DEC Yemen Crisis Appeal Six-Month Report

© Eman Al-Awami/CARE ©Oxfam Oxfam ©

2016 YEMEN CRISIS APPEAL SIX-MONTH REPORT

CONTENTS 2016 Yemen Crisis Appeal ..........................................01 Background and How We Helped ...............................02 How DEC Members Performed ...................................06 Key Challenges and Lessons Learned ........................08 Key Achievements.........................................................09 Conclusion and How the DEC Works ..........................10

HYGIENE KITS

© Ali Ashwal/Save the Children

© Ammar Awadh Omar Avadh Bamatra/CARE

MEDICAL CARE

DELIVERING AID

CHOLERA RESPONSE

© Abdulhakim Ansi/CARE

© Oxfam

BUILDING A WATER DISTRIBUTION POINT

WATER AND SANITATION

© Moayed Al-Shaybani/Oxfam

© Moayed Al-Shaybani/Oxfam

© Ali Ashwal/Save the Children

WATER AND SANITATION

| 2016 Yemen Crisis Appeal | 01

SUMMARY Despite the enormous operational, access and security challenges, the DEC’s member charities have succeeded in reaching 1,392,224 women, men, girls and boys across seven governorates between December 2016 and the end of June 2017. While this is significant and commendable, it remains overshadowed by the increasing scale of the humanitarian need in Yemen.

With a GDP per capita of just US$1,106 per annum,1 Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked 168 out of 188 countries on the UNDP Human Development Index.2 Yemen has been in a state of civil war since March 2015, aggravating an already dire humanitarian crisis brought on by years of poverty, poor governance, conflict and ongoing instability.

By December 2016, the situation had become desperate, as the economy and public health services collapsed, and food was in short supply.

On 13 December 2016, the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) launched the Yemen Crisis Appeal to the British public.

By July 2017, the appeal had raised £24.3 million, with £17.6 million channelled directly to the DEC and the remaining £6.7 million donated to DEC members; this includes £5 million from the UK Government’s AidMatch scheme.

In Phase 1 of the response (December 2016 to the end of June 2017), DEC funds have enabled member charities to help almost 1.4 million people and will continue to be used to provide life-saving assistance over the next year and a half.

Despite the ongoing conflict, which makes it difficult to reach some parts of the country, DEC charities have been able to get food, cash, clean water and medical treatment to people living in some of the hardest-hit parts of the country. They have provided more than 112,000 people with food and vouchers to purchase food, and more than 56,000 people received cash or vouchers to help them buy essential supplies.

Damage to water and health systems has caused an emergency within an emergency, with 406,000 cholera cases reported between April and July 2017, and more cases expected. In response, DEC charities quickly reallocated funds, providing water purification tablets to families and helping with water chlorination in public buildings and at large water distribution points. More than one million people have been reached with clean water, hygiene or sanitation services to reduce the risk of disease – of whom more than 750,000 continue to access clean water through repaired water pipes. DEC member charities have also distributed oral rehydration sachets, trained health workers to prevent and treat cholera, and constructed solarpowered water systems in remote parts of the country.

To ensure that relief operations are the most appropriate and effective, DEC

member charities continuously monitor their work, reassessing needs and conducting evaluations. An overarching review of the DEC-funded response was commissioned by the DEC and carried out in April 2017, four months after the launch of the appeal. This review was not an evaluation but rather looked at what was working well and what required further attention, challenges faced by DEC members in their response, how these were addressed and what they learned in the process. The review found that, despite the extremely challenging and volatile environment, DEC-funded operations appeared to be strong and aligned to Yemen’s key humanitarian priorities.

The report also highlighted some areas that could be improved. DEC members are considering these recommendations and continue to improve their interventions in Yemen.3

SAUDI ARABIA

OMAN YEMEN

RED SEA

ARABIAN SEA

SANA’A

GULF OF ADEN

SOMALIA

UN data, 2015 estimate, available at: http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?q=GDP+per+capita&d=SNAAMA&f=grID%3a101%3bcurrID%3aUSD%3bpcFlag%3a1.

2015 Human Development Index, available at: http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/HDI. 3 Agulhas Applied Knowledge, ‘Disasters Emergency Committee, Yemen Crisis Appeal, Independent Phase One Review,’ May 2017, available at: https://www.dec.org.uk/ sites/default/files/PDFS/dec_yemen_response_review_final.pdf.

1 2

02 | Background |

BACKGROUND According to the UN, Yemen is witnessing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.4 More than 20 million people need humanitarian assistance or protection support, with some 9.8 million in acute need of assistance. Sixty per cent of the population – an estimated 17 million people – are going hungry every day, and seven million are at risk of famine. More than three million people have fled their homes, and although about a third have been able to return, many have found their homes and livelihoods destroyed.

Public services have broken down, including the health service. Almost half of the country’s health centres are not functioning, medicines and equipment are in short supply, and 49 of the country’s 276 districts have no doctors at all.

Obtaining safe water has become a major challenge, with more than 15 million

people needing help to access safe drinking water and sanitation, increasing the risk of communicable diseases. A cumulative total of 406,000 cholera cases were reported between April and July 2017, and more cases are expected.

The situation for children is critical.

One child under five dies every ten minutes from preventable causes, and

about 4.5 million children and pregnant or breastfeeding women are acutely malnourished, a 148% increase since late 2014. At least two million children – more than a quarter of the schoolage population – are out of school, with almost 1,700 schools either damaged by the conflict, hosting homeless families or occupied by armed groups.5

HOW WE HELPED In the first phase of the response (December 2016 to June 2017), ten DEC member charities provided relief assistance to almost 1.4 million people with DEC funds. Their efforts were concentrated on water, sanitation and hygiene, food, health, nutrition, and providing cash so that people could meet their immediate needs.

Expenditure of funds by sector in Phase 1 (Dec 2016 to June 2017)

Water, sanitation & hygiene

34%

Food

20%

Health 17% Cash distributions

15%

Nutrition

11%

Other

4 5

3%

BBC News, ‘UN: World facing greatest humanitarian crisis since 1945,’ 11 March 2017, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-39238808.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ‘Crisis overview,’ available at: http://www.unocha.org/yemen/crisis-overview.

| How We Helped | 03

Providing safe drinking water was an urgent priority. With DEC funds, member charities repaired water points in Abyan, Amran, Al Bayda, Lahj and Taizz; mended damaged main transmission lines and provided fuel for generators in Taizz; overhauled portable pumps in Al Hudaydah; and renovated chlorination units in rural areas of Dhamar.

While some latrine dislodging and solid waste collection took place in Taizz,

WATER FOR LIFE While water was trucked into some areas that were without clean drinking water, the focus was on long-term solutions. After discussions with local councils, two DEC charities overhauled 12 water points, from desilting wells and strengthening well walls to providing pumps – some of them solar-powered – to pump water into collection tanks. They also renovated pumping and distribution pipes and built water tanks. In total, these 12 water points now reach more than 77,000 people with clean water.

To choose the most appropriate site, the charities consulted local women and girls, who are usually the ones responsible for collecting water. They looked at reducing the time it took to get to water points, as well as protecting women and girls from sexual assaults, by siting water points closer to communities.

To create a sense of ownership and ensure their longer-term feasibility, DEC charities set up water management committees at all of the sites, and committee members were trained in basic plumbing so they could maintain them.

sanitation work mostly targeted public buildings, including six health facilities, such as clinics, and six schools. To make sure the facilities stayed in good working order, staff at each site were trained and given plumbing toolkits to help with maintenance.

The schools and health facilities were chosen after discussions with the local education department and the Ministry of Public Health and Population. The needs of women and girls were taken into consideration when toilet blocks were designed, and easy access was provided for disabled people with appropriate toilets and handwashing facilities. To ensure privacy – and to encourage more girls to attend school – school toilets were fitted with lights and were lockable from the inside.

Water purification filters, water storage buckets and jerrycans were distributed to help reduce water-borne diseases,

and cholera in particular; 47,584 people received hygiene kits, with items such as soap, toothpaste and sanitary towels.

HIGHLIGHTS 1.06 million people received help with water, sanitation and hygiene, including: •4 7,584 people who received hygiene kits, 18,112 of whom were at risk of cholera •7 6,888 people who accessed improved sanitation in health facilities and schools •1 39,282 people who received safe drinking water through water trucking •7 55,801 people who continue to access clean drinking water through repaired infrastructure

Case study

IMPROVING ACCESS TO WATER “Before the water tank was built, I was very scared of the polluted water we used to drink,” says Tuqa Nasser, a widowed mother of five from Sawir, a remote district in Amran governorate. “I would always pray that none of my children would get sick.”

© Hind Abbas/CARE

Water, sanitation and hygiene

With cholera ravaging much of the country, access to safe water can literally be a lifesaver. One DEC member charity paid local people, through a cash-for-work scheme, to build a water tank in two governorates, including Amran where Tuqa lives. As well as a safe source of water, it also provided an income for families like Tuqa’s. “After I started taking part in the cash-for-work scheme, my life changed,” she says. “I now feel I am a new person who is independent and capable of supporting my family.”

This was one of six water schemes renovated by a DEC member, each with a well, a solar-powered pump, a water tank and a tapstand (a stone block with water taps), providing 18,000 people with clean water. In addition, 390 people took part in the cash-for-work scheme, helping to provide their families with food and other basic items.

“Before, we had no choice and no other source of water,” says Tuqa. “I am very thankful to this project because it saved our lives.”

04 | How We Helped |

Health

When a malaria outbreak began in Lahj governorate in April 2017, one DEC charity quickly adapted its programme in two districts to support both the people who had recently fled into these areas as a result of conflict in their own region, and the host communities. It distributed 3,352 mosquito nets to 1,776 newly arrived families to prevent malaria spreading, and trained 30 community volunteers on the cause, treatment and prevention of malaria, who, in turn, passed on advice to 13,384 people.

RESPONDING TO CHOLERA

HIGHLIGHTS 154,454 people were reached through health programmes, including: •3 4,331 people who were treated for communicable diseases and . conflict-related injuries, of whom 22,609 were children •3 ,128 people who were given medicines to treat cholera •6 ,338 women who received reproductive health services

Nutrition Training health workers and volunteers was a priority. Selected community volunteers learned about managing acute malnutrition and infant and young child feeding, as well as the cause, prevention and treatment of common

To help combat malnutrition in one area, one DEC charity trained 40 mother leaders on the principles of good nutrition for infants and young children. Each leader was responsible for a group of 13–15 mothers, who met twice a month to support each other and share experiences about breastfeeding and healthy eating for young children. Together, these leaders reached 546 mothers.

HIGHLIGHTS 141,734 people were reached with nutrition programmes, including: •4 8,130 children who were screened for acute malnutrition •7 5,985 people who received information on nutrition

TESTING FOR CHOLERA

With the rapid increase in cholera cases, DEC charities quickly reallocated funds to respond to the outbreak. They worked with teachers and imams, and trained community health volunteers, including 127 in Abs District, on how to control and prevent cholera by raising awareness in their communities. They also gave families water purification tablets and helped with water chlorination in public buildings and large water distribution points.

© Gabreez/Oxfam

In the first six months of the response, DEC member charities focused on renovating health facilities such as hospitals, training community health workers and volunteers, and identifying, referring and treating people with malnutrition and communicable diseases, including cholera.

illnesses. They were then able to pass on this information to 75,985 people.

Some DEC member charities supported local health, water and solid waste management authorities, providing fuel, spare parts, generators and pumps, as well as water and sanitation facilities at cholera treatment centres, distributing water purification tablets, water containers and oral rehydration salts, and disinfecting key water sources in communities. More than 3,000 people were given medicines to treat cholera.

Altogether, more than 165,000 people received information and advice on good hygiene practices to help combat cholera and other water-borne diseases.

| How We Helped | 05

Food

Cash distributions

One DEC member’s partner had planned to meet the immediate food needs of 35,000 people for at least a month. However, instead of food parcels, the charity was able to distribute vouchers for bread, targeting the highly vulnerable population in Taizz city. This meant that they could reach 87,374 people with 33 days’ worth of food.

The charity identified a network of 42 local bakeries where voucher-holders could collect free bread daily.

Giving cash directly to people in crisis situations has proven to be a very effective and cost-efficient way of ensuring people have access to what they most urgently need. As well as reducing the cost of delivering aid, it supports local markets and, most importantly, gives people choice and more control over their own lives.

In Khanfer and Al Buraiqah districts, one DEC member gave out food vouchers to 984 families with malnourished children, expected to cover about 75% of their food needs for a month. Each family received vouchers for two months and could buy 20 kg of flour, 25 kg of rice, 10 kg of sugar, 4 litres of oil, and 15 tins of tuna.

HIGHLIGHTS •1 12,339 people were given food parcels or vouchers to buy food

In Abyan and Amran, 380 households were given 27,000 YER ($108) once a month for three months, helping 2,742 people to meet their basic and immediate needs. Another DEC charity targeted 1,800 households in Hajjah, 3,000 in Amran, 268 in Al Hudaydah and 520 in Taizz governorates, giving them the same amount for a month. Surveys conducted later found that in Amran, for instance, more than 80% of the cash went on food, with the rest on health, education and clothing. For some, such as in Hajjah, it was their main source of income, and surveys showed an improvement in daily food consumption.

GETTING HOSPITALS UP AND RUNNING

HIGHLIGHTS •5 6,117 people received cash or vouchers to meet their immediate needs

Household essentials The conflict has forced many families to flee their homes, taking with them only the things they could carry. One DEC member asked families what they needed most, and as a result provided mattresses, bed sheets, pillows, and pots and pans to 1,000 households – 6,706 people in total. The charity had also intended to provide solar lighting systems to each home, but when funds had to be diverted to help tackle the cholera outbreak, this was no longer possible.

HIGHLIGHTS •6 ,706 people received basic household essentials

MALNUTRITION CHECKS

• 5,216 women accessed reproductive health services • 4,993 malnourished young children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers were given supplementary food (fortified food and nutrition supplements) • 180 health workers were trained

© Save the Children

In Lahj and Taizz governorates, DEC members worked to get 17 health facilities functioning properly, including two rural hospitals and two referral hospitals that have a catchment area of more than 450,000 people. They provided furniture, medical equipment and supplies, delivery and hygiene kits, baby kits, and nutrition supplies.

In particular:

06 | How DEC Members Performed |

HOW DEC MEMBERS PERFORMED DEC member charities are committed to improving the way in which they respond to crises, working closely with and for local communities, including vulnerable people, and following international standards on delivering aid.

Coordination DEC members’ teams coordinated closely with UN agencies and other charities in Yemen, exchanging information, sharing lessons learned, discussing challenges, and ensuring there was no duplication of work on the ground. They also looked for synergy between their programmes; for example, one charity integrated its work on nutrition into another charity’s food and livelihoods programme.

DEC member charities worked to establish good relationships with local government departments. Before projects began, they met local authorities and community leaders to explain their activities, and arranged training and joint supervision visits with the Ministry of Public Health and Population, for example.

All water schemes were rehabilitated with the direct involvement of the local community and the water authority, using skilled workers. Water management committees were set up at each renovated water source and trained to undertake basic repairs and maintenance.

Many of our members’ activities have been implemented by the community itself, and will continue into the second phase of the response. One DEC member set up a network of community volunteers so that their project could reach more malnourished children and refer them for treatment.

This investment in community volunteers has seen communities change their behaviour – for example, DEC members witnessed many cases of families voluntarily bringing their children for a nutrition check-up after seeing the impact of treatment on other local children. Some communities played an active part in cleaning campaigns and built septic tanks for their homes; others began building public septic tanks in their villages using locally available materials, while DEC members supplied the tools.

Total allocation of DEC funds to member charities in Phase 1 (£) Ten of the DEC member charities responded ActionAid

Working in partnership and developing local capacity

Age International

In Phase 1 of the response, DEC members worked closely with local communities, and authorities, not only to tap into their local knowledge and know-how, but also to help them strengthen their own knowledge and skills.

One DEC member worked with the Ministry of Public Health on using data from hospitals and clinics to help reduce the incidence of disease. It provided three main health centres with solarpowered desktop computers so that they can monitor, archive and save the health data they collect. It also helped the water authority to conduct chlorination campaigns, supplying the required chlorine. When the local health office set up oral rehydration therapy corners to treat mild and moderate cases of diarrhoea, it provided sachets of oral rehydration salts.

British Red Cross CAFOD CARE International UK Christian Aid Concern Worldwide UK Islamic Relief Worldwide Oxfam GB Plan International UK Save the Children UK Tearfund World Vision UK 0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

| How DEC Members Performed | 07

All DEC member charities have made a commitment to a number of standards and codes designed to define good practice, including the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief; the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability, which covers the essential elements of principled, accountable and high-quality humanitarian action; and the Sphere Standards, which define minimum standards for aid work in areas such as shelter, food, water and healthcare.

Being accountable to the people affected by the crisis in Yemen is an integral part of the relief response. Where feasible, project teams set up community-based committees that included local leaders, older people, women and youth. In some instances, these committees helped select people to receive assistance, or identified water schemes that needed renovating and monitored the work.

People who were identified to receive cash payments were told in advance about the project period, how the funds are managed, and when payments would be made. They helped to select the places where cash would be distributed, which helped minimize security risks.

DEC funded-projects also made sure that the particular needs of women and girls were considered in all activities.

Community health volunteers and committees were trained on gender issues, such as protection for women and girls during emergencies, early marriage and gender-based violence.

New approaches With ever-expanding need and limited funds, social media provides an easy, affordable and effective way to communicate with large numbers of people. One DEC charity used social media to reach local and international media, other charities, and the public in

Yemen, giving them an accurate picture of its work in the country and sharing personal stories from those who had received assistance, as well as press releases and situation reports. It quickly became many local news agencies’ main source of information about the charity and its Yemen posts attracted hundreds of likes across the country. Complaints posted on Facebook could be answered quickly, and misconceptions about its work addressed directly.

Another member and its partner also made innovative use of ICT. As part of the response, they set up three mobile clinics to reach older people who couldn’t access other health facilities. But because of the remoteness of these sites, collecting data and reporting on time was very difficult. To tackle this, the partner adopted a mobile data collection system based on the Open Data Kit, using smartphones to transmit data from the field to a secure online server, which improved both data accuracy and reporting turnover. It could also be used to remotely monitor the daily activity and precise location of the mobile teams by just logging on to the server.

The system is a simple, user-friendly, easy to re-design program to meet changing needs, and relatively cheap.

vulnerable groups’, they were effectively excluded. The DEC member provided training for staff on the particular needs of older people, and how to screen them for malnutrition. As a result, older people have now been incorporated into their work, and 1,300 older people have been screened for malnutrition, of whom 144 were referred for treatment, with a cure rate of more than 80%.

Cash grants are a quick and costeffective way of providing people with the essentials they need. But getting it directly into the hands of the most vulnerable, such as women, older people, and those with disabilities, can be difficult. One DEC member’s local partner strived to ensure that all those in need, regardless of specific vulnerabilities, had equal access to assistance. To reduce travel times, cash was distributed from central locations, but if particularly vulnerable people were identified, home or specific village visits were made instead.

WATER AND SANITATION

Inclusion of people with special needs A review of DEC members’ response to the crisis concluded that, overall, members worked hard to reach disadvantaged groups such as women, people with disabilities and children.

For example, they recruited women as community volunteers, used local radio to reach those who were housebound, and illustrated posters rather than text to get information to those who are illiterate.

One DEC member charity made sure that the needs of older people were addressed in mobile clinics. Health workers there had traditionally focused on children and pregnant and breastfeeding women, and as older people were not formally recognized as one of their ‘particularly

© Moayed Al Shaibani/Oxfam

Accountability to affected populations and adherence to sector standards

08 | Key Challenges |

KEY CHALLENGES DEC member charities and other aid organisations face enormous difficulties while operating in this extremely challenging environment: layers of bureaucracy (including the requirement for international workers to obtain two separate visas based on their location), numerous checkpoints, carjackings, flooded roads, all the while trying to deliver planned programmes at the same time as responding to the cholera outbreak.

International supplies and access. This has been and continues to be a major challenge.

Buying and transporting supplies from abroad was a major logistical achievement, but it is not cost-effective or sustainable

as an operating mechanism; planning for alternative supply chains is needed.

Delays in project approvals. There are several layers of authorities at both national and governorate levels, each of which need to approve plans before they can be rolled out. However, DEC members have been able to use their existing relationships with authorities, as well as good acceptance from the community, to fast-track this process.

Volatile and unpredictable security situation.

Field travel by international staff, especially to Amran and Taizz, has needed approvals which sometimes delayed planned missions.

There have also been several incidents of carjacking in Taizz involving charities’ vehicles. To mitigate this risk, DEC members are closely monitoring the situation on the ground and maintaining a good relationship with local authorities.

Cholera and malaria. Planned activities had to be adapted quickly to address the expanding cholera and malaria outbreaks, with teams ramping up information campaigns and training volunteers and medical staff, among other activities. Given limited funding, responding to these new needs meant that other response areas had to be de-prioritized.

LESSONS LEARNED An independent review of the first three months of the response, commissioned by the DEC, concluded that, “in the context of an extremely challenging and volatile environment, the overall response of DEC-funded operations appears to be strong and aligned to Yemen’s key humanitarian priorities.” It also made some recommendations, including improving the assessment of needs on the ground and monitoring activities more closely; and more deliberately targeting the Muhamasheen, an ethnic group who are at the bottom of the Yemeni caste system and who, in some regions, form the vast majority of displaced people.6 Member charities are giving due consideration to the review recommendations in Phase 2 of DEC-funded interventions.

Other key lessons from Phase 1 include: Realistic and advance planning. At the proposal stage, DEC members may not have taken into account all the difficulties the project could face in the first few weeks, leading to delays. More scenario planning will take place in Phase 2.

Advance international supplies. While an effective solution was found, it is important to have a detailed procurement plan from the beginning and launch international supplies as soon as possible to avoid any shortages.

Being flexible. It is very difficult to foresee how the context will evolve, as with the cholera outbreak. Teams on the ground have demonstrated their capacity for flexibility during Phase 1 and are expected to continue to do so in Phase 2.

Involving local people. Yemen’s vast geography, devastated health system, the scarcity of resources and ongoing conflict have made it difficult to get medical help to all those who need it. Local people themselves can play a very important role in delivering vital assistance, which is why many DEC member charities have focused on providing people with information on preventing and treating disease, as well as basic first aid, particularly in remote areas.

However, more needs to be done, and though teams have made some progress, local people themselves have asked to be

more involved. DEC charities will continue to work on building community acceptance and to focus on womenheaded households.

Being sensitive to conflict. Helping people who have been forced to flee their homes and settle elsewhere is particularly fraught with challenges and can sometimes exacerbate existing ethnic tensions. As these families often arrive in their new communities with very little, charities have targeted them with cash, food and other basic essentials. However, host communities may also have very little themselves, which can strain relations with the newcomers and even stir up ethnic or racial conflict. Charities need to thoroughly understand the local situation to make sure their work does not have unexpectedly negative consequences and that their actions ameliorate, rather than exacerbate, any existing tensions, for example by involving the host community in the planning of their work, and sharing complaints mechanisms.

6 Agulhas Applied Knowledge, ‘Disasters Emergency Committee, Yemen Crisis Appeal, Independent Phase One Review,’ May 2017, available at: https://www.dec.org.uk/ sites/default/files/PDFS/dec_yemen_response_review_final.pdf.

| Key Achievements | 09

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS These are some of the key achievements of DEC member charities in the first six months of the 2016 Yemen Crisis response. Some double counting of beneficiary numbers across member charities may occur when different types of activities took place at the same location.

Sector

Phase 1

Health

34,331

Water and sanitation

4,713

children were treated for worms and given Vitamin A supplements

3,358

children were vaccinated against polio and measles

3,128

people were given medicines to treat cholera

1,289

community health volunteers were trained to give first aid and received first aid kits

755,801 47,584

Food Nutrition

Cash

people were treated for communicable diseases and conflict-related injuries, of whom 22,609 were children

people can access clean drinking water through repaired water infrastructure people received hygiene kits containing soap and other items, including 18,112 people at risk of cholera

139,282

people had access to safe drinking water via water trucking

112,339

people received food parcels or vouchers for food

48,130

children were screened for acute malnutrition

1,300

older people were screened for malnutrition

1,208

people with severe acute malnutrition were admitted for treatment

75,985

people received information on nutrition

56,117

people received cash to meet their immediate needs

10 | Conclusion |

CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS Despite the enormous operational, access and security challenges, the DEC’s member charities have succeeded in reaching 1,392,224 women, men, girls and boys during Phase 1 of the response. While this is significant and commendable, it is heavily overshadowed by the increasing scale of the humanitarian need in Yemen.

The humanitarian response in Yemen is not possible without adequate funding. While DEC member charities were able to deliver lifesaving interventions, several have had to reallocate funds from food programmes to tackle cholera because of the limited amount of money available for the Yemen response.

DEC member charities recognize that an integrated effort is needed, combining work on improving livelihoods and tackling disease as well as ensuring people have enough nutritious food. Limited DEC funding in Phase 2 of the response will go towards this.

Members will also continue to advocate for a peaceful solution to the conflict and for increased humanitarian access, while asking donors to provide more resources to this underfunded response.

HOW THE DEC WORKS The DEC makes sure that the generous donations of the UK public are spent on emergency aid needed by communities devastated by humanitarian crises, as well as on longer-term support to rebuild the lives of people in these communities.

Donating through the DEC is simple and effective. It removes unnecessary competition for funding between aid charities and reduces administration costs. The DEC Yemen Crisis Appeal donation lines remain open.

A final report on the DEC Yemen Crisis response is expected to be published in April 2018.

DISTRIBUTING HEALTHCARE EQUIPMENT

MALNUTRITION CHECK

WATER AND SANITATION CONSTRUCTION

© Save the Children

HEALTH CHECK

© Ali Ashwal/ Save the Children

© Moayed Al Shaibani/Oxfam

© Sam Bolitho/CARE

DISASTERS EMERGENCY COMMITTEE Ground Floor 43 Chalton Street London NW1 1DU Tel: 020 7387 0200 www.dec.org.uk Published May 2018 Registered Charity No. 1062638