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CSSW and YHPF Give Hope to Displaced People in Marib Governorate

Countries
Yemen
Sources
Human Access
Publication date

Special report

For years, the ongoing war in Yemen has displaced waves of people to Marib, the lightly populated governorate lying 175 km east of Sana’a. The Charitable Society for Social Welfare (CSSW), a Yemeni NGO devoted to improving the lives of internally displaced people, has seen its role in Marib change in recent years: initially seeking to protect the vast numbers of IDPs in the governorate, CSSW recently partnered with OCHA and the Yemen Humanitarian Pooled Fund to develop long-term programs supporting Marib’s IDP population.

Marib’s native-born population is roughly 350,000; the IOM estimated in 2018 that 895,000 IDPs had joined them, creating immense challenges for the overall population, the governorate’s administration, and NGOs like CSSW.

In such an environment, IDPs take nothing for granted; in some cases, only a carefully managed, large-scale humanitarian effort can restore some of the basic necessities IDPs have left behind. In a scene replayed daily in Marib, a displaced man recently credited CSSW with an important step back to normality. "Thanks to everyone who contributed to my daughters' return to school and saved them from loss and ignorance," he said as he watched his three daughters returning to school in their new uniforms after a difficult displacement journey from Hodeidah to Marib.

Other IDPs come from Marib governorate itself. Fatima, for example, was displaced from her home in Sirwah district as a result of the ongoing conflict in the outskirts of the district, specifically in the al-Rawdah area.

Fatima is an elderly single woman who suffers several chronic diseases and the effects of a recent stroke, and cannot afford necessary treatment for her conditions. A team from the Community Center for IDPs in Marib visited the neighborhood where Fatima lives. In turn, the team studied her status and tracked her case. Fatima now receives regular medical care and cash assistance, and a new tent has replaced her dilapidated one.

As the war grinds on, the displacement continues. Mitigating the human consequences of war is one of CSSW’s key goals. The Protection Project 2018, funded by YHPF and implemented by CSSW in four districts across Marib, was established to shield displaced persons from the worst humanitarian crises they faced.

Overview and assessment

With support from YHPF, CSSW developed the 2018 Protection Project, which targeted four districts in Marib (Sirwah, Marib al-Wadi, Madghal, and the city of Marib). These districts were selected for their large numbers of displaced people and the harsh conditions in which they continued to live.

The project aimed to provide an integrated response to the direst challenges facing IDPs, offering basic life-saving assistance such as food and shelter. It also provided protection services to vulnerable individuals, such as monitoring services, psychosocial and legal support, cash assistance, and referral of critical cases to more specialized agencies.

The program included a significant focus on the unique challenges facing female IDPs, providing psychosocial support for survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), establishing safe spaces for women and girls, as managing cases of conflict-affected children and disbursing cash assistance to their mothers. These gender-inflected services were enhanced by support for community-protection networks and case-management sessions.

CSSW’s programs and projects are implemented according to well-considered methodology that produces an effective and efficient conduit between donors and beneficiaries. The program’s first step was an assessment phase built around field studies conducted by teams of qualified researchers.

The results of this assessment showed that 41,240 people affected by the conflict were monitored as likely victims of human rights violations and protection challenges. IDPs represented 21,286 cases and children 11,696 cases.

7,476 families were assessed, comprising 41,029 family members. Households’ needs varied, the most common being monetary aid, medical assistance, food relief and prevention of malnourishment, provision of shelter, water and sanitation, and child-protection services.

The service phase

With the assessment phase providing a detailed roadmap, the service phase could begin.

The Project also aimed to provide protection and shelter assistances and services in the form of an integrated response to IDPs and conflict-affected population to fill in the humanitarian gaps.

The most immediate and effective form of relief to IDPs is often cash assistance. 25,460,270 YER of emergency cash assistance was disbursed during the project period, benefiting 320 individuals.

120 families in Sirwah district received immediate emergency shelter, and another 3,000 in Sirwah, Marib city, and Madghal district received winterization services and non-food items. 5,491 women and girls accessed safe spaces created by the program.

100 children were directly supported by the project, receiving 172,162,150 YER in assistance, mostly in the form of case management and direct child-protective services addressing serious issues such as child labor and denial of education.

17,554 individuals benefited directly from psychological counseling and psychosocial support sessions. These services are central to any relief plan: the majority of IDPs suffer from psychological trauma directly related to their displacement, whether because of experiences with the ongoing war or from the pressures they face following their displacement. Effective psychological counseling allows other forms of relief to convey their full intended benefits.

Community workers made roughly 1,250 visits to the homes of IDPs. Based on their findings, 4,473 cases of legal support and counseling were opened on issues of protection, violations of Yemeni and international law, and advice on specific legal issues.

204 community-awareness sessions benefited 6,662 individuals. These programs addressed various topics of crucial importance to IDPs, including children's rights, women's rights, human rights, disease prevention, conflict resolution, self-protection, the importance of education and volunteering, and so on.

The program placed special emphasis on supporting and developing community-protection networks. 80 training courses were conducted, benefiting 1,250 individuals.

A similar but separate program of community-awareness sessions, developed and presented by members of community-protection networks, produced 73 sessions benefiting 1,543 individuals.

Along with these direct forms of aid and service, around 15,700 individuals benefited from referrals to CSSW’s partner NGOs working in Marib.

The project’s initial goal was to serve 97,833 persons. By the end of 2018, it had reached 136,061 IDPs, representing a completion rate of 139%. This dramatic increase was made possible by CSSW’s remarkable ability to efficiently adjust its support programs in response to local and individual needs.

Challenges and recommendations

The 2018 Protection Project has had a significant impact on Marib’s IDPs. The expressions of gratitude mentioned earlier in this article are repeated every day as IDPs thank CSSW and OCHA for their assistance.

Any project of this scale and ambition encounters some obstacles. Geography is chief among them: Marib contains large stretches of mountainous and desert regions, and some IDPs live in quite remote areas. Marib’s diverse cultural environment and the continued influx of IDPs can also slow the delivery of humanitarian services, and the lack of new displacement camps means that aid workers must often travel to IDPs in scattered locations, rather than offering centralized services.

Challenges also include the difficulty of reaching Marib in the first place, along with a lack of services and infrastructure in the governorate. Many camps lack basic services such as electricity, water, and sanitation, and others enjoy those services only sporadically. The governorate’s underdeveloped health and education infrastructure are sometimes overwhelmed by influxes of IDPs: the education system in particular is finding it difficult to accommodate large numbers of new students. Psychological services are difficult to come by in Marib, preventing many IDPs from effectively managing the emotional trauma surrounding their displacement.

It is worth noting that the humanitarian field has its bad actors. IDPs who have had negative experience with NGOs (or with people posing as representatives of humanitarian agencies) are naturally reluctant to cooperate with humanitarian workers again. CSSW noticed this dynamic in the earliest phase of the project, when some IDPs reacted negatively to the field teams administering the initial survey.

Exchange-rate fluctuations, rising food prices, and the rial’s diminishing purchasing power also complicated matters. Above all, the continually rising number of IDPs makes it difficult for even the most experienced and diligent NGO to plan ahead with perfect accuracy.

The Protection Project 2018’s final report presents a number of recommendations. These include a governorate-wide focus on the gaps in its infrastructure, followed by a sustained commitment to addressing essential challenges such as food security, malnutrition, shelter, education, water, and sanitation. A more effective and sustained improvement of these conditions for all residents of Marib will make it all the easier to address the specific challenges faced by its IDPs.

The report also recommends working formally with projects that provide reliable livelihoods for IDPs, helping them achieve a degree of self-sufficiency. In addition, it is absolutely crucial that humanitarian partners coordinate among themselves to avoid duplication of services and to distribute aid fairly and efficiently in targeted areas.