Yemen continues to be a large scale humanitarian crisis, with more than half the population or 14.7 million people in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. The needs remain largely unchanged since 2013. They include 10.5 million food-insecure, of whom 4.5 million are severely food insecure. An estimated 1’080’000 children under five suffer from acute malnutrition, of whom 279’000 children who are severely acutely malnourished. In addition, about 13.1 million Yemenis, amounting to over half of the population, have no access to improved water sources or to adequate sanitation facilities.

Some 7.6 million people will be targeted for humanitarian assistance in 2014. Meeting their needs will cost US$ 592 million. 1’33 million people are displaced (307’000 IDPs, 247’000 refugees, 228’000 returnees and 544’000 migrants).

The overall goal of the ERF for Yemen is to enable the humanitarian community at the country level to deliver principled humanitarian assistance through the provision of timely and predictable funding thus reducing acute vulnerabilities in the aftermath of emergencies caused by conflicts in the north, the centre and the south of Yemen.

Internally Displaced People (IDP's), refugees and migrants as well as other highly vulnerable communities.

• Effective humanitarian assistance delivered by providing funding to respond to unforeseen needs including newly identified humanitarian needs, or critical gap-filling funding to life-saving activities in line with strategic response plans and cluster priorities. Operational and logistics activities necessary to deliver humanitarian assistance effectively supported.
• Humanitarian coordination strengthened by supporting clusters, humanitarian partners and in-country stakeholders to participate throughout ERF’s programme management cycle.
• Fostering strategic partnerships with national and international humanitarian community.

Expected results:  

1. Implementation of an effective and efficient rapid response mechanism to meet short term emergency needs of vulnerable communities.
2. Increased activities in areas where humanitarian actors face access and security challenges.

Results from previous phases:  

The ERF has been an efficient and coordinated mechanism for making early funding available to UN Agencies, NGOs and other actors to respond to emerging needs in a timely, prioritized and strategic manner.

Since 2010 the Yemen ERF has disbursed more than US$27 million to 93 projects across health, education, water and sanitation, protection, nutrition, early recovery, shelter/Non-Food Items, logistics and coordination and support services. More than 70% of the funds were disbursed to international (57%) and national NGOs (19%) ERF implementing partners (IPs).

In 2013, aid agencies submitted 54 project proposals to the ERF with a combined budget of $15.4 million. The ERF funded 38 of the projects. The approval rate (70%) increased compared to 2012, when 51 proposals were submitted and 31 approved (61%). This was due to an improved quality of submitted proposals.

About 1.5 million people benefited from ERF funded projects in 2013, including 765,000 men and boys, 735,000 women and girls.

The Humanitarian Coordinator has approved a total of 24 projects worth 7.3 million USD for ERF funding between January and July 2014.

The Yemeni Government (i.e. the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, Health, Education, Social Affairs, Labour and Agriculture).

There are synergies with the INGO Forum project, as well as with other NGO- and multilateral projects, which SDC is funding bilaterally in Yemen.

Phase 4 01.10.2014 - 30.06.2015   (Completed)