On Saturday, the Yemeni government announced that the World Bank had agreed to provide a new grant to the country in the amount of $150 million to support food security.
This came according to the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Waed Bathib, which was published by the official Yemeni news agency, Saba.
Bathib said that the World Bank “approved an additional grant of $150 million for the second phase of the response project in the field of food security and resilience in Yemen.”
Two-thirds of Yemenis suffer from food insecurity, as a result of the repercussions of the ongoing war, according to previous UN reports.
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Batheb added, “The World Bank’s approval of the additional financing for the project comes as part of the determined efforts made by the Ministry of Planning in mobilizing resources and coordinating with international donors.”
He pointed out that “the grant will help increase grain production at the local level, by providing support to small farmers to enable them to produce high-quality seeds characterized by their ability to withstand climate change.”
The grant will also contribute to “expanding animal health programs with the aim of improving productivity and increasing resilience to climatic shocks, which will help enhance food security and resilience in Yemen,” according to Batheb.
In December 2021, the World Bank announced that it would provide a grant of $127 million as a first stage to support food security and livelihoods in Yemen, and the project is being implemented by the United Nations.
Last July, the World Bank announced a $150 million grant to Yemen to support a number of sectors, including health.
Yemen is suffering from a war that began after the Houthis took control of the capital, Sana’a, and several provinces at the end of 2014, with the support of the forces of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was killed in 2017 in confrontations with the group’s militants, following the end of the alliance between them.
The conflict has escalated since March 2015, after an Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened to support the legitimate government forces in confronting the Iranian-backed Houthi group.
The war led to the country’s economy losing $126 billion, according to statistics released by the United Nations Development Fund in November 2021, in one of the worst humanitarian and economic crises in the world, as most of the 30 million population depend on aid.
