US$5 million food-security boost for Yemen’s smallholder farmers

21 November 2021, Sana’a–  Saudi Arabia's King Salman Humanitarian Aid & Relief Centre (KSrelief) has contributed US$5 million to bolster FAO's emergency activities in Yemen aimed at providing critical, life-saving food security and livelihoods support.  

Through the contribution, FAO will deliver emergency assistance to more than 24 000 of the most vulnerable households (around 168 000 people) in the Governorates of Hajjah and Lahj. The project will focus on women-headed families, households with pregnant and lactating mothers, elderly and disabled people and internally displaced populations. 

Commenting on the signing of the project, FAO Representative in Yemen Dr Hussein Gadain explained how project interventions would equip households to produce a variety of nutritious food for their consumpution or for sale. "This project will not only contribute to enhancing food availability and access, but it will also ensure the nutritional value of household and community-wide food baskets", he continued. "With the generous support from KSrelief, FAO can continue to implement interventions such as these that reduce acute food insecurity while aiding the recovery of livelihoods and household incomes", he added.

The project comes under an ambitious new five-year Strategic Joint Cooperation Agreement between KSrelief and FAO, which commits the partners to scale up joint action to meet humanitarian needs, address drivers of acute food security, and help at-risk agricultural communities build resilience to shocks that undermine their productive potential.

The agreement, signed at FAO's Rome headquarters last Tuesday by FAO Director-General QU Dongyu and KSrelief's Supervisor-General, Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Rabeeah, also outlines efforts to improve knowledge sharing on agricultural best practices, engage in data-driven development work via FAO's Hand-in-Hand Initiative, and advance agricultural innovation to help small-scale food producers achieve better production and build better lives.