Publication: Dire Straits: The Crisis Surrounding Poverty, Conflict, and Water in the Republic of Yemen
Loading...
Date
2017-06
ISSN
Published
2017-06
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report is part of a global set of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene for All (WASH) diagnostics carried out in countries where WASH services for the poor are deficient and where their might be institutional constraints to improving coverage and services. The Republic of Yemen is an important case because it has an active armed conflict, a plausible increase in poverty over the last decade, and the weakest performance on WASH-related indicators in the region. Analyzing the situation in the Republic of Yemen is significant yet difficult due to the country’s political turmoil since 2011, and, since 2014, the violent and destructive armed conflict. Advances in WASH provision made over the last decade been halted, and the wholesale physical destruction, institutional degradation, and movement of internally displaced people (IDPs) have contributed to an alarming deterioration in WASH services (DAS 2016). The goal of this report is to develop a better understanding of: (a) poverty in the Republic of Yemen; (b) the levels of WASH access and service delivery; and (c) the institutional (and to some extent political and economic) constraints to WASH delivery in the Republic of Yemen, recognizing that this is mostly a pre-conflict analysis. The report also provides pointers for how WASH strategies and investments may be recalibrated in the post-conflict period to assist both short-term recovery and medium-term structured development, and how short- and medium-term strategies may fit into a long-term vision of universal access to safe water and sanitation. These suggestions are given with priority to the poor, and noting the country’s extreme water scarcity. The diagnostic utilizes the Household Budget Survey (HBS) of 2005/06 and 2014, which are nationally representative household surveys (WHO/UNICEF 2014). The HBS data contain information on the household roster, activities, dwelling conditions, health, education, anthropometrics, income, durable goods, and consumption. In addition, the National Health and Demographic Survey 2013 complements HBS datasets and is also used. With regard to the institutional analyses, the diagnostic relies on a largely desk based analysis to identify core problem areas for further investigation and desk-based mapping of structures and relationships to identify a set of priority problems. It relies onthe availability of relevant data and secondary literature. Therefore, this diagnostic generates hypotheses to be further tested and indicates areas for further analysis. Further, given the conflict in the Republic of Yemen, the diagnostic focuses on short-term sector reconstruction efforts than on longer term institutional reform, although the latter is important given the extreme water security situation in the Republic of Yemen, and therefore remains within the report’s line of sight.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2017. Dire Straits: The Crisis Surrounding Poverty, Conflict, and Water in the Republic of Yemen. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27531 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Sierra Leone : Social Protection Assessment(Washington, DC, 2013-06-14)The objective of this assessment is to respond to the government's call for analytical work to guide the development of an improved social protection system. Its goal is to help the government to put the social protection policy into action and to provide an analytic underpinning for the social protection pillar of the Agenda for Prosperity. The basis of the assessment is provided by the concept of social risk management (SRM), which was developed by the World Bank in the early 2000s, and the assessment uses the lifecycle (or life-course) analysis. Chapter one discusses the main risks facing families in Sierra Leone and the conceptual framework of this assessment. Chapter two identifies the country's main vulnerable groups, discusses the principal risks faced by these groups and by households in general, and estimates the number of individuals or households that are at risk. Chapter three reviews the principal programs that are already in place to address the risks that have been identified. Chapter four assesses the adequacy of the social protection system by analyzing: spending; program coverage, gaps, and overlaps; benefit generosity; targeting mechanisms and beneficiary incidence; cost-effectiveness; monitoring and evaluation; and institutional arrangements and participation. Chapter five contains recommendations. The complexity of building social protection systems should not be underestimated. It entails many different actors, preferences, programs, policies, instruments, institutions, and financing, and it often involves difficult trade-offs. The pace at which any social protection system is developed must therefore be in line with the country's institutional and financial conditions and capabilities.Publication Armenia Early Childhood Development : SABER Country Report 2012(Washington, DC, 2012)This report presents an analysis of the early childhood development (ECD) programs and policies that affect young children in Armenia and recommendations to move forward. This report is part of a series of reports prepared by the World Bank using the systems approach for better education results (SABER)-ECD framework and includes analysis of early learning, health, nutrition, and social and child protection policies and interventions in Armenia, along with regional and international comparisons. The national program on the protection of children's rights for 2004-2015 is a multi-sectoral ECD policy in Armenia that comprises the education, health, and social protection sectors, and serves as an overarching umbrella to guarantee access to essential ECD services.Publication Cambodia Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Improvement Support(2016-05-26)This synthesis report documents the implementation process, results and lessons learned under a three-year Technical Assistance (TA) program undertaken by the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank’s Water Global Practice (WSP) in Cambodia between May 2013 and June 2016. It also presents recommendations for the government on key steps to accelerate service delivery at scale for Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (RWSSH) and for the World Bank to strategically engage in the sector. For comprehensiveness, annexes are attached that include key supporting documentation, and resources and deliverables developed under this TA are also provided in the resource pack (the resource pack is linked to Box folder which is available upon request).Publication The Living Conditions of Children(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-06)This paper summarizes the socioeconomic conditions of children around the world. It explores solutions to the main problems, along with a summary of the costs and benefits of some of the solutions. Emphasis is on the results from rigorous studies, impact evaluations, and randomized experiments. Although the cost-evidence literature is scarce, a good case for early interventions and key quality-enhancing education interventions exists.Publication Joint Social and Economic Assessment for the Republic of Yemen(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-08)This Joint Social and Economic Assessment (JSEA) has been prepared in response to a request from the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC), and was undertaken jointly by the World Bank, the United Nations, the European Union, and the Islamic Development Bank. The JSEA's main purpose is to assess the social and economic impact of the crisis in Yemen, and to identify challenges and key priorities for early interventions, primarily for the transition period, which is expected to stretch into the first half of 2014. Putting Yemen on a path of recovery to prosperity will not only require a strong commitment and ownership from the Government and People of Yemen, but also coordinated support and significant financial resources from all partners and friends of Yemen. While the JSEA provides analysis of Yemen's most pressing needs, it is the Government's Transition Plan that will offer the roadmap by which Yemen can emerge from crisis stronger and better able to ensure equitable and sustainable development for its people. The implementation of the Transition Plan and donor support should balance humanitarian assistance, early recovery, reconciliation, and peace-building efforts in the short run, with support to decisive policy actions and reforms that will underpin sustainable and inclusive development, improved governance, and social protection in the medium to long term.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Making Monitoring and Evaluation Systems Work : A Capacity Development Toolkit(World Bank, 2009)There are constant and growing pressures on governments and organizations around the world to be more responsive to demands from internal and external stakeholders for good governance, accountability and transparency, greater development effectiveness and delivery of tangible results. Governments, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society, international organizations, and donors are all among stakeholders interested in better performance. As demands for greater accountability and results have grown, there is an accompanying need for useful and useable results-based monitoring and evaluation systems to support the management of policies, programs, and projects. Governments and other organizations have many different kinds of tracking systems as part of their management toolkits: good human resource systems, financial systems, and accountability systems. They also need good feedback systems. A results-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system is essentially such a feedback system; it is a management tool to measure and evaluate outcomes, providing information for governance and decision making. Many management systems have been missing a feedback component to enable them to track the consequences of actions. Building an M&E system gives decision-makers an additional management tool by providing feedback on performance as a basis for future improvement.Publication Changing the Face of the Waters : The Promise and Challenge of Sustainable Aquaculture(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)This study provides strategic orientations and recommendations for Bank client countries and suggests approaches for the Bank's role in a rapidly changing industry with high economic potential. It identifies priorities and options for policy adjustments, catalytic investments, and entry points for the Bank and other investors to foster environmentally friendly, wealth-creating, and sustainable aquaculture. The objectives of the study are to inform and provide guidance on sustainable aquaculture to decision makers in the international development community and in client countries of international finance institutions. The study focuses on several critical issues and challenges: 1) Harnessing the contribution of aquaculture to economic development, including poverty alleviation and wealth creation, to employment and to food security and trade, particularly for least developed countries (LDCs); 2) Building environmentally sustainable aquaculture, including the role of aquaculture in the broader suite of environmental management measures; 3) Creating the enabling conditions for sustainable aquaculture, including the governance, policy, and regulatory frameworks, and identifying the roles of the public and private sectors; and 4) Developing and transferring human and institutional capacity in governance, technologies, and business models with special reference to the application of lessons from Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.Publication Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016-04-06)This book focuses on maternal conditions, childhood illness, and malnutrition. Specifically, the chapters address acute illness and undernutrition in children, principally under age 5. It also covers maternal mortality, morbidity, stillbirth, and influences to pregnancy and pre-pregnancy. It also includes the transition to older childhood, in particular, the overlap and commonality with the child development volume.Publication Climate Change and Migration : Evidence from the Middle East and North Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2014-07-15)Climate change is a major source of concern in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and migration is often understood as one of several strategies used by households to respond to changes in climate and environmental conditions, including extreme weather events. This study focuses on the link between climate change and migration. Most micro-level studies measure climate change either by the incidences of extreme weather events or by variation in temperature or rainfall. A few studies have found that formal and informal institutions as well as policies also affect migration. Institutions that make government more responsive to households (for example through public spending) discourage both international and domestic migration in the aftermath of extreme weather events. Migration is often an option of last resort after vulnerable rural populations attempting to cope with new and challenging circumstances have exhausted other options such as eating less, selling assets, or removing children from school. This study is based in large part on new data collected in 2011 in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, and the Republic of Yemen. The surveys were administered by in-country partners to a randomly selected set of 800 households per country. It is also important to emphasize that neither the household survey results nor the findings from the qualitative focus groups are meant to be representative of the five countries in which the work was carried, since only a few areas were surveyed in each country. This report is organized as follows: section one gives synthesis. Section two discusses household perceptions about climate change and extreme weather events. Section three focuses on migration as a coping mechanisms and income diversification strategy. Section four examines other coping and adaptation strategies. Section five discusses perceptions about government and community programs.Publication Early Child Development, From Measurement to Action : A priority for Growth and Equity(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)The World Bank recently hosted a symposium on the priority of early child development (ECD) for economic growth and equity. The participants urged application of population-based tools and measures to assess the outcomes of children's early years and children's readiness for school. This study is derived from the symposium and is a valuable resource for policy makers, economists, donors, and investors, as well as researchers and practitioners in early child development. It summarizes the current neuroscience on early child development and major longitudinal studies, the rationale and urgency for greater investment, and countries' innovative funding strategies. The report consists of 15 chapters authored by ECD experts and leaders in the field. The chapters are grouped into five main parts relating to the: business imperative and societal benefits of ECD investments; lessons from evaluation of longitudinal ECD interventions; countries' experiences in monitoring ECD interventions; innovative approaches to countries' financing of ECD initiatives; and next steps on the ECD agenda for the next 5 years. A theme highlighted at the symposium and enlarged upon here is the urgent need for evidence- and population-based instruments and measures to monitor, evaluate, and compare ECD interventions over time and across settings.