Supporting internally displaced people and host communities in Yemen

From conflict regions to fragile states, the demand for support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is growing in unstable countries. There is a lack of rule-of-law structures and security in many of these states, which seriously impacts people’s living conditions. Today, over half of the countries which GIZ supports on behalf of the German Federal Government and other commissioning parties are considered fragile.

The current state of security in Yemen, for example, is extremely tense. According to the United Nations, the civil war has caused nearly three million people to flee to other regions of the country, and nearly half the population does not have enough food and drinking water. Municipal facilities and civil society actors require assistance to ensure that reliable health and sanitation services are in place. Only with this support will people once again be able to lead a life of their own in the long term and eventually go on to rebuild their communities.

On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ), GIZ has been working in Yemen since the beginning of the year to assist internally displaced people and host communities. Experts on the ground work together with local partners to improve people’s living conditions despite extremely adverse conditions, even in highly remote areas.

Through support from GIZ, the local health centre in Ibb, one of the regions hit particularly hard by the conflict, has been able to resume operations. Over 25,000 people are benefiting from the improved health services. In Taiz, 22 schools have been equipped with water tanks, which supply 6,000 schoolchildren with clean drinking water. In addition, water filters have been distributed to households, allowing around 10,500 people to produce their own drinking water.

Yemen is not the only country where GIZ is working locally to create a stable environment for the population. Worldwide, between 2010 and 2015 alone, a total of 4.4 million refugees and internally displaced people, along with 3.8 inhabitants of host communities, have received support from GIZ.