OCHA allocates US$58 million to support 3 million people with life-saving assistance in Yemen

Sana’a, December 8, 2016 – The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has allocated a total of $58 million through the Humanitarian Pooled Fund for life-saving activities across Yemen.

With a staggering 18.8 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, including 10.3 million in acute need, the people of Yemen continue to suffer as a result of 19 months of conflict. More than three million people have been displaced and basic service provision is collapsing. Only 45 per cent of health facilities are currently functioning, and hunger is gripping over 14 million people, half of whom do not know where their next meal will come from. Malnutrition has soared by over 60 percent since late 2015, affecting over three million people, including 460,000 severely malnourished children under five.

The Humanitarian Pooled Fund will help address this devastating situation through the financing of 31 projects in the sectors of nutrition, food, water, sanitation, and health targeting a total of 3 million people. The projects target the most vulnerable people in need of assistance in 15 priority governorates across the country, including under-served governorates such as Shabwah, Dhamar,
Al-Jawf and Marib.

Nine national NGOs ($7 million), fifteen international NGOs ($28 million) and six UN agencies ($23 million) will implement the projects. In line with OCHA’s commitments to the outcomes of the World Humanitarian Summit, nine local responders are being supported through direct funding and a total of $3.8 million will be sub-granted to 28 national NGOs. Trainings and other capacity building are included in the support to national NGOs.

This substantial allocation was made possible by generous contributions from Canada, Ireland,
Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom to the Yemen Humanitarian Pooled Fund.

More resources are, however, urgently needed to respond to the huge scale of humanitarian need.
The 2016 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan is currently only 58 per cent funded.

For further information, please contact:
George Khoury, Head of OCHA Yemen, [email protected], Tel +967 712 222 207 Ahmed Ben Lassoued, Public Information Officer OCHA Yemen, [email protected], Tel. +967 2222 855 OCHA press releases are available at www.unocha.org or www.reliefweb.int.