![A Yemeni boy sells corn in a Sanaa street. The economic crisis resulting from the current conflict has forced many children to work. [Faisal Darem/Al-Mashareq]](/cnmi_am/images/2016/08/15/6010-Yemen-child-vendor-700_496.webp)
Yemen is calling on international donors to resume their support to help the country cope with the worsening economic and social crisis it faces as a result of the ongoing conflict.
"We call on our brothers and friends the donors to resume their support of our country," Minister of Planning and International Co-operation Mohamed al-Maitami said in a July report.
Donor funding is particularly needed to bolster the Social Welfare Fund, which provides cash assistance to the poor, he said, and for essential basic services.
Due to the prevailing political and security situation, donors have suspended most of their support, with the exception of humanitarian aid, the report said, adding that this support is too limited to cover the minimum requirements.
According to the report, donors pledged $10.9 billion to Yemen during the 2012-2014 period, of which $7.1 billion was disbursed.
"During those three years [2012, 2013 and 2014], Yemen withdrew an average of $2.37 billion per year, or the equivalent of 54.6% of the government's share of oil and gas exports during the same period," said Deputy Minister of Planning and International Co-operation Mutahar al-Abbasi.
This contributed significantly to stabilising macro-economic indicators, he told Al-Mashareq, "including containment of the budget deficit, stabilisation of the dollar exchange rate and shoring up foreign currency reserves".
"Resumption of these grants and loans is crucial to supporting the budget and [providing] humanitarian services to citizens, including health care and education, especially to the poor and internally displaced persons (IDPs)," he said.
Drop in donor support
The drop in donor support, which began in February 2015, has led to the suspension of investment programmes, a higher budget deficit and currency devaluation, as well as higher inflation and poverty rates, al-Abbasi said.
When the World Bank suspended its support, the ministry said, most other donors followed suit, with the exception of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Islamic Development Bank and a few aid organisations.
The World Bank's Emergency Social Safety Net Enhancement Project, which counts USAID among its donors, provided assistance to 1.5 million families every three months, project co-ordinator Nabil al-Qubati told Al-Mashareq.
In 2014, he said, the Yemeni government "requested that the World Bank help it pay the quarterly entitlement payments to Social Welfare Fund assistance recipients, because of the decline in the fund's income from oil and gas in 2014".
The World Bank approved the request on condition that the amount of the assistance be increased by 50% to be in line with international standards.
"The value of this support totaled $130 million, and the Bank paid the government $46 million, which was the amount due in the fourth quarter in 2014," al-Qubati said.
"In February 2015, the Bank was about to pay the rest of the amount to the government for disbursement to recipients in the first quarter of 2015," he said. "However, President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s move from Sanaa to Aden caused the Bank to suspend its assistance to Yemen, including special programmes that support the poor, because of the non-existence of a ruling authority."
Rise in the number of poor
Donor assistance needs to be increased multi-fold in order to meet Yemen's minimum humanitarian needs, economist Abeb al-Wajihi told Al-Mashareq.
According to a 2016 report from the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), he said, about 82% of Yemen's population -- 21.2 million people, including 9.9 million children -- are in need of humanitarian assistance.
Additionally, he said, the report states that the number of IDPs has grown to 2.3 million as a consequence of the conflict.
Al-Wajihi called for the international community to work together in order to raise the required funds to help the people in need.
As the conflict passed its 500th day this month, he said, "the number of poor, needy and displaced has increased, as have their humanitarian needs".
Donors have not responded adequately to address these needs "in terms of helping meet the funding requirements, as available resources as of June amounted to only 22.4% of the funding requirements for 2016", al-Wajihi said.
"Bridging the financing gap for humanitarian needs has become a necessity, whether in cash or in-kind, in order to ease the economic crisis and alleviate the suffering of millions of Yemenis," he added.
