Localisation of Yemen’s humanitarian response

Yemen has faced a devastating, highly internationalised civil war and a severe humanitarian crisis for eight years. In 2023, 21.6 million people in Yemen needed humanitarian assistance or protection, with 10.5 million receiving immediate lifesaving assistance each month. Urgent action is necessary to avert widespread famine-like conditions, as the country is grappling with severe food shortages, reduced food assistance, increased commodity prices, economic challenges, and public health crises in 2023. However, Yemen’s Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) faces significant funding shortfalls, with only 20.2% of required funds secured by April 2023. Given these needs, it is crucial to explore policy options to improve humanitarian effectiveness in aid response in Yemen.

This article analyses localisation as an option for strengthening Yemen’s humanitarian response. In 2016, and in response to a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) initiated Yemen’s first HRP. That same year, the global humanitarian community committed to localising humanitarian response at the United Nations World Humanitarian Summit in Turkey. However, despite eight years of conflict and extensive international aid efforts, there is little evidence of a significant shift towards genuine localisation in Yemen. Now, local, regional and international actors must reconsider their approaches in the country and recommit to genuine localisation, empowering local actors and promoting sustainability.

Assessing the international humanitarian response in Yemen

Classified as ‘the world’s worst humanitarian crisis’, Yemen received significant humanitarian assistance as an L3 emergency from 2015 to 2022. ‘The activation of a Level 3 (L3) emergency in Yemen […] called on the humanitarian and international community to “deliver a rapid, concerted mobilization of capacity and systems to enable accelerated and scaled-up assistance and protection over a short and focussed duration”’. (IASC, Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluation.) Led by OCHA, the international aid response in Yemen saw non-traditional donors like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates become the largest contributors. The large-scale humanitarian operation faced high insecurity, low access, and weak, fragmented local governance structures that collectively shaped humanitarian actors’ policy and practice.

Given these complexities, international aid organisations operating in Yemen have recognised the importance of, and the necessity for, local partners capable of effective aid work. This corresponds with the thinking of Yemeni aid workers: local communities have always been the first responders to emergencies in the country, with far more presence on the ground compared to international organisations. This reality is indeed recognised by some international humanitarian actors in Yemen, such as OCHA, which positively appraised the potential of local actors in humanitarian response, stating that they ‘have the benefit of local knowledge and presence’.

The humanitarian response in Yemen has played a valuable role in saving lives and meeting the needs of millions of Yemenis for the past eight years. Notable achievements include preventing the total collapse of Yemen’s economy and basic service systems, including health and education, and alleviating, albeit partially, the threat of malnutrition. However, shortcomings in Yemen’s humanitarian response include insufficient coverage of vulnerable areas, inadequate reporting and accountability, lack of sustainability, and poor understanding of the Yemeni context. A United Nations Security Council briefing called it ‘the worst international response to a humanitarian crisis’.

The Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluation (IAHE) report highlights localisation-related shortcomings in Yemen’s aid response, including funding inefficiencies, high operational costs, poor quality of aid, insufficient consultation with affected populations, underinvestment in local non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and lack of long-term projects and livelihood support. One of the key findings of the IAHE report is that the international aid system failed to invest strategically in localisation in Yemen. The report has, in part, led to a rethinking of aid in the country. Consequently, OCHA and other stakeholders are formulating a new localisation strategy, in addition to other initiatives aimed at reinforcing humanitarian operations.

When developing a new strategy, it is crucial for the international aid system to prioritise localisation, empowering locally led responses in equal partnership with Yemeni NGOs and civil society organisations. This article contributes towards the policy dialogue within the humanitarian and development community concerned with Yemen during this process of rethinking aid approaches.

Scorecard of localisation in Yemen

Though both international and local actors acknowledge the importance of localisation, progress since 2015 falls short of expectations. Progress in localising humanitarian response can be tracked in terms of funding, capacity development and power relations.

First, there has been some progress towards localisation in terms of funding. It should be qualified that it is very challenging to track humanitarian funds in conflict settings, which is a common issue acknowledged by UN agencies due to several factors, such as delayed reports and multiple financial reporting systems. Yemen is no exception, with no centralised system for tracking funds for humanitarian assistance outside formal humanitarian appeals. Nevertheless, based on available data from OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service (FTS), since the outbreak of war in 2015, donors pledged almost $20 billion in humanitarian aid, with $14.3 billion in disbursed humanitarian aid.

In terms of humanitarian funding alone, there are some significant achievements in Yemen’s aid response. Localisation was a key pillar of the Grand Bargain at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, at which the international aid system committed to increasing support and funding for local and national responders, significantly by channelling 25% of global humanitarian funding to national actors. Notably, from 2015–2021, funding to national NGOs increased, reaching its peak in 2017 with $51.4 million (40.8% of the Yemen Humanitarian Fund in 2017) and then decreasing to $26.7 million in 2021 (24% of the Yemen Humanitarian Fund in 2021). The funding level generally aligns with Grand Bargain commitments to directly fund local humanitarian actors with at least 25% of the total aid.

Whilst this is a notable achievement in terms of resource transfer, most humanitarian funding to Yemen still goes to the UN agencies and international NGOs (INGOs). This means that although there are around 65 active local NGOs in Yemen, the UN agencies and INGOs remain the most empowered humanitarian actors in the country. Furthermore, the percentage allocation to local actors varies significantly year-upon-year, which may prove an obstacle to the sustainability of effective operations and local capacity development. More fundamentally, it would be wrong to define localisation success solely in terms of resource transfer.

Second, in terms of capacity development, local NGOs have reported increased training and capacity-building efforts since 2015, contributing to more effective and sustainable operations. However, more work is needed to address existing gaps and further empower local organisations. There is a considerable demand for technical support and advancement in supplying materials and training partners, presenting capacity-building opportunities abroad, and providing free, online courses on standards, policies and operational mechanisms. Interviewees have emphasised that involving local NGOs in decision-making processes and fund allocation is crucial to promoting the development of a humanitarian landscape that aligns with the country’s diverse contexts and perspectives.

Third, in terms of operations and power relations, the scorecard of localisation in Yemen’s humanitarian response is more negative. Our recent journal article found systematic evidence of the barriers to, and opportunities for, a more localised approach to the humanitarian response in Yemen. One of the central findings is that whilst local NGOs in Yemen recognise some progress has been made since 2015 towards localisation in terms of capacity-building, training, and provision of resource transfers, there is widespread consensus that localisation – as understood as a power shift that empowers and enables local actors to play a lead role in the humanitarian response – has not been actualised.

The paper examines several reasons for the failure to shift power relations. First, many international NGOs and donor staff believe local partners lack the technical capacity for a significant leadership role in humanitarian action. Second, both international and local staff face security risks and operate in hard-to-reach areas. However, international staff have more legal, technical, and political protections than local staff, who face severe movement restrictions. Third, the deeply ingrained asymmetrical power relations between international and local actors are so significant that even minor changes will not have a discernible impact on the overall dynamics.

Conclusion

A shift towards genuinely locally led response in Yemen is not only crucial but necessary, given the protracted nature of the conflict and the humanitarian situation which only becomes ever more severe. Making this transition a reality would require a myriad of changes that need to take place at all levels, encompassing stakeholders ranging from local and national actors to donors and the international community. International actors in particular bear the responsibility to genuinely embrace local partners, shifting humanitarian funding to the local level as much as possible, and facilitating their capacity enhancement. International NGOs in Yemen should have adequate and meaningful Yemeni representation in senior positions in order to enable more equal partnerships between local and international staff. Furthermore, they should leverage their comparative privilege to enable local actors’ access by expanding aid delivery to areas usually out of their reach. Such consistent, concerted efforts can pave the way for a sustainable and effective localised humanitarian response in Yemen, which amplifies local efforts and leadership while responding effectively to the nation’s pressing needs.

Dr Ghassan Elkahlout is the Director of the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS) within the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. He is also an Associate Professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.

Dr Sansom Milton is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS). He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.

To contact the author(s), please get in touch with Dr Ghassan Elkahlout at ghassan.elkahlout@chs-doha.org.