensitivity and do no harm approach

USAID/Yemen will design and implement programs to ensure adherence to do no harm standards.

5. Youth/Gender

Over 39 percent of Yemen’s population is under 15 years old and 69 percent is under age 30. Yemen also has one of the fastest population growth rates in the Middle East and North Africa. Yemen also has high rates of illiteracy (45.9 percent) and youth unemployment. USAID will integrate a Positive Youth Development approach and integrate youth, inclusion, and gender throughout the objectives. Programs will seek to increase youth opportunities to promote inclusion and stability.

6. Burden Sharing:

Coordination and support from other humanitarian and development program donors remains central to progress in Yemen. In 2019, donors pledged $2.6 billion in humanitarian aid to Yemen and provided $2.2 million to support the Mission’s development activities. USAID/Yemen will continue to establish and strengthen relationships with bilateral and multilateral donors, including Gulf donors to promote policy alignment, influence decision-making, enhance long-term partnerships and burden-sharing, and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of Agency programming.