J807NY WFP Yemen Emergency Relief

[Photo Credit: WFP/Annabel Symington]

In co-operation with our long term partner World Food Programme (WFP), Global Development Group is enacting an emergency relief appeal (J807NY) to help provide food security to beneficiaries in Yemen.

WFP is providing food assistance for those most urgently in need of support in what has emerged as one of the world’s worst hunger crises. The COVID-19 pandemic now poses a new threat to the people of Yemen. The economic impact of COVID-19 on countries like Yemen – struggling with poverty and devastated by conflict.

Even before fighting broke out in early 2015, Yemen was one of the poorest countries in the Arab world. With an average life expectancy below 64, the nation is ranked 179th out of 189 in the 2020 Human Development Index. Seven years of conflict have left 4.2 million people displaced. Its impact on the country’s infrastructure has been devastating, with major overland routes and airports severely damaged. Despite ongoing humanitarian assistance, up to 19 million Yemenis are food insecure.

Malnutrition rates among women and children in Yemen remain among the highest in the world, with 1.3 million pregnant/breastfeeding women and 2.2 million children under 5 requiring treatment for acute malnutrition. Of these children, 538.483 are at risk of dying without treatment. Access constraints continue to pose a serious challenge to WFP in several areas especially where conflict is intense. Despite access and security challenges, WFP and its partners manage to deliver assistance to the vast majority of vulnerable people in the country.