Yemen

Final: Beginning in April of 2003 and continuing through December of 2003, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) provided take-home rations of wheat flour and soybean oil to 30,000 females in grades one through nine in Yemeni schools, focusing specifically on the Governorate of Taiz. The girls receive rations of 50 kilograms of flour and two liters of soybean oil, distributed three times over the course of the school year. In all, ADRA distributed more than 3,188 metric tons of commodities in the first and second rounds of distribution (April and May of 2003, respectively). ADRA operates the program in 165 schools in 17 of the 21 districts in Taiz, excluding Taiz city. ADRA and the Ministry of Education have targeted very remote parts of the Governorate, with very low female enrollment and poverty rates compared to other parts of the Governorate.

The commodities that were distributed provided access to much needed nutrition to communities and families in poverty. The communities have found the wheat and oil to be of high quality, and of greater nutritional value than what people can find or afford on the local market.

Yemen, officially known as the Republic of Yemen, (2002 est. pop. 18.4 million), covers 207,300 sq mi (535,800 sq km) in SW Asia, at the southern edge of the Arabian peninsula. The present nation of Yemen was formed in 1990, when the Yemen Arab Republic (the former Yemen or Northern Yemen) and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (the former Southern Yemen) were unified. Yemen is bordered on the north by Saudi Arabia, on the east by Oman, on the south by the Gulf of Aden, and on the west by the Red Sea. The islands of Kamaran, in the Red Sea, Pim, in the Bab al-Mandeb, and socotro, in the Arabian Sea, are part of Yemen. Sana is the capital; the port of Aden is the country's commercial capital

Yemen has a narrow, costal plain, stretching more than 700 mi (1,130 km), along the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula. It also has interior highlands and an eastern desert. The high lands, which are actually a section of upturned Arabian plateau, are the highest part (rising to more than 12,000 ft/3660 m) of the Arabian Peninsula. They receive an annual average rainfall of c. 20 in. (50mm), making them also the wettest part of the peninsula; most of the precipitation occurs during the summer rainy season. The remainder of Yemen is hot and virtually rainless in the costal regions. Numerous wadis radiate from the highlands, but Yemen has no permanent streams or oases, while springs provide local water needs.

Yemen is the most populous country in the Arabian Peninsula. The great majority of the population is Arab (90%); some are Afro-Arab. Minorities include Indians, Somalis, and Europeans. Islam is the main religion. The north of Yemen is 100% Muslim, both Sunni and Shiite; the south is predominantly Muslim but also has Christians and Hindus. Arabic is the nation’s principal language. The tribal social structure is still prevalent in the country, although its importance diminishes along the coast, due to more foreign contacts. Administratively the country is divided into 20 governorates.

Yemen produces grain, fruits, vegetables, khat (a mildly narcotic shrub), cotton, coffee, and livestock, but is dependent on imports for most of its essential needs. Terraced agriculture, dating from ancient times, is still practiced. Yemen is one of the poorest areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The climate is arid, and only a fraction of the land is arable. Paternalism is prevalent in the south, and the greatest amount of industry is located in Aden. Manufacturing, including food processing and the production of cotton textiles, leather goods, cement, and aluminum products, has increased but provides little real revenue. The country produces and refines petroleum, and oil export revenues have boosted the economy since the late 1980s. Yemen's GDP is also supplemented by remittances from Yemenis working abroad and by large amounts of foreign aid.

Yemen is governed under the constitution of 1991, as amended in 1994. The president is the head of state and is elected by popular voted for a five-year tem. The unicameral House of Representatives have 301 members, who are popularly elected to four-year terms.

ADRA received at the port of Aden two shipments of commodities totaling 4,500 metric tons of wheat flour in January and February of 2003, as well as a single shipment of 500 metric tons of soybean oil in January of 2003. From Aden, the commodities were easily transported to the implementation area of Taiz for distribution. All of the commodities were used for distribution; none were monetized.

Final: ADRA’s intention for their GFE program was to improve school enrollment for girls in grades one through nine in the Governorate of Taiz. ADRA also anticipates that the program will improve the nutrition of participating households through the take-home rations. Simultaneously, ADRA has worked to develop the capacity of local school councils, and is working to maximize their participation in the school feeding program.

Also, in collaboration with an ADRA Health and Education project operating in target areas, ADRA is in the process of developing a training manual to be used to strengthen parents committees. ADRA intends to make a lasting impact in the life of both the beneficiaries and the community, and thus places a high priority upon capacity building of the local community, which includes parents committee.

Midterm: The objective of this program is to improve school enrollment, retention, and reach a minimum 85% monthly attendance rate for 30,000 female school age students in primary grades one through nine. ADRA will accomplish this goal through the distribution of 4,500 tons of wheat flour and 500 tons of refined soybean oil as take-home rations to 30,000 female students who attend public schools in poor regions in the Taiz governorate of Yemen. The food being provided to the girls and their families will enhance their chances of starting and continuing school, even beyond the traditionally early age that girls assume adult roles (i.e. marriage, full workloads). The value of food aid in the form of take home rations is twofold: (a) it contributes to the household income, and (b) it gives status to the girl who can enhance the family’s well-being in a very substantive way. The take-home rations will consist of one 50-kg bag of wheat flour and one 4-liter jug of soybean oil. Beneficiaries will receive three allotments of rations, distributed every three months during the school year. The agreement was signed August 6, 2002, and implementation began in April 2003. ADRA’s program will span one year.

Implementation status: Currently 30,000 girls from grades one through nine in 165 schools receive rations to take home several times per year. The program operates predominantly in Taiz, in the northern region of Yemen.

The main criteria that the two parties has used to select the targeted schools are:

The project’s target area is in one of the most mountainous regions in the country, and access to the schools by road has been a very challenging task. Aside from the main road that runs between Governorates, there is no paved road, thus ADRA has to use four-wheel drive trucks, and in some cases even donkeys, to transport the food to the targeted schools.

Security still continues to be a threat to the program. The evacuation of ADRA/Yemen expatriate staff right after the signing of the agreement on August 6th of 2002 caused delays in implementation. During the time of the distribution in several occasions ADRA staff members and the monitors from the MoE had come under attack in some districts. ADRA has brought this to the attention of the local authorities and the MoE. In certain cases, ADRA will stop implementing in certain schools located in areas with unresolved security threats.

Other donor support: To address the need for additional classrooms, school desks and other infrastructure due to the expected increase in enrollment, the Ministry of Education, working with the Social Fund for Development and Public Works Project will support participating schools to ensure that sufficient facilities exist. The government of Yemen donates small warehouses at all distribution centers to be used as a storage place.

Sustainability: Parents committees play a central role in ADRA’s plan for sustainability. ADRA is coordinating with USAID/Yemen’s Basic Health and Education Program to develop training manuals for parent committees. The program has already engaged parents and will work to build the capacity of the committees and empower the parent committees and communities to make informed decisions and to exercise increasing involvement in the administration and operation of the feeding program.

In most of the schools that ADRA has been working there were no parent committees, and ADRA, with the Ministry of Education, was able to set up committees in those schools, using the existing procedures of the Ministry of Education. In those schools where there were previously existing parent committees, most were dysfunctional, and ADRA worked to revitalize them.

ADRA will make sure that the parent committees have started playing a significant role in the life of the schools and children when it comes to addressing the issue of sustainability, especially in those schools where there is a need for infrastructure improvement. ADRA will work closely with the parent committees to help them to apply to the social fund and other government and no-governmental organizations.

Another aspect of ADRA’s sustainability plan is its collaboration with the Ministry of Education, which has more than ten years of experience in a Food for Education program with WFP, in more than seven Governorates serving more than 70,000 students. ADRA is working with them to design an exit plan with the Ministry of Education to take over the program when ADRA’s work is finished.

ADRA was unable to conduct a baseline survey, thus very little definitive information on enrollment and attendance has been collected yet.

Enrollment: Net girls’ enrollment in Yemen is at a rate of 41.4% (as a percentage of eligible girls enrolled in school), and that rate drops to 30% in rural areas. There is some anecdotal information suggesting that this rate has significantly increased in areas where GFE is being operated.

Attendance: Due to complications in the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Yemeni Ministry of Education which delayed implementation of the program until April of 2003, ADRA was unable to conduct a baseline survey, thus very little definitive information on attendance has been collected yet. However, ADRA’s preliminary data has shown an attendance level of more than 85%. In the future, ADRA is confident that it could raise that level even higher, perhaps to 90%.

Performance: Because the program has only been operating since April of 2003, no definitive information on performance has been collected yet.

Special Emphasis on girls: Despite a noticeable physical expansion in Yemen’s educational facilities over the last several years, the educational system still suffers from shortfalls of enrollment capacity and favors male students over female students and urban areas over rural areas. Literacy and enrollment indicators, especially for women, demonstrate that the situation remains precarious. Yemen’s gender gap in literacy is among the widest in the world, with only a 23.5% literacy rate for females as opposed to a 72.3% literacy rate for males. Disparities are magnified in rural areas; for example, only 27% of female youth in rural areas are literate as opposed to 82% of female youth in urban areas. ADRA decided to exclusively target female students to encourage parents to send their daughters to attend school, and ultimately to narrow the gap between male and female enrollment in the targeted areas.

Net girls’ enrollment in Yemen is at a rate of 41.4% (30 % in rural areas). There is some anecdotal information suggesting that this rate has significantly increased in areas where GFE is being operated. The most frequently asked question by teachers, parent’s committee members, and local authorities during the distribution has been how ADRA will be ready to assist or absorb the huge turnout of female enrollment in the subsequent school year (2003/2004). ADRA has been receiving requests from other schools, Member of Parliament and local authorities to expand the program to their respective schools and Governorates.

Unanticipated Outcomes: Despite communities being told that only girls completing their mid-term exams in March would be eligible for this year’s programs, anecdotal information from teachers indicated that girls’ enrollment increased the last three months of the year (at Al-Nasr school in Mawaih-Taiz, for example, the number of girls enrolled increased from 111 before the donation to 302 after).

In many ways Yemen is a very centralized country in which decision-making is handled from a top-down perspective. ADRA is works closely with the government at all levels. ADRA’s priority in the next program will be to continue empowering more and more community members, especially parents and committees. This includes achieving 90% attendance rates. ADRA will also continue working with schools to enhance enrollment and achieve good academic achievement, trying to secure funds for infrastructure improvement for those schools where there is a need, and expand the program to other governorates.

ADRA will consider using soft white wheat in the future, instead of wheat flour. Wheat is valued more, has a longer shelf-life, and can be used to make a wider variety of food items.

The program has already started to have an impact on female students and the community at large. In a society where women are considered second or third class citizens, by targeting female students ADRA has been able to raise the status of females. Parents who did not care about the education of their female children in the past are now happy to send them to school because they are contributing economically to the family by providing food.

One girl told an ADRA monitor, "Before the program started it was like walking on a thin rope (cord): I can fail any time, and that will be the end of me, which means my parents can stop me from attending school any time they want. But with this program they will never dare to stop me coming to school. If they do that, they know they will loose 150 kg of flour and more than 15 liter of oil, which is a lot by Yemeni standards. Through this program, I can continue my education without any hesitation and fear of being pulled out of school by my parents, and this will give me a chance to become a lawyer, which is my dream job."

Last modified: Monday, April 14, 2008 06:13:23 PM