Yemen

Yemen: Keeping education going amid conflict
In Yemen, GPE has responded to the changing needs of the education system during over 7 years of conflict, helping to keep students in school throughout one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
  • Partner since: 2003
  • Total grant support: US$187,443,091
  • Coordinating agency: UNESCO, UNESCO Regional Office
  • Country team lead: Muhammad Tariq Khan

COVID-19 response

Allocation: US$11 million

Years: 2021-2022

Grant agent: Islamic Development Bank

Key documents:

The US$11 million COVID-19 grant supports:

  • Home-based learning through the development and broadcasting of TV and radio lessons
  • Sanitizing and providing hygiene supplies to 7,000 schools
  • Awareness campaigns to promote learning resources and to broadcast messages regarding the protection of students’ and teachers’ health, safety and wellbeing
  • training of teachers, mentors and school administrators to bridge learning gaps
  • Capacity building of the ministry of Education through a south-south exchange with Tunisian education administrators as well as technical assistance from Arab League's Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO).

The GPE program builds on the earlier interventions supported by ECW.

In late March 2020, the UNICEF office in Yemen received a GPE grant of US$140,000 to support the Ministry of Education with preparing a national COVID-19 education response plan and 2 operational plans.

Education in Yemen

Yemen considers education vital to eliminating poverty and is focused on ensuring that all children have access to quality education. The country’s development plans consistently prioritize human development and the education of the labor force.

While access to basic education has improved, Yemen still faces significant challenges, including girls’ enrollment, retention and completion rates, teacher quality and instructional materials, and emergency or conflict-afflicted areas.

The Medium-Term Results Framework 2013-2015 covered the period 2013-2015 and outlined 10 programs under 5 objectives. The country is in the process of developing a transitional sector plan through support from GPE and other development partners.

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Latest grant

In Yemen, the ongoing conflict and the devastating consequences of forced displacement, and damaged and occupied school buildings have disrupted the education of 2.4 million children. Since the beginning of the conflict, child marriage and recruitment have increased, depriving millions of children of opportunities to learn.  
Credit: UNICEF
Increased population movements and the inability to find jobs have prevented parents to cover the basic needs of their children, including their education. Even when schools are open, and teachers available, parents are not able to send their children to school because they can’t afford buying basic learning materials.
Credit: Julien Harneis
In an effort to sensitize parents in marginalized and nomad communities of the importance of sending their children to school, UNICEF, with support from a GPE grant, launched a Back to School campaign last September – December in coordination with Communication for development (c4d) and Education program. The campaign targeted regions with low rates of school enrollment and retention. It also directly responded to the urgent needs of children affected by the conflict.
Credit: UNICEF
In several camps for internally displaced people (IDP), including the Al-Farsi in Aden, the Back to School campaign is raising awareness of the importance for children to have access to education through communication activities. These include puppet theaters, open drama and concerts, to name a few.  
Credit: UNICEF
Here, Communication for Development (C4D) community volunteers hold an open-theater in a community where internally displaced people have moved. Burykha district, Aden.
Credit: UNICEF
In Shabwa, C4D volunteers are engaging with community leaders through interpersonal sessions to discuss the importance of education.
Credit: UNICEF
Imams are also helping to spread the message, telling parents: “Attainment of knowledge is a must for every Muslim. Let your children go back to school.”
Credit: UNICEF
C4D community volunteers have staged a puppet theater in Abyan.
Credit: UNICEF
During these activities, messages target parents to ensure they understand the importance of sending their children to school and the steps they need to take to enroll their children. Children also hear the benefits of getting an education and are given tips to use on their way to school or at school to stay safe.
Credit: UNICEF
Thanks to GPE and UNICEF’s efforts, in areas with high concentrations of displaced persons, more than 1,400 teachers have received incentives and participated in training to support 63,000 displaced and host community children.
Credit: UNICEF
Layla,10 years old, is already a strong advocate for education: “I am currently a 4th grade student and I will continue going to school until I become a teacher.”
Credit: UNICEF
Development objective: Maintain access to basic education, improve conditions for learning and strengthen education sector capacity in selected districts.
Allocation: US$47,400,000
Years: 2021-2025
Grant agent: WB
Utilization: US$7,246,137

The objective of the Yemen Restoring Education and Learning Project is to maintain access to basic education, improve conditions for learning and strengthen education sector capacity in selected districts.

The program has the following components:

  1. Sustaining access and ensure learning. The objective is to provide children in the targeted schools access to adequate and safe learning spaces and to ensure that the minimum conditions for learning are in place at the basic education level. This objective will be achieved by:
    • Supporting teachers;
    • Providing school feeding;
    • Distributing learning materials and school supplies;
    • Improving school infrastructure through minor rehabilitation.
  2. Strengthening local capacity and system resilience by:
    • Providing national alternative learning options to deliver remote learning to basic education school-age children in the targeted governorates when their schools close or learning is interrupted;
    • Strengthening local capacity to reinforce
      • Education management capacity at the Ministry of Education and targeted governorates and districts to effectively address key education challenges; and
      • Primary schools’ capacity to implement and coordinate education activities in a more effective manner.
  3. Program support, management, evaluation and administration: The third component of the program covers support, management, evaluation and administration to ensure satisfactory program implementation.

The accelerated grant of US$6.48 million contributes to a subset of the activities mentioned above. It also supports two main project activities:

  1. Payment of rural female teachers. Ensuring the presence of female teachers in rural schools in Yemen is a key strategy to address gender issues within the education sector. The project therefore reinstated the payment of salaries for rural female teachers for the project duration of three years starting in September 2021.

    The grant covers the salaries and training allowances of 2,252 (out of 2,300) rural female teachers for the school year 2021/2022. Eligible rural female teachers receive US$145 per month.

  2. Minor rehabilitation of school infrastructure. This includes rehabilitating water and sanitation facilities (water points, sewage system and gender-segregated latrines to encourage girls’ enrollment and attendance), minor classroom repairs, boundary walls, procurement of school furniture such as chairs and tables, setting up temporary learning spaces and similar interventions.

Grants

All amounts are in US dollars.

Grant type Years Allocations Utilization Grant agent  
COVID-19 2021-2022 11,000,000 2,167,034 IsDB  
Accelerated funding 2021-2023 6,480,000 0 WB  
2013-2014 9,996,319 9,996,319 UNICEF Completion report
Program implementation and Multiplier 2021-2025 47,400,000 7,246,137 WB Progress report
Program implementation 2014-2022 72,600,000 72,599,412 UNICEF Progress report
2009-2013 19,989,071 19,989,071 WB Completion report
2006-2007 10,000,000 10,000,000 WB  
2004-2005 9,777,701 9,777,701 WB  
Program development 2021-2022 200,000 192,265 WB  
  Total 187,443,091 131,967,939    
Data last updated: March 17, 2023

As part of its investment in civil society advocacy and social accountability efforts, GPE’s Education Out Loud fund is supporting the Yemeni Coalition for Education for All for the 2019-2021 period.

This builds on 11 years of Civil Society Education Fund (CSEF) support to national education coalitions for their engagement in education sector policy dialogue.

GPE had provided the Yemeni Coalition for Education for All with a grant from the CSEF to support its engagement in education sector policy dialogue and citizens’ voice in education quality, equity, and financing and sector reform.

Last updated May 09, 2022