Yemen’s Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Waed Abdullah Badhib said Friday that the World Bank approved a $127 million grant to preserve food security and protect livelihoods in Yemen.
The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved a $100 million grant from the International Development Association (IDA) and $27 million grant from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) to improve food and nutrition security in the war-torn country.
In an interview with SABA news agency, Badhib said the new grant aims to provide nutritious food products to vulnerable the needy and to support restoration of agricultural production and value chain building activities, to increase the sales of nutritious crops, livestock, and fish products.
He said the World Bank’s grant comes in response to the efforts led by Yemeni ministers during their meetings with high-ranking WB directors at the Group’s Spring Meetings.
Badhib renewed the Yemeni government’s appreciation to the World Bank directors and WB’s office in Yemen, stressing that his country anticipates more strategic support from the group.
According to the World Bank, the newly approved funds bring total IDA grants in Yemen to $2.241 billion since 2016.
Tania Meyer, World Bank Country Manager for Yemen, said that “Yemen’s food security crisis is dramatic and multi-faceted, with compounded challenges which adversely impact food prices and households’ incomes.”
She said a comprehensive response will require even greater resource mobilization, strong partnerships across the humanitarian-development nexus, and addressing the root causes of food insecurity.
The project’s approval comes as WB revealed that in 2021, over 2.25 million children under the age of five are threatened with acute malnutrition in Yemen, including 395,000 of them expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition and could die without treatment.
