World Water Day 2010 Page 1& 2
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UNDP Yemen Quarterly Newsletter - Issue # 3 Photo Story: World Water Day 2010 Page 3& 4 Gender and Economic Empowerment in Hadramout (1/2) Page 5&6 Gold for UNDP SGBP Website in Yemen Web Awards 2009 Page 7 Fighting HIV/AIDS in Yemen: A Vignette Page 8 World Water Day 2010 Page 1& 2 Cover photo by Yazan Al-Saghiry www.undp.org.ye Page 0 UNDP Yemen Quarterly Newsletter - Issue # 3 World Water Day 2010 Taiz, Ibb and Haradh By: Yazan Al-Saghiry Communications Officer UNDP Yemen Top of the world, when we are thirsty he blessed land “Yemen” is represented by the Ministry of Water and local communities, religious leaders, academics, crying for waters, with no Environment and the National Water Resources women and youth. School Groups were created to tears! With no lakes, streams Authority (NWRA), are working hand in hand, raise the students’ awareness of water issues and nor fountains, water in Yemen with other partners, to address this crisis with the challenges. Imams in Mosques utilized Friday is either salty from the sea or utmost care and responsibility. They have always Prayers to talk about the public common wasted from the sky. seized such an opportunity, namely the World responsibly towards water resources. TOn the 22nd of March, another World Water Day Water Day, to raise the awareness of Yemenis and In short, all messages in Taiz and Ibb were loud was celebrated under a very important theme to emphasize the importance of the corporate social and clear. Yemen is clearly a case where one has to “Clean Water for a Healthy World”. It is always an responsibility towards water scarcity in this talk about a water crisis without being alarmist. occasion to remind us all that access to water for country. Water supply is naturally constrained by virtue of life is a basic human need and a fundamental The occasion was recognized in Taiz, Ibb and in Yemen’s location in the dry Arabian Peninsula. human right. the Internal Displaced People Camps (Al-Mazrak However, human action has rapidly worsened the The United Nations Development Programme I& III). A big awareness raising campaign was problem with the use of subsidized pumps and (UNDP) and the Government of Yemen, launched in Taiz and Ibb with the participation of diesel to run them, with no education on www.undp.org.ye Page 1 UNDP Yemen Quarterly Newsletter - Issue # 3 Water Supply System, which was During the ceremony, a member of the community installed in Al-Mazrak camps I and recited a touching poem talking about the situation III, to provide safe drinking water to in the camps, and underlining the important theme 45,000 beneficiaries. The system of the World Water Day. Government of Yemen, was fully funded by Oxfam GB and OXFAM, UNICEF and UNHCR showed UNICEF. commitment to the cause and talked about the Camps inhabitants were happy with importance of this day, in that place, and under the inauguration and equally happy these circumstances. with the World Water Day! The Finally, the World Water Day is over, but the water recognition in Haradh made them challenge in Yemen remains. feel integrated and that their The gentleman, on the right, looked at me and said: Take my photo! All what he problems were not forgotten. wants is to be seen and heard! In the main ceremony, in AlMazrak appropriate water-conserving techniques. This has III, Ms. Pratibha Mehta, UN Resident and eventually led to over-utilization of water from Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident tube wells. What is worse, up to 80 percent of new Representative, talked about the commitment that wells in the Highlands are used for Qat production, we all share towards the innocents which has no nutritional value, thus crowding out people that flew from their homes and food crops, in addition to adversely affecting everyday lives to settle in an open sky household welfare due to impact of Qat purchase safe heaven. on household budgets and lowering labour She described the project as essential productivity. and crucial for the camps and the In one sentence, water scarcity is the most crucial nearby areas that are inhabited by challenge faced by the country and is likely to Internal Displaced People, who could remain so unless drastic measures are taken. not sign in the camps, for different The recognition of the World Water Day in Haradh reasons. coincided with the inauguration of the Camps www.undp.org.ye Page 2 UNDP Yemen Quarterly Newsletter - Issue # 3 Photo Story 1: World Water Day 2010 in Haradh Photos taken by: Zahra Sethna, UNICEF Communications Specialist The main H.E. Minister ceremony was Ahmed Al attended by UN Kohlani, agencies, Minister of State, Government of said that the Yemen, local government is council, local prioritizing community, rural water issues in areas water its development authority, and agenda. others. UN Resident and Humanitarian A poem by a Coordinator& camp inhabitant. UNDP Resident Its main theme Representative was: “no one Ms. Pratibha can imagine how Mehta expressed difficult it is to her satisfaction leave our homes that water will and lives, and also cover areas live in a camp”. nearby camps. www.undp.org.ye Page 3 UNDP Yemen Quarterly Newsletter - Issue # 3 Photo Story 2: World Water Day 2010 in Haradh UNICEF Deputy Representative, Ms. Anne-Marie Local Fonseka, said communities that the water were happy with supply network the recognition is promising step of the World towards Water Day 2010, bettering the live in Haradh. conditions in camps. A tap opening to inaugurate the It is promising to water supply see children’s system in smiles, after all AlMazrak I and the suffering. III, and the nearby areas. www.undp.org.ye Page 4 UNDP Yemen Quarterly Newsletter - Issue # 3 Women agricultural laborers in onion fields in Tarim Gender and Economic Empowerment in Hadramout 1/2 By: Suvira Chaturvedi Conflict Prevention Adviser (Gender) UNDP Yemen hey rise at dawn and come by farm work are bought by each woman, while the livelihoods in several districts, and women bear the the truckloads, three transport is provided by the farm owner. None of greatest brunt and hardships. truckloads to be accurate, all the women have received any agricultural training. Moreover, this group is only a microcosm of the packed and huddled, dust They express a keen and earnest interest to many women who make up more than 70 per cent covered, and bumping over participate in a training to expand and diversify of the unpaid workers in the agricultural sector in the rough roads to work in the agricultural production such as in growing Yemen. In Wadi Hadramout and in the rural areas onion fields on the outskirts vegetable crops and acquiring new skills, so as to outside the main urban towns, women are of Tarim in Wadi Hadramout. move out of their dire poverty situation. However, important producers of homestead crops and These are women agricultural they do not have land or any inputs to undertake livestock, and their post harvest activities add value Tlaborers who eke out a meager living working in such activities. Levels of illiteracy are extremely to crops produced. While agricultural production is the fields owned by a rich farmer. Onions are an high and only 10 per cent of the group indicated increasingly dependent on women’s labour, they important crop in Wadi Hadramout that captures they have a basic education. have little or no access to and control of productive the local markets, and quality onions are also being Many of the male members in these households resources, ownership of land, opportunities for exported. As part of a gender and economic have migrated to Mukalla in search of work extension training in agriculture, agro processing, empowerment project formulation mission, UNDP opportunities, leaving behind the women and marketing, animal breeding techniques, and few met with a group of 35 women in the onion fields children. The desperate need to survive, earn an opportunities to access modern tools, new in early 2010. income and support the children and themselves, technology and credit to enhance productivity and We ask the women what they do and “How much has meant that many women who previously and incomes. do you earn daily?” They say that they toil 6 days a prior to the 2008 floods in Hadramout owned small We meet other groups of women, clients of a micro week in the onion fields and earn 350 Riyals farms and livestock now provide cheap labour to finance programme implemented by a Micro (around USD 1.5) per day. The small farm the rich farmers who are planting and harvesting Finance Institution (MFI). They explain that while equipment and simple hand gloves for the tough onions. The damaging floods adversely affected women have improved access to loans, profits from www.undp.org.ye Page 5 UNDP Yemen Quarterly Newsletter - Issue # 3 of economic opportunities and the in low skilled economic activities with limited lack of institutional support for access to vocational training. The “marginalization young people in their career and job of women and prevailing traditional practices are aspirations. Those who do contributing factors to poverty” (same source participate in vocational training mentioned earlier), as is their low levels of cannot enter into business or work participation and empowerment in the development opportunities because of lack of process. follow up support in terms of inputs, Based on the above mentioned issues, the equipment and technical assistance. innovative UNDP Gender and Economic For many male youth this leads to Empowerment Project is initiated by UNDP in problems such as “dropping out of Wadi Hadramout starting out in four districts.