Attachment 1 - Draft Statement of Objectives.docx

DRAFT STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES

C.1 TITLE

Tentatively “USAID/Yemen Economic Activity.”

C.2 OVERVIEW

The United States Agency for International Development/Yemen (USAID/Yemen) intends to award an activity to address the economic constraints in Yemen that have led to a declining and unstable macroeconomy, employment, and standard of living. The proposed activity will have three components. The first component is to increase the capacity of key Republic of Yemen Government (ROYG) institutions such as the Central Bank of Yemen (CBY) and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) to improve the enabling environment for economic growth and stability. The second component is to support an enabling environment conducive to trade facilitation. The third component is to support a private sector engagement approach that will improve trade flows and build the capacity of actors along key supply chains.

C.3. CONTRACT LENGTH AND PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

USAID/Yemen anticipates this to be a 5-year contract to be implemented within Yemen. The contractor is expected to maintain a project office in Aden, Yemen.

C.4 BACKGROUND

C.4.a Socio-Economic Background Yemen's current economic and humanitarian crisis began with the overthrow of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011, initiating a period of significant political and economic descent that continues to this day. As a result, the Yemeni Rial (YER) has suffered highly volatile and rapid depreciation over the last decade, going from an unofficial rate of 218:1 USD in 2010[footnoteRef:1] to 1,225:1 in 2023, a 461 percent depreciation.[footnoteRef:2] The ban on new banknotes in areas outside the control of the government in December 2019 and the end of Saudi Arabian financial support further undermined the exchange rate. In recent years USAID’s support to the Central Bank of Yemen helped put in control measures to stabilize the exchange rate at around 750-1300, although Houthi attacks on oil exports in late 2022 undermined these measures.[footnoteRef:3] [1: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FXRATEYEA618NUPN] [2: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/22/saudi-arabia-puts-1-billion-in-yemens-aden-based-central-bank] [3: IMF, Yemen Economic Developments, 2022]

As a result of the conflict, Yemen’s economy has contracted over 40 percent since 2014[footnoteRef:4], with an estimated cumulative loss of $126 billion in real GDP (2015-2021), with substantial financing needs estimated at $20-25 billion for basic recovery.[footnoteRef:5] Moreover, as Yemen is highly import-dependent, importing over 90 percent of basic food products, the rapid nominal depreciation of the currency has led to volatile inflation rates, reaching 46 percent in 2022.[footnoteRef:6] [4: IMF, Yemen Economic Developments, 2022] [5: Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, Yemen Socio-economic Update, Issue 73, June 2022.] [6: IMF, Yemen Economic Developments, 2022]

Delayed and irregular payments of public sector salaries and social transfers, coupled with high inflation, have devastated the standard of living. In 2023, two-thirds of the population of Yemen—21.6 million people—will need humanitarian assistance and protection services.[footnoteRef:7] The 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan for Yemen (HRP) requires US$4.3 billion to reach the 17.3 million most vulnerable people needing humanitarian support due to protracted conflict, displacement, and economic deterioration, compounded by recurrent natural disasters. The improvement from the previous year's 23.4 million was due to the increased access due to the truce, increased humanitarian funding, and above-average rains which supported local agriculture production. [7: https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-humanitarian-response-plan-2023-january-2023-enar]

Monetary Policy The inability to pay salaries and social transfers is part of a larger financial crisis that has seen the CBY largely lacking foreign exchange reserves, cut off from the international financial system, and dependent on Saudi largesse to remain solvent. Unusually, without a functional MOF, the CBY fulfills the treasury function and is directly responsible for salary and social welfare payments. CBY’s problems are, in turn, a reflection of a greatly deteriorated current account balance due to continued relatively strong food and fuel imports; the collapse of the oil and gas sector, which formerly was the source for much of the export and budget revenue; and a decline in remittances largely due to the Saudization campaign in Saudi Arabia to replace foreign workers with Saudi workers.

In September 2016, the ROYG moved CBY headquarters from Sana’a to Aden, which became the country’s temporary capital in 2015 after the Houthis took over Sana’a during that year. The CBY’s move was controversial, leaving behind much of the technical expertise in such crucial areas as banking supervision and further isolating it from international financial flows.

While the government was on track for a balanced budget in the first quarters of 2022, after the truce expired in October, the Houthis attacked oil export facilities, significantly constraining revenues and resulting in a 2.2 percent GDP budget deficit. This deficit was financed through monetary sources, contributing to inflation/depreciation pressure during Q4-2022.[footnoteRef:8] The economic outlook remains uncertain and dependent on peace negotiations. [8: World Bank. Macroeconomic Poverty Outlook, April 2023]

Recently, the Central Bank of Yemen in Aden and the Central Bank of Yemen in Sana’a have ramped up campaigns to control the commercial banking sector and currency exchange. This is adding considerable complexity to the economic situation across Yemen and requires targeted mitigation measures to ensure that economic opportunities do not further deteriorate.

Fiscal Policy The MOF faces challenges in formulating budgets due to external economic shocks that complicate revenue forecasting. There are also difficulties in getting parliamentary approval for annual fiscal budgets in the current conflict. The MOF has yet to provide a unified budget that meets basic transparency and efficiency standards, and instead, creates stopgap spending plans.

The MOF has been most receptive to reforms in improving revenue and expenditure forecasting and budget management. Engagement with the MOF is considerably more politically challenging than with the CBY and requires careful political economic sensitivities for navigating a reform agenda. The Tax Authority[footnoteRef:9] has been a close partner with USAID developing the groundwork for successfully launching a value-added tax regime. [9: The Tax Authority in Yemen is a semi-independent entity. While it reports to the Ministry of Finance, it is its own entity.]

Trade Yemen acceded to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in June 2014, on the very eve of the conflict; therefore, Yemen has never ratified the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). Even so, the provisions of the TFA provide a useful blueprint for reform in the trade facilitation area. These provisions include: delivering practical measures to expedite the movement, release, and clearance of goods (including goods in transit); removing the regulatory and procedural burdens that traders face when conducting international trade; and improving cooperation between customs and other authorities.

Yemen generally scores poorly concerning such indicators as the World Bank’s Doing Business Trade Across Borders Index (189/189 in 2020), the World Bank Logistics Performance Index (132/167 in 2023), and the World Economic Forum’s Enabling Trade Measurement Framework (134/136 in 2016). Current donor interest in trade facilitation in Yemen stems primarily from the need to expedite imports of humanitarian significance into the country. In the longer term, the focus will be on facilitating export-led growth to take advantage of its geographic location between South Asia and Europe.

Yemen’s current customs and related trade facilitation policies and procedures are highly inefficient and create pervasive non-tariff barriers. In addition, issues such as corruption, powerful trade unions, and the monopoly status of trucking firms that service the ports, especially in the ROYG-controlled south, also affect trade. These problems have hindered Yemen’s ability to manage port and customs operations, especially in the southern ROYG-controlled areas. The resulting inefficiencies have limited the capacity to quickly import commodities of humanitarian significance and transport them to their ultimate consumers/beneficiaries, thus exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. In addition, systemic trade transit rigidities have hindered the country’s capacity to diversify its export base and spur export-led employment growth over the longer term.

Private Sector The ongoing conflict and economic deterioration increasingly endanger the livelihoods of the Yemeni people and increase their reliance on food assistance. Any minor shock directly impacts food consumption and is detrimental to most of the population. These challenges intersect with and are intensified by climate change impacts. For instance, frequent droughts in recent decades have contributed to food shortages. Over the years, farmers have experienced changes in crop production, from reduced quantities and quality due to changes in growing seasons and the type of produce they are able to cultivate. Similarly, increased temperatures, extreme weather events, and rising sea levels will worsen food insecurity and water scarcity and adversely affect coastal zones. Fishers are increasingly struggling with changes in the availability of fish, and now need to go further out into the sea to catch the same quantity of fish, requiring bigger and better boats which most cannot afford.[footnoteRef:10] [10: Interviews conducted by Nagwa Saleh, USAID/Yemen Economic Growth Specialist, and fishermen in Aden and Abyan governorates between March-April, 2023.]

Access to financing for small business owners is limited and virtually nonexistent in some parts of Yemen. Not only are bank branches in cities making access negligible to rural areas for about 73% of Yemenis, but the conflict has magnified the obstacles for women to access credit and has worsened their financial fragility and vulnerability, increasing exclusivity in the formal banking sector.

C.4.b. Linkages to Mission Strategy and U.S. Government (USG) The USAID/Yemen Economic Activity contributes to the goals of the U.S. Mission’s Integrated Country Strategy (ICS) for Yemen dated May 23, 2022. Specifically, the USAID/Yemen Economic Activity supports ICS Mission Goal 2 and Mission Objectives 2.1 and 2.2.

Mission Goal 2: The United States leads efforts to address the conflict’s economic drivers and to restore a stable and open Yemeni economy capable of supporting private sector development and international trade.

1. Mission Objective 2.1: U.S. assistance enables the Central Bank of Yemen and Ministry of Finance to increase transparency and improve monetary and fiscal policy; anti-corruption efforts resume; private sector confidence in Yemen increases, with the United States as a preferred partner.

2. Mission Objective 2.2: U.S. advocacy contributes to durable de-escalation of economic contention and targeted efforts to revive a functioning economy that empowers women and enables inclusive growth.

In addition to the ICS, the USAID/Yemen Economic Activity also conforms with the USAID/Yemen Strategic Framework 2023-26 by aligning with Development Objective #1: Inclusive economic growth accelerated and the two intermediate results:

· Intermediate Result 1.1: Macroeconomic institutions modernized

· Intermediate Result 1.2: Private sector resources are effectively leveraged

The USAID/Yemen Economic Activity supports those outcomes as it aims to strengthen institutions to promote a stable macroeconomic environment that facilitates trade while supporting sustainable livelihoods and improving agricultural and fisheries performance.

C.5 STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES

On the macroeconomic front, the Contractor will assist in the improvement of key government institutions to increase institutional capacity to formulate and implement monetary and fiscal policies and facilitate trade. The Contractor will collaborate closely with the Yemeni customs and port authorities (e.g., the Yemen Gulf of Aden Ports Corporation) to facilitate the timely entry of humanitarian assistance and international commercial transactions.

On the microeconomic front, the Contractor shall develop a private sector engagement approach that identifies and leverages private resources from a range of institutions both inside and outside Yemen. The Contractor must design activities in concert with the private sector partners that will improve Yemeni micro, small, and medium sized enterprises’ (MSMEs) competitiveness and access to domestic and international markets. This component is expected to represent roughly 25% of the overall level of effort/cost.

The development hypothesis behind this activity is: IF key government institutions have increased capacity to develop and implement policies to control inflation and facilitate international trade, if domestic and regional mid-sized to large businesses are effectively engaged and leverage their resources inside Yemen, if security and safety remain stable, and if private sector stakeholders are able to effectively advocate for enabling environment reforms, THEN Yemen will have become more resilient to external shocks, MSMEs will have increased income, with reduced dependence on humanitarian aid, and directed towards a pathway for economic recovery.

Description of Objectives:

The USAID/Yemen Economic Activity has three objectives that the Contractor must achieve. The first component is the core activity, with two subcomponents, while the last two components will be subject to the availability of adequate funding to substantiate a sustainable approach.

Objective 1: Improved Macroeconomic Functions of Key Institutions

Sub-Objective 1.1: Improved Monetary Policy Development and Implementation Under this sub-objective, the Contractor must work towards improving the CBY’s functioning as a regulatory body responsible for managing economic crises and stabilizing prices. At a minimum, the Contractor must detail in their performance work statement how they plan to build the capacity of the CBY so that they are able to implement sound oversight over foreign exchange management, banking supervision, and monetary policy development and implementation. The Contractor should consider the following minimum indicators and propose additional indicators, if needed based on their proposed approach:

Required Results:

· Minimum of five policies drafted and adopted by CBY

· 20% improvement in the efficiency of foreign exchange management as measured by an index

· 20% increase in capacity of CBY staff to implement monetary policy reforms

Sub-Objective 1.2: Improved Fiscal Policy Development and Implementation The Contractor will work with MOF to develop annual budgets with a well-organized and integrated budget control and tracking process, which promotes budgetary accountability and reduces/eliminates arrears. Additional reforms also include close collaboration with senior stakeholders to establish an efficient and automated treasury system, with data migrated from CBY to the MOF, and the development/implementation of a tax administration system that enhances revenue intake and ensures transparent and fair treatment of all taxpayers. As mentioned above about engaging the CBY, the Contractor will similarly need to coordinate with the IMF and MOF to define the reform roadmap.

Required Results:

· Minimum of five new policies drafted and adopted by MOF

· Minimum of 4% increase in revenue collection by the MOF

· Minimum 50% improvement of budget formulation and adoption at MOF and line ministries

Objective 2: Strengthened Trade Facilitation Policy Development and Implementation

Improved trade facilitation will reduce dwell times (i.e., the time spent at a scheduled stop without moving) and the cost of exporting and importing, stimulating trade and economic growth. Integrating a country’s economy into the global trading environment is crucial for growth, welfare, and job creation. A more efficient trading environment is vital in Yemen due to the humanitarian crisis and the high reliance of Yemen on imports.

Required Results:

· Exports increase by at least 10%

· Minimum 10% improvement in trade efficiency as measured by an index

Objective 3: Improved Private Sector Engagement

This component aims to support a range of private sector institutions that can more effectively support small and micro businesses. Interventions should be focused on leveraging resources from a diverse set of private sector stakeholders including commercial banks, domestic medium and large businesses, and international investors, buyers, and suppliers. By focusing on private sector engagement best practices, this activity is intended to create a pull factor for women and vulnerable groups to more effectively participate in the economy. This support will be marked by a concerted private sector engagement approach that will create linkages between MSMEs, business service providers, ROYG agencies, and international markets. In Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations (FCS), engaging the private sector can uniquely address and help to mitigate drivers of instability and conflict by creating jobs, providing essential goods, increasing financial inclusion, developing infrastructure, and promoting other forms of inclusive economic development. When done carefully and thoughtfully, engaging the private sector in FCS can help to reduce or remove incentives for further conflict and instability by lifting communities out of poverty and promoting resilience[footnoteRef:11]. [11: Primer on Private Sector Engagement in Fragile and Conflict Affected Situations]

The Contractor is encouraged to explore private sector engagement approaches identified in USAID’s Private Sector Engagement Policy[footnoteRef:12] that may lead to better outcomes. Notably, identify ways to: mobilize private capital for scale, seek market based solutions for greater sustainability, make catalytic use of USAID resources, and increase and deepen collaboration with the private sector across sectors and programming. The Contractor shall support a private sector engagement approach that improves: Competitiveness of MSMEs across select value chains, and Ensures efficacy of business support providers [12: https://www.usaid.gov/documents/1865/private-sector-engagement-policy-0]

Required Results:

· Minimum of 15,000 new loans to MSME’s over the life of the activity

· Minimum of $10 million Foreign Direct Investment

· Minimum of 10 public-private partnerships facilitated

· Minimum of 10 partnership agreements facilitated between Yemeni private sector and international buyers/sellers/investors

C.6 ACTIVITY PARAMETERS

C.6.a Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Aligned with USAID's priorities, this activity will mainstream gender throughout its components and emphasize an equitable and truly gender-sensitive approach. The socio-economic dynamics for women have worsened due to the ongoing conflict; however, out of necessity, they have increased their involvement in income-generating activities. The Contractor must, therefore, consider how all interventions and approaches will affect women and men of all ages and ensure the activities contribute to gender equality and women's empowerment and promote women's economic participation. The Contractor must ensure that local women's cultural obstacles and restraints are analyzed and considered. Activity interventions maximize economic empowerment, decision-making, access to productive resources, and the opportunity to increase household incomes.

C.6.b. Climate Change Climate change threatens development progress, exacerbates inequities, and increases water and food scarcity in Yemen. Because of the country's nearly negligible GHG emissions, the Contractor may embrace adaptation and help mitigate climate change's impact.

During the planning and design stages, the Contractor shall consider the impact of increased temperatures, increased variability of precipitation, and an increase in extreme events. The Contractor therefore, may consider these evolving changes and offer support for climate resilient practices in light of them.

C.6.c Inclusive Development The USAID/Yemen Economic Activity must support marginalized persons (including but not limited to unemployed young coastal women, widows, female-headed households, IDPs, and victims of Gender-Based Violence) through well-targeted training, capacity-building, technical assistance, coaching, and mentoring activities. Through highly tailored, market-led assistance, the USAID/Yemen Economic Activity will support marginalized groups to establish and grow their businesses, increase their capacity to access new markets, offer new products, and create new jobs. This, in turn, is expected to result in increased incomes and awareness, which will help these groups adapt to adverse changes and shocks arising from the ongoing conflict and related political and economic stresses.

C.6.d. Local Capacity Strengthening USAID emphasizes the importance of the utilization of local systems. Accomplishing the objectives will require the engagement of local actors, both from the demand and the supply side. Sustainability and self-reliance must be considered a top priority. Local partners and beneficiaries must be empowered and have the capacity to take ownership of the development processes and maintain the activity’s results and impacts beyond the life of this activity.

C.6.e. Youth The population of Yemen is among the youngest in the world. Approximately 60 percent of Yemen’s population is under 24 years of age, and roughly 21 percent are between 15 and 24 years old. If youth are not properly trained and integrated into the workforce, particularly young women, they will likely remain unemployed, resulting in diminished economic productivity and potential recruitment into illicit activities by criminal or violent extremist forces. Yemen’s successful transition to political and social stability and economic prosperity will be highly unlikely without tackling the youth employment dilemma.

C.6.f. Sustainability and Localization USAID envisions expanding the share of its programs that are locally led, in which a diverse group of local actors define priorities, design projects, drive implementation, measure and evaluate results, and more fully own and sustain efforts to save lives, reduce poverty, reduce corruption, address climate change, and emerge from humanitarian crises. The Contractor must incorporate the USAID principle of localization where possible in the implementation of the activity, through capacity development to local organization as well as in terms of the sustainability plan defined above.

The Contractor must prepare a sustainability plan that indicates the long-term vision and all necessary milestones to be achieved by the key stakeholders and counterparts. Assistance may be given to stakeholders and counterparts to implement their part of the sustainability plan. Whenever possible, the Contractor must integrate the sustainability element for all main tasks of the award.

In developing the sustainability plan, the Contractor must consider that stakeholders under the three activity results--government officials, members and directors of trade associations, and individual MSME owners/managers--differ in decision-making processes, available financial resources, governing rules and regulations, and political pressures.

The Contractor must continuously evaluate the terms/elements of the sustainability plan and take the necessary action after consultation with USAID whenever there are noticeable deviations that could affect the sustainability of results.

C.7 MONITORING, EVALUATION AND LEARNING

The Contractor must conduct rigorous monitoring, evaluation, and learning across all components, designed for the information needs of managers and key stakeholders to provide performance data that is accurate, up-to-date, relevant to the Yemen operating environment, actionable, and per USAID’s ADS 201.

In line with USAID/Yemen’s push for greater collaboration and coordination, the AMELP must also serve as a central tool for ensuring and tracking increased coordination of components of the activity with other cross-sector activities -- including those supported by USAID/Yemen, other USG initiatives and efforts, other donors, and the ROYG -- contributing to this activity’s outcomes and achievements of its high-level goal. The AMELP must also allow USAID to gauge the Contractor’s performance and understand any unforeseen changes in strategy to achieve intended results. Finally, the Contractor must ensure that across objectives, the MEL system maintains a high degree of fidelity to USAID/Yemen’s ICS.

C.8 COLLABORATING, LEARNING AND ADAPTING

USAID/Yemen seeks to promote Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) among stakeholders involved in implementing the Mission’s programs. The Mission recognizes that development efforts yield positive change more quickly if they are coordinated and collaborative, test promising new approaches in a continuous search for improvement, and build on what works while eliminating what does not. The Contractor must therefore implement an effective collaborating, learning, and adapting approach to continuously assess the activity’s causal pathways and desired outcomes and adjust the interventions and approach as necessary to yield the most effective course of action.

On the macroeconomic front, multiple international donors have begun to work closely with the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Yemen, necessitating close coordination. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank co-chair the Technical Assistance/Capacity Development working group, which helps to coordinate between USAID, the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), KSA, and the OECD (funded by the EU) to prevent duplication of training. The Contractor must ensure that its interventions contribute to achieving the objectives of this inter-agency, multi-donor effort.

Private sector and trade issues are discussed under an overarching Economy and Private Sector Working Group, co-chaired by the World Bank and the European Union. This working group is part of the Yemen Partner Technical Teams and the Yemen Partner Group. The purpose is to provide a collaboration and coordination platform, propose policy and reform solutions that promote economic development, and create suitable conditions for private sector stakeholders.

FCDO is one of USAID/Yemen’s closest partners in the economic sector and has financially supported USAID programming. This financial partnership reinforces closer collaboration through frequent information-sharing and joint advocacy efforts with the ROYG and enhances USAID's role among the larger donor community. The Contractor will need to provide regular updates to FCDO staff about reform efforts and provide reporting based on the terms of the partnership.

Given the dire economic situation in the country, virtually all donor-supported microeconomic programming in Yemen is humanitarian or involves large-scale interventions. The spectrum runs from cash transfers to cash-for-work to livelihood-supporting activities that provide assets such as boats or livestock. Relatively little programming is aimed at delivering capacity-building or technical support to such actors as farmers and their associations or owners/managers of SMEs.

C.9 OUTREACH AND COMMUNICATIONS

Effective outreach and communications with internal and external stakeholders will be essential to the project's success. Consistent reporting on major activities and their impact on target population groups and institutions will help maintain a high degree of awareness and understanding among key stakeholders and build a broad support base for the project.

[END OF STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES]

Annex 1 – List of Ongoing USAID Activities with which the Contractor Must Pursue Opportunities for Collaboration

USAID Yemen Community Resilience Activity: The Activity will prevent ongoing recruitment, especially of children, by strengthening the resilience of communities and supporting the establishment of prevention mechanisms and mitigation measures. Programming will be customized to individual community needs and note the significant roles community leaders, religious leaders, and women play in preventing recruitment. For former combatants, especially children, who have already been trafficked or recruited into armed groups and have returned home, the Activity will seek to provide targeted services and assistance to support communities and CAAFAG in their reintegration efforts and to mitigate the risk of former combatants, especially CAAFAG, rejoining armed groups. Programming will be attuned to the specific needs of women and girls, youth, and people who have been victims of armed conflict in other ways, including through sexual- and gender-based violence (SGBV).

Peace and Inclusive Political Processes in Yemen (PIPP): The purpose of this activity is to support the ability of the Republic of Yemen Government (ROYG) to govern more effectively and responsively and to function as a more productive interlocutor in peace and political processes by equipping the ROYG with capacity-building and consensus-strengthening support, promoting meaningful engagement between the ROYG and civil society (especially as it pertains to peace and political processes), and supporting the safe and meaningful engagement of women within the ROYG and civil society in governance, peace, and political processes.

USAID Building Peace in Yemen: The purpose of this activity is to advance conflict prevention, mitigation and support to community-level conflict resolution mechanisms in Republic of Yemen Government (ROYG)-controlled areas in the South. Through a participatory community-engagement model, the Activity will bring together vulnerable and marginalized groups, including representatives of conflicting groups, on activities that address issues of common concern and that foster engagement, trust, empathy, and interdependency, and thus strengthen community cohesion and reduce the likelihood of violence. The Activity will focus on the prevention and mitigation of land and water disputes, as well as the promotion of mechanisms for the resolution of such disputes.

Gateway to Education: Gateway to Education supports USAID/Yemen’s ongoing development of a strengthened, resilient education system to meet the complex learning needs for children in Yemen.

Education in Emergency: USAID/Yemen's Education in Emergency (EiE) activity aims to ensure safe and equitable access to quality education for Yemeni girls and boys, in both host and internally displaced persons (IDP) communities, and for students with disabilities. The project focuses on supporting the Ministry of Education (MoE), Father and Mother Councils, and teachers to strengthen educational opportunities, and on providing materials to support literacy, numeracy, and active learning, while reducing conflict-induced trauma through the integration of social and emotional learning. EiE seeks to restore school routines to increase normalcy, trust, and enrollment, and expand inclusive approaches that empower all girls and boys to complete their education.

Addressing WASH Services in Yemen: The purpose of this activity is to restore vulnerable populations’ access to water/sanitation services through the rehabilitation of water/sanitation systems and the provision of spare parts, construction of household (HH) latrines, provision of essential WASH items, and hygiene promotion initiatives. Capacity-building will be provided to public/private service providers and Community Water Committees (CWCs) to restore water/sanitation service provision and build their operations and maintenance (O&M) capacities. Research, pilot-testing and investments will be done on rural groundwater conservation, rainwater harvesting/storage, and cost-recovery initiatives will be supported to increase knowledge and resilience based on efficient use of water in agriculture.

Strengthening Nutrition Services in Yemen: This activity increases the availability of and access to high-quality nutrition specific services that are essential to addressing immediate determinants of malnutrition, including a focus on the crucial 1,000 days from pregnancy plus the first two years of life. Maternal and child nutrition services provided by the activity include life-saving infant and young child feeding interventions that strengthen approaches to the prevention and treatment of wasting, including establishing health, food and social protection systems aligned to support healthy diets, corresponding nutrition interventions. Technical assistance supports comprehensive approaches that increase access to skilled breastfeeding counseling and delivery of quality nutrition services.

COVID-19 Integrated Critical/Emergency Care for Severe Cases (WHO): The purpose of this activity is to support the scale up of access to and quality of care for severely ill patients suffering from Covid-19 by: increasing availability of medical oxygen in health facilities through provision of spare-parts, reparation and maintenance of eight only partially functional Oxygen plants; support to running costs and connection of Oxygen plants to ICU units in 5 hospitals; Roll out of theoretical and on the job ICU training to improve care for severely ill patients in at least 5 referral hospitals. It also aims to integrate COVID19 vaccines into: fixed site primary health care services; community based (outreach) PHC services; secondary and tertiary care services in district hospitals, and strengthen coordination and leadership at central level.

Yemen Continuous Learning and Evaluation (YCLE): The purpose of this contract is to provide comprehensive performance measurement, planning, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) services for USAID/Yemen and its implementing partners (IPs) to enable it to fulfill its performance monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and information-sharing obligations as mandated in USAID’s ADS, evaluation policy and other Agency guidance.

Annex 2 – List of Other Donor Projects in the Economic Growth Sector with which the Contractor Must Pursue Opportunities for Collaboration

World Bank - Yemen Emergency Electricity Access Project. Improve access to electricity in rural and peri-urban areas within Yemen and plan for the restoration of the Yemen power sector ($120 million; 2022-2026).

World Bank - Yemen Food Security Response and Resilience Project. Improve the availability of and access to food and nutritious diets, both in the short and medium term, for targeted households in the Project Area, and to enhance Yemen's capacity to respond to food insecurity ($127 million; 2021-2026).

EU-OECD - Promoting Economic Resilience in Yemen. Enable key central level economic institutions to lead economic recovery and create the conditions for private sector development. Strengthen capacity for economic data collection and analysis Promote resilience and private sector development, focusing on job creation and employment of the youth, women and internally displaced persons (IDPs). Facilitate donor coordination and policy coherence in the economic sector (2020-2023).

IMF - The Middle East Regional Technical Assistance Center (METAC) - Capacity Development Activities. Support in banking supervision, public financial management, and revenue administration.

UNDP - Supporting Resilient Livelihoods, Food Security, and Climate Adaptation in Yemen, Joint Programme (ERRY III). This programme, managed by UNDP, is implemented jointly by FAO, ILO, UNDP, and WFP in seven governorates in Yemen. It aims to address three components: (1) Community conflict reduction and social cohesion; (2) Access to clean energy and climate adaptation; and (3) Livelihoods and food security (2022-2025).

UNDP - Sustainable Fishery Development in Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (SFISH). Partnered with the World Bank’s International Development Association, the Public Work Project (PWP), and Small and Micro Enterprise Promotion Service (SMEPS), the project focuses on reviving the fishery sector in select areas while ensuring its effective management for its resilience; contributing to food and nutritional security by increasing food availability, access, and utilization in the project areas; and creating sustainable income generation and livelihood opportunities for the Yemeni households engaged in the fishery value chain ($41.1 million; 2022-2025).

FAO - Emergency Support To Protect Fishery-Based Livelihoods. Rehabilitation of four fish landing centers in the governorates in Al-Mahra, Al-Hodeidah, and Abyan ($8 million; 2022-2023).

KfW - Resilience Program in the Irrigation and Agricultural Sector. Implemented by FAO, the project is to strengthen the resilience of the local population by rehabilitating infrastructure in irrigation and agriculture; provision of up to 500 agricultural infrastructure systems and rehabilitation of up to 180 irrigation systems in Hadramaut, Wadi Bana and Dhamar.

KfW - Support for the Microfinance Sector and MSME. Implemented by the Social Fund for Development, the project helps MSME in Yemen to gain access to microfinance services and strengthen the existing structures in the sector (five microfinance institutions) and ensure that lending happens according to responsible finance standards.

The Saudi Program for the Development and Reconstruction of Yemen (SDRPY). Engaged in a wide number of dedicated projects focused on agriculture and fisheries, ROYG policy reforms, transportation (air, road and ports), energy, and oil derivatives.