Yemen

Year-end Overview

Working environment

Yemen remains the worst humanitarian crisis worldwide, with more than 80% of the population requiring some form of assistance, 20 million facing food insecurity and 14 million requiring urgent humanitarian intervention. An estimated 4 million people in Yemen will be internally displaced by the end of 2019 and another 1.2 million IDPs will have returned to their areas of origin across the country. Asylum-seekers from Ethiopia and Somalia make up the majority of the 276,000 refugees and asylum-seekers hosted by Yemen, most of whom continue to live in precarious situations.
 
The operational environment is expected to remain challenging as Yemen continues to suffer from a ravaged economy and breakdown of public institutions and services, exacerbated by security concerns and political instability. As frontlines emerge across multiple governorates, repeated and prolonged conflict-related displacement persists alongside violations of international humanitarian law and human rights.
 
UNHCR will seek to widen the protection space by providing services, referrals and assistance to mitigate and address protection risks. Such assistance includes delivering non-food items and emergency shelter kits to IDPs, IDP returnees and host community members. In addition, to reinforce community-based protection mechanisms, eight additional community day centres will ensure more displaced people can access legal assistance, psychosocial support and referrals to basic services. Meanwhile, existing community-based protection networks will be stronger, and a greater number of quick-impact projects will be implemented to foster social cohesion and resilience. The Assisted Spontaneous Return programme will continue to counsel and advise asylum-seekers on returns to Somalia, helping them to return in safety and dignity. A separate voluntary repatriation programme will be implemented in 2020 for Ethiopians wishing to return home.
 
The Operation will continue to engage with and invest in building the capacities of counterparts and local humanitarian partners. Advocacy with the authorities will continue to improve the verification of populations of concern and increase people of concern’s access to essential services. Meanwhile, UNHCR will continue to lead the Protection Cluster and the newly-formed Camp Coordination and Camp Management Cluster, as well as co-lead the Mixed Migration Working Group in partnership with IOM. By strengthening its collaboration with UN partners such as UNICEF, UNHCR will reinforce common strategies, on child protection, education, and birth registrations; UNFPA on SGBV protection; ILO on community empowerment initiatives; IOM as a strategic partner for the Ethiopian returns programme; and FAO for the implementation of urban farming strategies for IDPs and refugees, among others.
 

Key priorities

In 2020, UNHCR will:

• Promote and advocate a sustained protection space for refugees.
• Consolidate partnerships, including with other humanitarian partners, which will help to increase referral pathways and ensure policy coherence amongst Protection Cluster partners.
• Harmonize UNHCR and Clusters’ strategy into a multi-cluster/ area-based approach for higher coverage and efficiency in the provision of services.
• Expand and enhance the CCCM strategy for the provision of protection services for highly vulnerable IDPs and access to basic needs such as shelter, WASH, health and education.
• Enhance support in areas anticipated to be designated as safe areas of return for IDPs, while carrying out protection monitoring and assessment to identify protection risks for returnee populations. 
• Promote community-based protection models by establishing additional community centres that offer a range of services, including legal assistance and psychosocial support.
• Reinforce specialized services for people living with specific needs, to address their protection needs and avoid reliance on negative coping mechanisms.
• Strengthen information management systems that support data collection to achieve positive protection outcomes.