Armies of Liberation

Some women in Yemen believe they are subordinate to men. Some don’t. One time one of the “hard Muslims” as he called himself, told me that women have only half a brain. So I asked him if he ever met a smart woman and a stupid man, was it possible a woman’s half brain could be larger than a small brained man? He didn’t have an answer for that or the question, why would God give women talents if not to use them? He just started ranting he loved Osama bin Laden and offered to send me a book

State report on women issued
SANA’A, June 11 (Saba)- Woman National Committee (WNC) issued its recent state report on challenges facing women, empowering her and future tendencies to promote her in different fields, political, economic, cultural and social.

Granting the two sexes equal opportunities to get work based on equity in all issues included in the report.

Women limited and weak political participation, women parliamentarian representation, enacting with quota demand, woman lower participation in the work, illiteracy spread, increasing mortality percentage among woman and false conceptions on woman’s issues are the main issues the report talked about.

(Read on …)

Drops 8 points in first quarter, News Yemen

Governor of Central Bank of Yemen Ahmed al-Samawi said on Tuesday that the rate of inflation was decreased to 2.1 percent last February compared to 10.2 percent at the end of last year.

In a meeting with the delegation of the International Monetary Fund, al-Samawi confirmed that the condition of the banking system in the country is safe and was not affected by the global financial crisis as there is not local stock market and measures adopted to avoid such crisis in the banks.

Yemen is unable to absorb donor aid in a constructive and transparent manner. A large percentage of aid, grants and loans- beyond the 5.5 bil- have also not been utilized or were diverted. Yemen Post

SANA’A // More than two years after a donors conference in London pledged US$5.5 billion (Dh20bn) to help Yemen, just over $375 million has been disbursed. The challenge now, according to a top World Bank official, is obviously translating those pledges into action.

“We made significant pledges of financial and other assistance in London, but the challenge is now one of implementation, of ensuring that these pledges translate into actual action on the ground, and that the activities we finance are true priorities for the country,” said Daniela Gressani, the World Bank’s regional vice president for Middle East and North Africa. Almost half of the pledges – $2.5bn – came from Gulf states.

Nabil Shaiban, Yemen’s general director of international co-operation at the ministry of planning and international co-operation, said the delay in using the funds was because of the time needed to meet donors’ requirements for allocating the money.

(Read on …)

The SNACC is going to bring it to the President’s attention. There is no information if there are irregularities in the forms submitted. Also Parliament is asking for prosecution of officials who stole YR72 billion in 2007 through corruption

Yemen Observer: The Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption (SNACC) is taking legal procedures to refer 3 ministers, 8 governors, and 40 ambassadors to the judiciary, pursuant to article 24 of the second chapter of Anti-Corruption Law, according to SNACC member Ahmed Qurhesh.

(Read on …)

Over a quarter of land is planted with Qat.

Yemen Post

A parliamentary report showed that the total agricultural land in Yemen increased to 490032 hectares in 2007, 13.8% more than in 2006. 141163 hectares of this land planted with khat, an increase of 3.9% compared to 2006.

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Saudi potatoes are causing a stir this year, and all agricultural enterprises in Yemen need support considering 90% of grains are imported. More on the dramatic decline in wheat imports below the fold.

Yemen Post

Farmers of Marib province confirmed that the citizens’ losses are estimated to be hundreds of millions that are going even higher if the ‘export mafia’, as they said, continues damaging the national economy of the country.

A number of farmers in Marib province threatened to stop the supply of gas to the capital Sanaa in response to ignoring their repeated demands by the competent authorities for stopping potatoes import from various countries.

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The corruption is predictable but the UN’s incompetence and complacency in the face of these disasters, from the refugees, to Sa’ada to Hadramout, is staggering.

IRIN

SEYOUN, 1 April 2009 (IRIN) - Delays in distributing food aid are generating anger and despair among people in the southern Yemeni governorate of Hadhramaut affected by the October 2008 floods, flood-displaced people and community leaders say.

“We only received food rations for one month after the disaster,” said Issa Awadh Sedan, a mason from Mashta, a severely affected part of Tarim District in Hardhamaut. Sedan lost his house in the floods which left 47 dead and displaced 25,000 others.

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Its not really news but goes to the point of elite capture of foreign aid and donations. The numbers are staggering and a good part of the responsibility lies with the donors themselves. One third ( update: 40%) of all Yemenis suffer malnutrition, kids are literally wasting. Development projects where they are carried out are carried out poorly with lack of oversight due to the patronage network. Funds are regularly diverted for cars and other perks for officials. Yemen is paying substantial interest on “unused” loans.
YT

Over 80 percent of the 75,000 tons of wheat were distributed to 1,037,000 people registered with the Social Insurance Fund across the country. The distribution process is being carried out by the Yemeni Economic Corporation (YEC).

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Part of the reason family planning rates are low is cultural, which leads back to the following article’s point about the importance of media campaigns, but clearly another contributing factor is the deep corruption in the Health Ministry which substantially and negatively impacts every citizen.

SABA

51% of Yemeni Women don’t use means of family planning in society of high fertility rate

Studies and Figures

Number of government and non-governmental organizations reveals an improvement in the demand for family planning methods among Yemen families who actually using family planning methods, whether traditional or modern ones. According to a multi-indicator cluster survey 2006, 7.27% of married women are using the family planning methods.

The survey showed that the number of women in cities is higher than rural rates by 42.3% and 21.1%, respectively, the age of play a great role in that as the group of 35-39 years were more popular by 35% to 10.4 % for the age group 15 - 19 years. The economic situation index showed that 43.7% of women belong to rich families compared to 17.7% of women from the poorest groups.

(Read on …)

HOOD

The tragic ordeal in al-Ja’ashin continues as villagers continue to face aggression from Sheik Mansour in the al-Ansieen province of Ibb. Sheik Mohammed Mansour is continuously demanding that villagers pay him taxes on a variety of pretexts. He has confiscated their possessions, and residents are again displaced outside the village.

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A very stark stat that is increasing

Yemen Times To help the over half a million poor Yemenis affected by high and volatile food prices, the United Nations’ (UN) World Food Programme (WFP) is to deliver USD 24 million worth of food aid to eight governorates in Yemen…One in three Yemenis now suffers from chronic hunger, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s 2008 State of Food Insecurity report…

The WPF office in Yemen conducted a survey in mid-2008 which showed that poor Yemeni families were forced to spend up to 65 percent of their income of food, at the cost of children’s health and education.

The WFP’s emergency relief program in Yemen will target two groups. First, the organization will provide nutritional supplements to under-fives as well as under-twos and nursing mothers in specific districts. Second, it will ensure targeted food distribution to the country’s poorest families as determined by previous surveys.

The hesitance to acknowledge there is prostitution trade in Yemen is part of the reason why more people are getting infected with this sexually transmitted disease. As the article notes, some young girls are driven by poverty to turn to the streets to make money to eat. AIDS is also transmitted by homosexual sex, another taboo topic. The use of condoms significantly reduces the odds of getting aids from an infected partner as well as being a reasonably effective method of birth control. But its such a conservative society that getting even these basic facts to the public become more difficult. It doesn’t make a country look bad when it deals with its problems, but often the tendency is to sweep these difficult issues under the rug.

IRIN

Yemen is ranked 153 out of 177 countries on the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP’s) 2007-08 Human Development Index. According to the Poverty Assessment Report 2007 prepared by the UNDP, the World Bank and the Yemeni government, the percentage of poor people among Yemen’s 21 million population stood at 34.8 percent. According to the UNDP office in Yemen, 15.7 percent of the population lives on less than US$1 a day and 45.2 percent live on less than US$2 a day.

Khaled Abdul-Majid, a programme officer at the UNDP office in Sanaa, said state institutions lacked the capacity to tackle HIV/AIDS, adding: “When there are not enough jobs, young people feel they have no future. Some resort to prostitution.” He also said internal and external migration had played a role in spreading the virus.

Commercial sex work on the rise

Some 16 percent of Yemen’s 21 million population lives on less than US$1 a day and 45 percent lives on less than US$2 a day, according to UNDP

Suad al-Qadasi, chair of the Women’s Forum for Research and Training (WFRT), a local NGO, said prostitution and commercial sex work had begun to increase rapidly over the past three years.

“But Yemen is a conservative community which does not acknowledge this phenomenon. This is a problem in itself,” she told IRIN.

The WFRT recently conducted a survey on commercial sex work but found that people were not willing to admit to its existence. “Denying it is a problem as awareness rests on acknowledging that the phenomenon exists,” Suad said, warning that if the situation continued, HIV/AIDS would be rife.

According to the US Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2006, Yemeni children were trafficked internally for sexual exploitation, and Yemen was also a destination country for trafficked Iraqi women.

Spending 28% of income in low income homes.
Some children start chewing as young as seven.

Yemen Times

Julie G. Viloria-Williams has over 25 years of experience with the World Bank in sustainable people-based development. She held positions in Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Eastern and Central Asian countries before becoming the Middle East and North Africa regional expert in September last year. She is the team leader in the Qat dialogue task in Yemen, which represents the World Bank’s assistance to Yemen in dealing with this issue. Her job involves research into the issues and development needs of countries within the MENA region, and identification of potential threats, especially on the issues that affect the livelihood of citizens.

“Because of the urgency of the Qat problem in Yemen, it has become the World Bank’s fourth pillar in the bank’s new country assistance strategy along with growth, governance and the Millenium Development Goals,” she said. Based on the December country assistance strategy consultation, the World Bank’s assistance to Yemen will take the form of grants, rather than loans, to be provided over the next three years.

During her recent visit to Yemen, Viloria-Williams met with the various stakeholders and discussed with them the issue of Qat. She also attended some focus groups, during which she realized just how deep the problem is.

“In many families children as young as seven start chewing because of parental influence, especially because mothers, who are usually uneducated, think of Qat as means to bind their children to the family,” she said.

As a part of its campaign against Qat, the WB will be producing a documentary on Qat in Yemen, in both Arabic and English, she anticipates that it will be broadcast on Yemeni TV among other media channels in a bid to spread awareness.

Size of the problem

According to a detailed survey carried out by the World Bank in mid 2006, 72 percent of men and 33 percent of women chew Qat for an average of 6 hours per day. Qat absorbs 10 percent of the average household income and over 28 percent for low income groups. Qat production, trade and consumption accounts for 10 percent of GDP, and is the cause of many health problems. The study sampled more than four thousand Yemenis from around the Republic.

(Read on …)

News Yemen

The General Inspector of the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees Naser Ishaq said donor countries have worked on raising donations given to refugee in Yemen from $ 4 million to 17 million, official Saba agency reported.

In a meeting with the Secretary General of Aden Local Council Abdul-Karim Shaef Wednesday, the UNHCR official said the UNHCR understands troubles refugees cause to Yemen, especially those fleeing from the camps, but UNHCR will help Yemen solve the problem.

Shaef affirmed necessity of setting up controlling measures to refugees’ camps for easing the process of counting them, knowing their needs and allocating food and assistances to them, indicating annoyance to the authority caused by refugees who leave their camps.

Yemeni official called on the UNHCR to build capacities of refugees to help them get work in order promoting their living standards.

ADEN, NewsYemen

The representative of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Sana’a Jian Carlo has announced the WFP will increase aid for the poor communities and African refugees in Yemen over the next two years to $ 50 million, said official Saba.

In a meeting with deputy governor of Aden Ahmed Salim Rabie, Carlo affirmed that his current visit to Aden comes to support and expand the WFP activities in the province.

The meeting brought up the burden the influx of African refugees lays on Yemen’s economy and the WFP efforts to provide assistance for the poor and African refugees in Yemen.

WFP also said it would contribute to distributing the food aid for the rain-affected people in Hadramout.

WFP said it had signed an agreement with the local authority in Hadramout on a mechanism to deliver foodstuff assistance to flooded people in every district of Hadramout.

Almost 3452 people were terribly affected of heavy rains that hit Hadramout and al-Mahra last October.

Ration cards for rain-affected families granted in Mukala

MUKALA, Dec. 06 (Saba) – Families affected by heavy rains that afflicted the eastern provinces late October are about to start receiving ration cards in the town of Mukala to be able to obtain aid materials.

The move comes according to measures approved by the Relief and Shelter Committee set up in the wake of the catastrophe to organize the process of distribution aid materials for beneficiaries.

The committee has earlier finished the counting process to ensure all affected families get aid for long time.

Director General of the town Salim Saleh Abdul Haq has urged the affected families to go to receive their ration cards so that they head to the aid distribution centers to receive their monthly food allowances.

Earlier the committee distributed cooking tools for registered families of those whose homes were destroyed either partly or completely.

Almost a month ago, Heavy rains lashed several parts of the republic killing people and destroying homes and lands.

Yemen did its utmost to deal with the catastrophe with assistance from regional and world states and is currently preparing rebuilding schemes.

Relief Web: Humanitarian agencies appeal for $11.5 million to help flood survivors in Yemen

(New York, 10 November 2008): United Nations agencies in partnership with nongovernmental organizations today appealed for $11.5 million to enable them provide humanitarian aid to an estimated 650,000 people affected by the recent severe floods in Yemen.

Torrential rainfall lashed eastern Yemen on 24-25 October causing floods that inundated villages, killing at least 73 people, and destroying homes, crops and other property. The Wadi Hadramout valley and coastal areas were particularly hard hit. At least 3,264 houses, made mainly of mud bricks, were totally destroyed or damaged beyond repair, leaving between 20,000 and 25,000 people without shelter. Hundreds of other homes have been rendered unfit for human habitation.

The funding sought under the Yemen Floods Response Plan will be used to assist those affected with food, water and sanitation, health and nutrition services, shelter, protection and education. The plan comprises projects proposed by seven United Nations agencies, the International Organization for Migration, and two non-governmental organizations in coordination with the Government of Yemen.

Survivors also need help to restore their means of livelihood quickly. Funding needs for early recovery efforts will be identified in the coming weeks in consultation with the Government of Yemen. Several health facilities and an estimated 166 schools and educational facilities were damaged or destroyed. Flood water caused extensive damage to local agriculture and honey production.

The timeline for the humanitarian assistance will range from two to six months, with the food assistance expected to extend until the next harvest in April 2009. Assistance provided by the UN and NGOs will focus primarily on short-term humanitarian assistance, while addressing the outstanding gaps in immediate assistance and initiating the first activities related to post-floods early recovery.

US Flood Aid: USD 350,000

SANA’A, NewsYemen

The United States of America, through the Office of Foreign Disaster Relief, has disbursed $299,000 to the United Nations to support their disaster relief efforts for victims of the flooding in Hadramout and Mahra governorates, a press release sent by the U.S Embassy in Sana’a on Sunday said.

In addition, the United States Agency for International Development has re-deployed five of its Mobile Health Teams to the affected areas. Three have been sent to Sah, and the remaining two have been sent to Tarim. Each Mobile Health Team can care for 50 to 70 patients a day, it said.

The press release said these funds and services add to the $50,000 in emergency funding provided by the United States in late October to the World Food Program for the delivery of emergency food and supplies to the region.

The Embassy of the United States in Sana’a continues to coordinate with the Government of Yemen, the United Nations, and the international non-governmental organization community to determine how best to provide emergency relief to the victims of this disaster, said the Embassy.

7th space:

TAHA AL-AWADHI ( Yemen) said that, like other developing countries, his own was grappling with the current global financial and food crises. Yemen was suffering from a real crisis in which 5 million people were affected by hunger, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). Families could not send their children to school because they could not afford school fees. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), increases in wheat price in 2008 had threatened the country’s ability to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Yemen had a medium-term plan for food security.

Stressing the importance of international cooperation in addressing food security concerns, and appealing for increased assistance, including seeds, for developing countries, he said developed countries should also help in other aspects of agriculture. Yemen had adopted a 2006-2011 national plan to reduce poverty, guarantee social services and strengthen governance. However, the country would not be able to achieve the Millennium Goals by 2015 due to the challenges it faced, particularly the food and climate change crises. Reduced official development assistance, debt and the lack of technology transfer had compounded those problems.

He appealed for the fulfilment of commitments by developed countries to allocate 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product to official development assistance and 0.2 per cent specifically to least developed countries. Yemen, having held an initiative to alleviate external debt, invited development partners to cancel the debt owed by developing countries. As for climate change, the country had been exposed two weeks ago to flooding that had caused the deaths of thousands in addition to the mass destruction of homes, roads and water networks.

Military violating truce agreements still. Yemen Times

SA’ADA, Oct.25 — Tribal sources from the Sa’ada governorate have said that the state of people, particularly those who are loyal to Houthis, is worsening due to the advent of winter and the continuous siege imposed by security authorities and tribes supporting the government in the area.

“A military checkpoint in Sa’ada governorate’s Al-Malahidh area prevented a medical unit belonging to medical humanitarian aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) from entering to Marran, Haidan and Saqain areas to offer medical aid to the affected citizens,” according to a statement issued by Houthis media center last Tuesday.

The statement said, “The Al-Malahidh checkpoints, in addition to the Al-Majram military site in the mountainous area of Marran, have recently witnessed military reinforcements”. It accused security apparatuses of practicing violations since the agreement to end the fifth war in Sa’ada.

According to the statement, new military sites have been set up in the areas bordering Marran from the Al-Malahidh area and confirmed that arrests had taken place in Sana’a and Mareb during the last two days.

(Read on …)

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Aug. 27 — An official from the General Union of Yemeni Students at Sana’a and Amran Universities has announced that following a five-day sit-in, Sana’a University’s rector has heeded the demands of protesting students.

The demands included raising the enrollment capacity, decreasing the required high school grade point average (GPA) and adding 125 seats to the public system of the Faculty of Science, all with the goal of increasing student enrollment. Sana’a University administration also has accepted registering 200 more students in the public system at its Faculty of Commerce and Economy and 300 in the parallel system. According to a statement by the General Union of Yemeni Students, university administration canceled 1,865 seats in the public system and 104 in the parallel system, thereby decreasing the university’s capacity and causing the students to protest between Aug. 19 and 25. Ridwan Masoud, head of the General Union of Yemeni Students, claims that the university is restricting access to education for less privileged students by decreasing acceptance rates in the parallel system and raising those for the public system.

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Government study shows 30000 children working in 8 Yemeni provinces

SANA’A, Aug. 15 (Saba) - A recent study has shown that 30000 children working in the streets of eight Yemeni provinces.

According to the study, prepared by the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood in cooperation with the Arab Council for Childhood and Development, the majority of street children are aged between 6 -14 years and the rate of male children reached 70 per cent.

The official study said that the causes of the emergence of street children in the capital Sana’a, Aden, Taiz, Hajjah, Hodeida, Saada, Dhamar and Hadhramout were poverty, unemployment, family disintegration and parental absence due to divorce or death.

The study also pointed out that family disputes, violence against women, mistreatment of children, domestic migration and lack of social services were other causes of the phenomenon.

The study mentioned that the street children work as street vendors, cars washers, cleaners and beggars in addition to working in markets, restaurants, laundries and furnaces.

According to the study, diseases affecting the street children included malaria, diarrhea, various infections, diabetes, anemia, pains of spinal and back, liver and skin diseases and headaches and stomach pains.

Of all the marginalized groups in Yemen, none is more so then black Yemenis who are called akhdam, which means servants, seriously. The Akdam are thought to be of Ethiopian descent and have been in Yemen for centuries, yet to achieve integration or equality. The racial discrimination is so dramatic and engrained its hardly noticed. The reason they work as street sweepers is no one will hire them for anything else. Children are excluded from public schools. They are a sub-caste of society.

IRIN: SANAA, 21 July 2008 (IRIN) - Police moved into a slum area of Sanaa city on 20 July to try to evict several hundred impoverished people who had moved into the area saying they could not longer afford to pay rent.

Police used a tractor to demolish about 10 tin shacks, according to Saad Ahmed Salem, a slum leader, but did not succeed in evicting any of the roughly 200 families in the slum.

(Read on …)

Yemen Post

Official statistics reveal that Yemen imports of cereals reached 3,388,326 tons over the last year at a total value of YR 194 billion, about $975 million.

According to Ministry of Trade and Industry’s report, the Yemen Company for Flour Mills & Silos is the chief importer, followed by the Yemen Economic Corporation.

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26 Sept

Yemen said on Friday it faces difficulties in achieving the goals “Millennium Development” in 2015 despite poverty rate had declined from 40.1 percent to 34.8 percent of the 22 million population.

In its annual report, Social Affairs and Labour Ministry pointed out the high rate of population growth had kept the number of poor people at approximately seven million people, noting the decreased of poverty level is still simple comparing with the objectives of Millennium Development. Its first goal requires reducing the number
of poor people to half.

The report confirmed that Yemen needs $49.5 billion to be able to meet the objectives of Millennium Development. According to the report, the Yemeni government is currently working to find the base funds for many development programs and projects.

The deal is falling apart. Neither the rebels or the government is withdrawing.

Yemen Observer

The British government donated US $ 1.4 million to help people displaced by the conflict of Sa’ada, said the World Food program WFP last Thursday.

WFP welcomed a donation from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) of US$1.45 million (£730,000), to help feed thousands of people displaced by the conflict in Sa’ada Governorate in northwestern Yemen. “We are deeply grateful for such a generous contribution, which will allow us to continue our work in support of the displaced people,” said Mohamed El-Kouhene, WFP Representative in Yemen.

The operation which started in September 2007, provides assistance to 77,000 people displaced by conflict in the region. Displaced families left their homes with few resources and many have little or no income to meet their food and other household needs. Many of them live with host families in Sa’ada city or in camps near the city.

The donation is extremely timely as WFP is facing shortfalls in the operation. It comes as a response to an urgent appeal for funds that WFP made last December. “The UK is pleased to be able to help Yemenis in need and support the vital work of WFP, providing food assistance to the people displaced in Sa’ada. We urge all involved to help bring about a rapid resolution to the situation so that those affected can return home and resume their everyday lives,” said Shahid Malik, UK Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development.

(Read on …)

YT

The skyrocketing prices of wheat, cereals, and other grains have had a tremendous impact on populations reliant on the international markets to supply the needed grains, and Yemen has been affected significantly where the price of a 50-kg sack of wheat has increased from 3300 in the end of 2007 to over 7200 today. This increase affects primarily families which spend most of their income on basic foods and necessities, and now having to stretch their budgets more in order to be able to continue to afford buying the same quantities of food.

In explaining the bigger picture, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) indicated that the growth in global demand for grains is increasing by 3 %, while production is at lower rates, and have increased to 2.6% this year as grain producing countries slightly increase their grain plantations. This indicates that the gap in supply will continue to push the prices of grain higher, forcing grain importing countries like Yemen to rather pay a bigger bill or start searching for other sources of grain, including reliance on domestic production.

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Not counting agricultural work

Mareb

A governmental study reveals that about 700 thousands Yemeni children between 4-14 years old are working in streets of main cities because the poverty.

The Central System for Counting in Yemen, International Labour Organization, Social Fund for Development, and UNICEF are preparing to launch a wide field survey for child labour.

The survey aims to create a database clarifying the size of this phenomenon in Yemen which reports say it is increasing during the last years because of the deterioration of living status and the spread of the poverty.

The recent study issued by Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour said that the rate of child labor in Yemen last year increased from 400 thousand working children in 2000 to 700 thousand children working in jobs that do not fit with ages.

The study reveals that about 2 million children drop out of schools.

YT

SANA’A, April 20 — More than six percent of Yemenis have dropped below the poverty line due to rising staple food prices, joining the 40 percent of Yemenis already living on less than $2 per day, Yemen’s country director for the World Food Program, or WFP, said at a press conference Saturday.

Additionally, there are few viable methods available to the average Yemeni family to help cope with the recent increased risk of starvation.

“Coping mechanisms are limited to skipping essential needs, so it either affects the food basket or health and education,” said Mohamed El-Kouhene, Yemen’s WFP country director, adding, “If we don’t do something now, Millennium Development Goals will be set back 70 years.”

In order to feed their families, those Yemenis living below the poverty line will have to either skip meals, decrease their intake of fruits, vegetables and meat, or discontinue medical visits and schooling for their children, he noted.

The state of the nation’s food instability, which has increased due to price hikes, has become more precarious as the $28 million gap between the WFP’s budget and Yemen’s need continues to grow.

Although the Yemeni government has been attempting reforms in water management and increasing agricultural output, these efforts aren’t enough to stave off hunger for the majority of the population, as both rural and urban residents are affected.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick urged developed nations to contribute the promised $500 million in emergency donations to the WFP in a press statement made on April 9. “This isn’t just a question of short-term needs, as important as they are,” Zoellick stated to the Associated Press. “This is about ensuring that future generations don’t pay a price too.”

Between June 2007 and March 2008, the price of basic cereals has increased 55 percent worldwide, according to El-Kouhene.

A major factor contributing to the global rise in grain prices are energy and oil prices, which affect everything from food production to processing to transportation.

With oil prices reaching new heights, El-Kouhene expects food prices to increase as well, climbing for several months before stabilizing.

While there have been reports of field workers bribing beneficiaries or stealing food, El-Kouhene says the WFP has a strong monitoring system, noting that when commodities disappeared from one WFP warehouse last year, they were restituted quickly.

Other problems, such as water shortage and using arable land for qat production, are under government review, but the 46 percent of Yemenis living in dire poverty don’t have the luxury of waiting for solutions.

Three million kids working

Al-Sahwa

Alsahwa.net

March 31, 2008 – A recent statistic prepared by Child Labor Office in 6 Yemeni governorates estimated child labor about 189000 children.

The study made clear that most children work in farming;38,000 in Ibb, 29,000 in Sana’a, 27,000 in Dhamar, 28,000 in Amran, 20,000 in Hodaida.

An official report issued recently by the Shoura Council pointed out that the child labor growth in Yemen is 3 percent.

,indicating that child labor extensively centers in the field of agriculture by 92%, while 4.8% work in services , 2.5% of them are non-professional employment.

The report also explained that children work for over 17 hours a day and receive low wages.

According to a statistics prepared in 2003, the number of child labor reached 3,2 million children. Law prohibits child labor in some occupations.

According to Yemen’s law, the established minimum age for employment is 15 years in contrary to the international law which identifies that with 18 years.

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor estimated in 2000 that 400,000 children work in occupations which do not fit their ages and about 2,000,000

Yemen Observer

Yemeni children under one year of age are especially prone to malnutrition, according to a Sana’a University study conducted by a group of researchers at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Science.

The study was conducted on child patients younger than ten years of age from a number of governmental hospitals in Sana’a. “This research was aimed to assess and quantify the magnitude of inequalities in under-ten child malnutrition, particularly those ascribable to socio-economic status and gastroenteritis, to consider the policy implications of these findings,” said Dr. Ubada Jum’a, one of the researchers involved in the study.

About 53 percent of Yemen’s population,with more than 24,000 Yemeni children under the age of five, are estimated to suffer from malnutrition, according to officials of the Country Program, run by the United Nations World Food Programme in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Health and Population and the Ministry of Education. The Country Program is expected to be implemented in Yemen during the next five years.

The World Health Organization defines malnutrition as the cellular imbalance between supply of nutrients and energy and the body’s demand for them to ensure proper growth, maintenance and specific bodily functions.

A child becomes malnourished because of illness in combination with inadequate food intake. Insufficient access to food, poor health services, the lack of safe water and sanitation and inadequate child and maternal care are underlying causes.

More than 1.1 billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water and some 2.9 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation. This results in the spread of infectious diseases, including childhood diarrhea, which in turn are major causes of malnutrition.

Malnutrition contributes to over 6 million deaths of children each year of the nearly 12 million deaths among children under five in developing countries. Half of all children under five years of age in South Asia and one third of those in sub-Saharan Africa are malnourished.

Poor eating habits or lack of available food may lead to malnutrition. Malnutrition occurs in children who are either undernourished or overnourished. Children who are overnourished may become overweight or obese, which may lead to long-term health problems and social stress. Malnutrition can occur because of the lack of a single vitamin in the diet, or it can be because a person isn’t getting enough food.

Malnutrition also occurs when adequate nutrients are consumed in the diet, but one or more nutrients are not digested or absorbed properly.

The Yemeni study found that most cases of malnourishment, 44 percent are found in children less than six months of age with about 33 percent of children between 7 months and one year old are suffering from malnutrition. Children between one to five years of age suffer less from malnutrition than other age groups, with a rate of 22 percent, the study found.

According to the study, most of the malnourished children, 76 percent, come from various rural areas, while just 25 percent are found to be living in cities. Since the highest rate of malnourished children is found in rural areas, this can be interpreted and being caused by the parents’ lack of education. It was found that 89 percent of the mothers were not educated, while just 3 percent of the fathers were highly educated.

The family’ socioeconomic condition plays an important role in affecting children’s nutrition, as about 33 percent of affected children were living in a low socioeconomic state.

The study noted that about 23 percent of malnourished children suffered from respiratory problems after delivery and 29 percent of them had gastrointestinal tract (GIT) troubles. Moreover, it is important to note that just 45 percent of the children were breast feeding, while 33 percent were fed with artificial milk and 22 percent were fed with both, the study said.

“It’s also interesting to know that more than 40 percent of malnourished children had stopped breast feeding before reaching one year of age. This may be the main cause of malnutrition and inadequate nutrient intake,” said Dr. Jum’a.

Vaccination is very important for protecting children from many diseases. The study also found that 50 percent of the children did not receive regular vaccinations.

Gastroenteritis was found to be the most prevalent cause of malnutrition in Yemen as about 64 percent of cases were found to be due to gastroenteritis and 22 percent were due to abnormal dietary intake. These causes have a correlation with breast feeding and the family’s low education and poor socioeconomic conditions.

Yemen is one of the least developed countries in the world. Its widespread nutritional deficit is likely the result of Yemen’s extremely low national income, as well as the poor state of education in the country. The fact that roughly 50 percent of families’ income goes towards qat is also a factor. In 2005 the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ranked Yemen 151st out of 177 in the list of countries on the Human Development Index.

According to the UN World Food Programme, almost half the people in Yemen do not have enough to eat. About 40 percent of Yemen’s population of 22 million lives below the poverty line on less than $2 per day. Moreover, opportunities to receive education and health care are limited, especially in rural areas, where 88 percent of women and 36 percent of men are illiterate, the report shows.

The World Bank has noted that the average annual income was only $450 in 2003, and Yemen’s unemployment rate was close to 40 percent in that same year. “Malnutrition is one of the main challenges in Yemen, where 46 percent - almost half - of the children are underweight,” said Naseem Ur-Rehman, communications coordinator at UNICEF’s Sana’a office. “The magnitude of the problem is huge, as underweight children are particularly vulnerable to diseases, compounding the issue.”

Health indicators also reveal other serious problems. The number of mothers who die during childbirth is increasing faster than in the world’s most underdeveloped countries. In 2005, the infant mortality rate (for babies under 1 year of age) was 76 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to UNICEF. The rate for children under five was 102.

The study’s researchers think that prevention of malnutrition in children starts with an emphasis on prenatal nutrition and good prenatal care. Health care providers should emphasize the importance of breastfeeding in the first year of life.

In addition to the promotion of breastfeeding, health care providers should counsel parents on the appropriate introduction of nutritious supplemental foods, the researchers said.

The study, supervised by Dr. Mohammed al-Naeb who is an assistant professor in the Community Medicine Department, recommended paying more attention to those children who are at risk of nutritional deficiency. According to the study, they should be referred to a registered dietitian or other nutritional professional for a complete nutritional assessment and dietary counseling.

The study was conducted by Ubada Jum’a, Qutaiba Lutfi, and Amer Attia.

What is the Common Forum? Is that the new name for the JMP or is that the stooge opposition coalition?

Thousands of Yemenis protest soaring prices, corruption

AFP
SANAA (AFP) — Thousands of Yemenis gathered on Thursday to protest at rising prices, accusing the government of failing to curb the increasing cost of living and corruption, an AFP correspondent reported.

Answering a call by the Common Forum, which includes five main opposition parties, over 10,000 protestors took to the streets of Sanaa chanting slogans denouncing the government.

“Oh, corrupt government, high prices have overwhelmed the country,” protestors yelled, calling upon President Ali Abdullah Saleh to honour earlier electoral promises of fighting poverty in one of the world’s poorest countries.

The Common Forum issued a statement during the protest saying that the gathering was a “cry by the people to reflect their suffering of the horrific deterioration of their standard of living in light of soaring prices, unemployment, and organised corruption.”

The gathering was not the first protest against the rising cost of living.

In August, thousands of Yemenis waved bread loaves as they staged a sit-in organised by opposition parties in the southern town of Taiz to protest at rocketing prices and to demand better services.

Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Majur had vowed that he will no longer tolerate corruption as he was sworn into office last April.

SANA’A, March 22 (Saba) - UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Sigrid Kaag confirmed on Saturday the UNICEF’s interest to support plans and programs of Yemeni government to improve children and women’s status in Yemen.

Upon her arrival to Sana’a on Friday in an official visit, Kaag said that she would discuss with Yemeni officials assistance the UNICEF may provide for Yemen to improve children conditions and their health and education future.

The UNICEF really care for Yemeni children, she said, adding that we seek to reduce children labor in Yemen, which reached 60 percent among children under age 18.

Hungry working and sick

Ramzeah al-Aryani, Head of the Federation of Yemeni Women, said that around 84,000 children under the age of five die annually in Yemen due to malnutrition or lack of adequate health care. This figure means that about 250 children die every day. Forty percent of children in Yemen are suffering from anemia, weight loss and nutritional deficiencies. These problems exist as a consequence of global price increases which causes untold suffering for children and mothers.

Yemen Observer

Around seventy five percent of Yemenis suffer from food deprivation due to price increases which have risen by 400 percent, said Fadhel Mansour, Vice-President of the NGO Yemen Society for Consumer Protection.

Mansour delivered a speech on the occasion of World Day of the Consumer, which is observed on the fifteenth of March of each year, at an event organized by the Yemen Society for Consumer Protection last Saturday.

Yemen Times:

SANA’A, March 3 — Bread prices have jumped to YR 20 per loaf instead of YR 10, thereby constituting a 100-percent increase. As a result, Yemenis have strongly denounced the sudden and unexpected increase in bread prices, particularly as bread is one of the basic commodities in their everyday life.

“We’re shocked at the sudden rise in bread prices, but we’re obliged to buy it at such a high price because no one can dispense with bread, a necessity at every meal,” citizen Abdullah Qutaina observed, “Bread prices have doubled while loaf weight varies from one bakery to another.

“Unfortunately, bakeries don’t produce bread according to a standard weight,” he added, urging concerned government authorities to put a stop to the skyrocketing prices of basic foodstuffs, particularly, wheat, flour, cooking oil, milk, rice and sugar.

“From today onward, we must fast every day or reduce our three meals a day to one. Instead of buying 30 pieces of French bread for breakfast at YR 300, we now pay YR 600 for the same quantity and it’s the same for each meal, lamented widow Mariam Al-Tawili. “Because my late husband’s pension is only YR 30,000, I don’t know how it can cover our daily expenses throughout the month.” She went on to say that, “For us, daily expenses have become unaffordable. We don’t know if there are possible solutions to this situation, but we hope the bread prices stop here.”

SANA’A.(26SeptemberNet) - Labor Ministers in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) endorsed today in coordinated meeting on the sidelines of the 35 session of the Arab Labour Conference in Sharm El Sheikh to give priority to Yemeni employment in the labour in the Gulf market. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) agreed at their coordinating earlier opening of the conference that priority will be given to Yemeni employment according to the needs of Gulf labour market of qualified cadres and competencies and expertise in various specialties.

The agenda of the conference includes 12 items to be discussed in the report of the Director-General of the Arab Labor Organization about the operation and unemployment in the Arab countries and a report on the activities and achievements during the Arab Labor Organization in 2007.

During the sessions of the conference, which extend a week research in the small and medium projects as an option to reduce unemployment, and discuss the plan of the Arab Labor Organization for the years 2009 / 2010, which includes 164 projects along with three strategic projects which are: the rural woman operation fund, the promotion of social dialogue, the development of labour statistics in the Arab world.

90% of the Yemeni diet is wheat.

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Feb.- 11 — The General Authority for Research and Agricultural Guidance (GARAG) at the Ministry of Agriculture is working on a study to replace wheat flour with other cereal flour like corn, legumes or potatoes for producing bread in Yemen. This kind of technique is called the composite flour technique.

‘’Applying this technique in Yemen, even with 10% of flour resources, will save tens of million of dollars consumed by the country in importing the wheat flour,’’ said Dr. Ismail Muharram, chief of the GARAG in a workshop conducted in Sana’a on Sunday, in which 25 participants attended from the ministries of Irrigation and Agriculture, Industry, Planning and International Cooperation, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Economic Institution, as well as a number of agriculture researchers.

In Yemen, annual wheat flour imports comprise 90-95% of people’s dietary needs. Bread is considered the main staple for Yemeni people. The daily individual bread consumption is 63 grams, a low amount when compared with quantities consumed by people in ten high bread-consuming countries where quantities range from 277 grams in Belgium to 489 grams in Turkey, except that those countries are self-sufficient in wheat production. The statistics, issued in a report written by the Agriculture Research Authority, indicated a food gap in Yemen and an apparent imbalance between food production and consumption, and a resulting imbalance in food supply and demand. This caused the government to close the gap by importing wheat flour, costing the country millions of dollars annually.

According to the report, the main reasons behind the food gap are the following:

- Increase in annual population growth rate (3.1%).

- Limitation in agricultural lands (1-1.6 million hectares).

- Decrease in cereal agriculture areas and increase in farmers’ tendency to plant a higher income-generating yields directed to the market (internally and externally).

- The country’s trend toward economic reform that guarantees free market enterprise and prevents government support of farmers and agriculture.

- Expansion of construction projects into farms across the country.

- Occurrence of important changes in consumption patterns that led to increasing the demand on certain yields most importantly wheat products.

The report also stated that ‘’ implementing the composite flour technique in Yemen according to the scientific studies obtained by the center in the last years can be done by replacing 10% - 30% of wheat flour with different types of corn and millet flour, considering the type of the wheat flour (quantitative and qualitative protein percentage) as well as the required bread to be produced. It is also possible to replace 20 % - 30% of wheat flour with thin corn flour and other cereals for baking cakes and biscuits.’’

Based on expected quantities to be imported in 2008, which might reach 1,666,500 tons at an average of $385 per ton. Replacing 10% of wheat flour imports with locally produced thin maize flour will save an estimated $64 million.

The price of wheat flour has risen to its highest level since 1996. This is because of a huge increase in demand and fears of a decline in international productivity, which could cause wheat- importing countries like Yemen to suffer.

Yemen Times

- Al-Jawf governorate organizes peaceful uprising against wealth robbery and exploitation of government jobs

Thousands of citizens staged a huge rally Tuesday in the Yemeni eastern province of Al-Jawf over what they called ‘exploitation of government jobs and wealth robbery by influential officials’ the weekly reported, adding that the event, believed to be the first of its kind in the governorate, took place at the Government Complex’s yard in Hazm city. The Islah Party’s Shoura Council Chairman and Festival’s preparatory committee head Al-Hasan Ali Abu Bakr said addressing the rally participants that “You are more able to make change and by your sincere efforts, we can make unprecedented victory over injustice and oppression.”

“We have trusted our political leadership and helped it take the highest job once again, but regretfully, it reversed our expectations and looted our national wealth and natural resources,” the weekly quoted Abu Bakr as saying. The man stressed the necessity of continuing the peaceful struggle irrespective of the challenges and obstacles expected to be standing in our way. “The false promises are impossible to gratify starving and thirsty people,” he commented in an implication to promises made by the General People Congress’s candidate ahead of 2006 presidential elections.

According to the weekly, Head of Islah Party’s Executive Office in Al-Jawf Abdulhamid Amer noted the nation is experiencing ‘a revolution of awareness about implications of the peaceful struggle and awakening of the Yemeni conscience’. He said that Yemeni people see that it is time to exterminate rampant corruption and property theft, as well as stop the irresponsible exploitation of military and security posts.

Well thats good, very good, but what about the Yemeni kids also starving?

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Feb. 6 — The UN World Food Program (WFP) announced on Wednesday that it was expanding its operation in Yemen to feed thousands more Somali refugees fleeing the conflict in their country.

“More and more people are arriving on Yemen’s shores after barely surviving the dangerous journey by boat. It is up to us to help them as Yemen’s economy is already overstretched,” said WFP Yemen Country Director Mohammed El-Kouhene.

Since 1992, African refugees, mostly Somalis, have been streaming into Yemen, crossing the Red Sea from the Horn of Africa. Many of them hope to make their way to the oil-rich Gulf states. Now, the Yemeni government says that with its limited resources, it is no longer able to cope with new arrivals and has urged the international community for more assistance.

The agency appealed for $4.4 million in funds for an operation running from February 2008 to January 2010 to provide a total of 5,000 metric tons of food to 43,500 of the most vulnerable refugees. This is up from the 33,000 it was previously helping.

In the past year alone, nearly 30,000 people landed in Yemen after crossing the Gulf of Aden, while more than 1,400 died or are missing and presumed dead. Most of the arrivals were Somalis, of whom many said conditions in Somalia were so bad that they felt they had to risk the sea crossing.

More than 670,000 people fled fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu in 2007. The WFP expects to feed 1.8 million people in Somalia in 2008, up from 1.53 million in 2007.

Upon their arrival in Yemen, the refugees receive food from the WFP for the first few days until they are moved to the refugee camp of Kharaz where they receive a monthly ration. In addition, the WFP provides supplementary food to malnourished children and pregnant and lactating mothers, as well as providing a midday meal to children in school.

“We are grateful that WFP is responding to the needs of an increasing number of refugees.

Now is the time when we most need international support,” said Yemen’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Abdulkarim Al-Ar’habi.

El-Kouhene said the recent increase in beneficiaries was based on the anticipated arrival of new refugees at transit centers in Yemen, as well as refugee population growth at the isolated Kharaz camp in Lahj Governorate, where job opportunities are scarce. To that end, the operation will also include food assistance in return for work and/or training to help refugees become more self-sufficient.

The operation will be implemented in cooperation with the government of Yemen and in partnership with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and various NGOs.

The WFP has provided around $400 million of food assistance to Yemen since 1967, when the country was split into North and South Yemen.