Yemen – Measuring Progress Toward Durable Solutions In Yemen

Since the onset of Yemen’s conflict in 2015, Ta’iz Governorate has witnessed one of the longest and most fragmented battlefronts in the country making number of people displaced increased sharply in a short period of time. According to the latest estimate conducted by IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) in Ta’iz Governorate, a total of 60,532 displaced households (approximately 419,068 individuals) and 110,276 IDP returnee households (around 771,467 individuals) were recorded. As displacement continues to be protracted, a majority of IDPs prefer to stay in their current location (69%) , a small percentage prefer to return to their origin (21%) or did not yet decide (7%) and the rest preferred to re-settle somewhere else in Yemen.

In addition to understanding the intention of the affected population toward available solutions, it is crucial to understand current living conditions to gauge progress made towards solutions some ten years after the start of the nationwide conflict. This study provides information on progress towards solutions by comparing the living conditions of IDPs and IDP returnees to the living conditions of the host community as a benchmark across seven criteria: (1) Long Term Safety and Security, (2) Adequate Standard of Living, (3) Access to Employment and Livelihoods, (4) Effective & Accessible Mechanisms to Restore Housing, Land and Property (HLP) (5) Access to Personal Documentation and Participation, (6) Family Reunification and Participation, and (7) Access to Effective Remedies and Justice.

The analysis results show that access to personal documentation is the most challenging criteria to overcome by all target populations as they face issues when attempting to replace documents. Employment and livelihoods represent the second most challenging criteria to overcome. Although the majority of families have at least one working household member, most households experience difficulties with achieving a stable source of income. Moreover, most families were unable to make savings exposing them to economic instability and shock. The third most challenging criteria to overcome was found to be adequate standards of living criteria especially due to difficulties of almost half of IDP and IDP returnees with access to safe drinking water, improved sanitation facilities and healthcare.

Further analysis reveals that the majority of IDP and IDP returnees scored in the moderate progress group (having overcome vulnerabilities from 3 to 4 criteria). In the context of this survey, a small proportion of IDPs (1%) and IDP returnees (2%) have overcome vulnerabilities for all assessed criteria. When the same indicators, criteria and analysis methods are applied to measure the living conditions of the host community, only 3 per cent of host community have overcome vulnerabilities classified into all criteria while the biggest proportion is in the moderate progress group (similar to IDP and IDP returnees). These findings indicate that all population groups face similar challenges and have a similar level of capacity to overcome the challenges regardless of their displacement status. These shared challenges indicate the presence of wider development needs within communities also affected by displacement.

Moreover, the survey successfully identifies key criteria and indicators driving vulnerabilities among IDP, IDP returnee and host community households in Ta’iz governorate. These insights can inform the development of targeted interventions focusing on critical criteria that are highly challenging to overcome by these populations. The recommendations include a focus on addressing challenges related to the replacement of official documents, to ensure individuals are able to replace or receive key identity documents. Additionally, employment and livelihoods programming that could provide income to cover beyond meeting basic needs, and programming to improve access to safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, and healthcare due to identified vulnerabilities across these factors.

Lastly, findings successfully identified in which geographical areas target populations faced specific challenges to overcome based on the assessed criteria to enable the identification of target areas of intervention. Anbian sub-district (Al Misrakh District) and Alssuida’ sub-district (Al Wazi’iyah district) emerged as areas with high need as all population groups failed to overcome vulnerabilities across the most challenging indicators . In addition to the mentioned sub-districts, IDPs in Al Mudhaffar sub-district (Al Mudhaffar district), Alhaqal, Namri and Yafris sub-ditricts (Jabal Habashi district), as well as IDP returnees living in Bani Hamir sub-district (Maqbanah district) and several sub-districts in As Silw district (Alhariba and Alwadr) face difficulties to fulfil 6 out of 7 most challenging indicators under top three most challenging criteria.

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