April 3, 2018 — Thank you for giving the International Rescue Committee the opportunity to share our perspective today.
Working in 29 districts across 7 governorates in health, wash, nutrition, livelihoods and women's protection, we have seen the enormous scale of the crisis and the horrific suffering caused by the conflict and gross violations of IHL.
However, systematic delays and restrictions on imports into a country that relies almost exclusively on imports to meet its food, fuel, and medical needs, are also a violation of international humanitarian law (IHL). Many international medical suppliers will no longer import directly to Yemen – driving a chronic shortage of medicines in state-run clinics and hospitals.
In country, administrative huddles restrict urgent humanitarian aid from reaching its intended target. Restrictions include delays, often in running into months, in securing permission to implement projects, obstacles to transporting critical medical and nutrition supplies across front lines, and delays or denials of requests for movement of national and international humanitarian workers.
To date, these systematic delays and associated violations of IHL, have attracted less attention than those stemming from air strikes and other military action. But more Yemenis have died and continue to suffer from starvation and preventable diseases because of deprivation of basic goods and services.
The IRC welcomes this event’s focus on promoting complementarity between life-saving humanitarian action and efforts to bolster essential public institutions – we believe this must be a priority.
But the challenge is immense. Conflict has destroyed much of Yemen’s critical infrastructure - less than half of health facilities are functioning. And, for over 18 months, the government has been unable to pay civil servant salaries – including doctors and nurses.
This has had real and measurable consequences. Disease control measures, particularly vaccination against polio, diphtheria and measles, now fail to reach many Yemenis, resulting in deadly outbreaks of preventable disease.
Maternal and child health indicators also show alarming declines. We have heard horrendous statistic after statistic today.
In order to bridge the gap in human resources, donors and humanitarian agencies have adopted a partnership model to support the rehabilitation of health clinics, and pay incentives to attract and retain health workers, most of whom are current or former Government employees.
However, the humanitarian sector cannot replace the live-saving role of Yemen’s public services. We cannot be a sustainable substitute to longer term efforts to support and rebuild Yemen’s health system, especially in light of the complex web of bureaucracy we must navigate to provide basic aid.
Lives will be saved when the Humanitarian Response Plan is fully funded – this is a priority. However, this should not be the only metric of success for this pledging event.
Donors gathered here today must identify mechanisms that go beyond the humanitarian response plan and that provide opportunities for long term, multi-year funding to humanitarian and development partners to be able to support the Yemeni health system.
Bringing long term interventions to scale will be essential to save Yemeni lives today and support future efforts to support Yemen’s recovery and development.
Finally, we must recognise that in absence of political process to end the violence in Yemen humanitarian organisations will continue to be overwhelmed by the scale of the needs. This process must deliver an immediate cessation of hostilities that include safeguards to ensure Yemen’s health, water and sanitation facilities are not destroyed further. Those who are responsible for the destruction of vital civilian infrastructure, and those who continue to disrupt the activities of impartial humanitarian actors, must be held to account. Only through meaningful progress toward a negotiated settlement, coupled with long term investment in Yemen’s future, will the humanitarian suffering in Yemen truly be alleviated.