A Roadmap to Recovery: Addressing Poverty in Yemen’s Ongoing Conflict

By Abdo Seif

February 26, 2024

Prior to the escalation of armed conflict in 2015, development in Yemen was strained. As a country of 30 million people, it ranked 153rd on the Human Development Index (HDI), 138th in extreme poverty, 147th in life expectancy, 72nd in educational attainment, and was in the World Bank low-middle income category. Yemen did not achieve any of the Millennium Development Goals and it is likely that it will not achieve any of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 due to the adverse impact of the ongoing crisis.

The ongoing conflict has further reduced the pace of development and exacerbated poverty and hunger. The impacts of conflict in Yemen are devastating – with nearly 250,000 people killed directly by fighting and indirectly through lack of access to food, health services and infrastructure. Of the dead, 60% are children under the age of 5. The long-term impacts of conflict are both vast and devastating and place it among the most destructive conflicts since the end of the Cold War. The conflict has already set back human development by more than 20 years, as measured by the HDI.

End of conflict in 2019, 2022 and 2030 and impact on the Human Development Index

UNDP Yemen / 2023

Access to facilities and basic services is critical for Yemenis

UNDP Yemen / 2024

Most of Yemen’s population is poor. The United Nations Development Programme and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative’s (OPHI) forthcoming report on measuring multidimensional poverty in Yemen indicates (based on 2021 data provided by the World Bank’s Yemen Human Development Survey) that 82.7% of people were living in multidimensional poverty in Yemen. The intensity of poverty, or the average number of deprivations faced by multidimensionally poor people is 46.7%. Deprivations in years of schooling and sanitation are two of the highest deprivations, with more than 70% of the population deprived in these indicators.

The Yemen Human Development Survey (YHDS) 2021 is composed of six questionnaires (education, health, child and maternal health, services, living standards, and employment). The national MPI includes dimensions and indicators that capture deprivations for individuals and households.

The indicators are computed at the household level, assuming that all household members share achievements and deprivations equally. Statistical tests were performed to validate the measure’s robustness and significance of the findings at the national level and for governorates.

The YHDS included a sample of 1,681 households. It was the first face-to-face, representative household survey collected since the onset of conflict. It aims to provide a detailed overview of welfare, food security and human development indicators in Yemen, enabling intra-household analysis. Data were collected between April and September 2021, including information on education, health, employment status and living conditions of the Internationally Recognized Government (IRG) (or Southern Yemen). The survey provides regionally representative data in Al Bayda, Ta’iz, Hadramawt, Shabwah, Aden, Lahj, Ma’rib, Al Maharah and Ad Dali’ governorates.

The percentage of people who are multidimensionally poor and deprived in each MPI indicator in Yemen

UNDP Yemen / 2023

Results indicate that the percentage of people living in multidimensional poverty in Yemen was 82.7%. That is, more than eight in every ten people in the country (in the regions the surveys were collected) were living in multidimensional poverty.

The percentage of people living in multidimensional poverty in Yemen was 82.7%.

The intensity of poverty, or the average number of deprivations faced by multidimensionally poor people, was 46.7%. This means that, on average, a poor person experienced more than 45% of the possible weighted deprivations. The national MPI, which is the product of the incidence (percentage of people living in multidimensional poverty) and intensity (average number of deprivations faced by poor people) of multidimensional poverty, was 0.386; therefore, multidimensional poor people face on average 38.6% of all possible deprivation in Yemen, if all individuals were multidimensionally poor and deprived in all indicators.

Poverty tended to be higher in rural areas (89.4%) than urban areas (68.9%). Ad Dali’ and Al Bayda had the highest incidence of multidimensional poverty. Given the large population in Ta’iz governorate, it is estimated that 40% of multidimensionally poor people live in this region.

Nationally, years of schooling and sanitation are the two indicators with the largest censored headcount ratios (the percentage of people who are multidimensionally poor and deprived in each indicator), with more than 70% of the population being deprived in these indicators and multidimensionally poor. In terms of the percentage contribution of each of the 17 indicators to the national MPI, the largest contributors to national poverty are years of schooling (17.1%), followed by cooking fuel (9.1%) and sanitation (8.1%).

In addition, female-headed households have a lower incidence of multidimensional poverty compared with male headed households. However, these differences are not significant.

In terms of the marital status of the household head, the results reveal that households where the head is divorced have a lower incidence of multidimensional poverty, compared to other households. By contrast, households whose head is married with more than one wife have higher levels of people living in multidimensional poverty, and the intensity of their poverty is higher.

In addition, the incidence of poverty of people living in smaller households is 64.4%, compared to 86.4% and 91.1% for people living in households with five to nine members or more than nine members, respectively.

Finally, the results reveal that households with members with disabilities have higher levels of multidimensional poverty than households without members with disabilities (86.4% versus 81.2%).

Conclusion and Recommendations

The internal conflict of Yemen has had a negative impact on the living standards of individuals and households in the country. This analysis has revealed that the country faces high levels of poverty and deprivation, and that there are several challenges to guarantee access to basic services and opportunities.

Deprivations in years of schooling and sanitation are two of the highest deprivations, with more than 70% of the population deprived in these indicators.

In addition, there are important differences between rural and urban areas and governorates. This reflects that some areas are more affected by the ongoing conflict, and that there are areas where people face higher barriers to access services, or where services are not available.

The report recommends putting in place a poverty reduction strategy that addresses the issues of inadequate access to basic services and enhances economic opportunities.

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