For some time Yemen has been contending with political, social, security, and economic crises in an uncertain regional environment, leading to destabilization, and extreme hardship and displacement for many of its citizens. As at 2011, Yemen was the poorest country in MENA with 42% of its population living in poverty, mostly in rural areas.
Facing a massive youth demographic wave with limited access to domestic or regional labour and product markets over the past year Yemen has endured multiple escalating political crises and violence culminating recently with challenges to the overall structure and governance of the state.
Continuing unrest reflects long standing fragility fuelled by tribal and regional divisions exacerbated over the past few decades by declining petroleum and water resources, poor governance, and the impact of the global food crisis.
This assignment is the livelihoods component of the EU-lead Joint Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (JSEA) in Yemen and is its main technical input. JSEA partners are the World Bank and United Nations. The global objective the assignment is to perform an impact assessment of the incurred challenges to livelihoods in Yemen. It will place particular emphasis on vulnerable groups in Yemen such as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Women, Children and unemployed Youth. The assessment will also consider the effects of past and ongoing challenges on the livelihoods of the Yemeni refugee population.
The main objectives of the assignment are to 1) perform a quick assessment of the impacts the political and security crisis in 2011 had on livelihoods in Yemen 2) look into the structural deficiencies of the livelihoods support systems that might have been aggravated by the crisis, in order to identify the main challenges to post-crisis recovery and development.
The assessment will consider how the conflict in Yemen has impacted on:
a) Livelihood assets. Gather data and conduct analysis on the impact on social, financial, human, political and physical capital available to the Yemeni population to make a living.
b) Livelihood context. Livelihoods are a function of available assets and the social, economic and political context they are used in. Thus, the assessment should look at the basic market structures underpinning livelihoods and how they have been modified through the last year. Thematic areas of the livelihoods assessment: Social welfare, employment and labour, Food Security, Food Markets and Nutrition, Water, Transport, and Energy Supplies.
Each of the thematic areas will be implemented through a three-phase process:
Desk review of existing primary and secondary source information and organisation of consultations with key stakeholders; Organisation of rapid impact assessments at local level to address critical information gaps; Analysis and drafting of thematic reports.