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Despite advancements on many development fronts, Yemen continues to face considerable development challenges. It ranks 153 out of 177 countries in the 2007 UNDP Human Development Index and progress in human and other development indicators, while steady, has been too slow to assure attainment of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, with the possible exception of universal primary education.
The structural and long-term development challenges facing Yemen have undermined the efforts of the State, as well as other stakeholders, in improving peoples’ livelihoods. Population growth remains very high. Sharp imbalances between the available water resources and consumption lead to increasing depletion of groundwater reserves. Enrolment in basic education is improving, and government efforts in this area are showing promise. Rates of child malnutrition (50.6 per cent) and maternal mortality (365 for 100,000 live births) remain unacceptably high. Unemployment is on the rise, due to insufficient job creation. Infrastructure is weak, with improving electricity coverage (59 per cent), access to safe water (36 per cent), and telecommunications (4.4 landlines per 100 inhabitants and 11.2 cellular per 100 inhabitants). The country has an overstaffed, under-trained and under-paid civil service, so that promotion of democratic governance is a premise for effective and transparent use of national and foreign resources and investments.
In an effort to address these problems, the Government has included a comprehensive set of socio-economic development goals in its National Strategic Vision 2025, by which time it aims to become a middle income country.
Yemen was selected as one of the eight United Nations Millennium Project pilot countries, and an MDG Needs Assessment was conducted to identify investment requirements to achieve the Goals by 2015. The third National Socio-economic Development Plan for Poverty Reduction (2005-2010), incorporating the recommendations of the second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), was formulated and aligned to the MDGs, based on the Needs Assessment report.
For the past 15 years, Yemen has received limited international aid, well below international averages for LDCs. In November 2006, a Donor Consultative Group meeting resulted in $ 5 billion in pledges (for the period 2007-2010), of which over half came from the countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. These pledges need to be transformed into concrete disbursements to activities aligned with the Development Plan for the country to meet the MDGs by 2015. |
Yemen
