Drastic climate changes in Yemen have significantly affected the country’s agriculture, a vital sector that employs a large number of workers and serves as Yemen’s primary source of domestic food production, the United Nations Development Program said this week.
“Malnutrition rates among women and children in Yemen are among the highest in the world: some 1.3 million pregnant and nursing women and 2.2 million children under the age of five require treatment for acute malnutrition,” it said.
In response to Yemen’s food crisis, UNDP, with funding from the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA), is working with the Social Fund for Development (SFD) and Public Works Project (PWP) to implement the Food Security Response and Resilience Project (FSRRP) in Yemen.
In total, 47 agricultural districts – all ranked low on the Food Security Index – will benefit from interventions aimed at rehabilitating and protecting their agricultural infrastructure and promoting climate-resilient agricultural practices to help communities maintain the sustainability of food production into the future.
These interventions contribute directly and indirectly to improving households’ food security by restoring degrading lands, developing irrigation systems and improving farmers' access to markets through road rehabilitation.
The project also gives locals the chance to earn a wage as they work on these projects through cash-for-work schemes – all while building valuable assets for their own communities.
