Small-scale measures by local administrative structures support the stabilisation process
Project description
Title: Supporting the stabilisation process in Yemen by promoting small-scale measures by local administrative structures
Commissioned by: German Federal Foreign Office
Country: Yemen
Overall term: 2017 to 2023
Context
The political situation in Yemen has deteriorated steadily since 2012. The United Nations (UN) estimates that at least 25.5 million people in Yemen rely on humanitarian aid as a result of fragmentation and ongoing fighting. There is an acute food shortage, against which the UN had warned many times.
At the beginning of July 2015, the UN declared the highest state of emergency for Yemen. Military operations are causing great damage, especially in the country’s larger cities. Large parts of the civilian infrastructure have been damaged and no end to the conflicts is currently in sight.
The public administrations need to provide adequate services for the population, but are often incapable of acting. As a result of the political crisis and administrative discrepancies, the administrations lack both funding and personnel. This reduces the population’s trust and thus the legitimacy of the state structures.
Objective
By enabling local administrative structures to implement small-scale measures and promoting these structures, the project is helping to stabilise the structures in the governorates of Hadramaut, Dhamar and Al-Mahrah.
Approach
The project works in close cooperation with the Strengthening Inclusive Local Governance and Peace Building in Yemen project conducted by the Berghof Foundation. The aim of this project is to improve the contributions of local administrative structures towards peace, security and stabilisation. For this purpose, it is setting up advisory bodies to mediate in local conflicts. The GIZ project supports this process and works in two areas to complement it:
Area 1: Strengthening the capacities of local public administrative units
Training seminars and workshops provide selected local administrative structures with the technical skills they need to implement and promote small-scale measures. In addition, they gain an awareness with regard to the transparency of their actions and accountability to their own communities.
Area 2: Promoting small-scale measures to stabilise the provision of public services in the various districts and regions
The project implements small-scale measures with the aim of improving the population’s living conditions and thus strengthening trust in the public administrative units. This includes, for example, renovating or equipping health and educational institutions, maintaining the waste management infrastructure, renovating roads and maintaining the water and wastewater infrastructure. The project identifies the small-scale measures using a structured application procedure. The applicants are usually administrative structures that provide services at district level. The population also has the opportunity to get involved in the planning process and thus also in the final decision as to which small-scale measures to fund. The focus here is on involving structures that represent the interests of women.
Results
Currently, the project works mainly with 24 different districts in three governorates (Hadramout, Dhamar, Al-mahrah).
To further develop their skills, around 1650 people from administrative structures from the three governorates have so far participated in a variety of training measures and planning events that have been carried out. Training topics included legislation, financing, monitoring and evaluation, planning and implementation, reporting, gender empowerment and applied office assistance tasks for government structures.
The project provided technical and material support for the three regional advisory bodies in the selection processes. It has implemented and documented four selection processes for small-scale measures with 33 administrative structures to date.
Numerous people in the three regions have already benefited from a total of 29 small-scale measures and the positive effects on their living conditions. Further small-scale measures are currently in planning.
Last update: February 2021
