WUNRN

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YEMEN - WOMEN & CHILDREN FACE MULTIPLE CRISES

 

Photo - http://acelebrationofwomen.org/?p=44235 - See World Bank Project Article in Part 2 of this WUNRN Release.

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UN Nerws Centre

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39020&Cr=yemen&Cr1=

Yemen - Rising Food Prices Causing Families to Take Desperate Measures – UN - Gender

12 July 2011 – Food insecurity is on the rise in parts of Yemen, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) reported today, adding that families are trying to cope by liquidating their assets, skipping meals and diverting funds from health care and education.

They were taking such desperate measures because the price of fuel in the black market has risen by 500 per cent since January 2011, WFP spokesperson Emilia Casella told a news briefing in Geneva.

She added that the price of bread has increased by 50 per cent, the prices of flour, sugar and milk have risen between 40 and 60 per cent and water prices are also going up – all of which are contributing to a worsening situation for the general population and especially for the most vulnerable people.

WFP is continuing to operate in Yemen despite the ongoing political turmoil, occasional bouts of violence and a lack of fuel. Among its activities, the agency is providing food to tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Aden.

An assessment by WFP found that 90 per cent of the approximately 30,000 IDPs in the city were entirely dependent on the local community for their daily food needs. Moreover, 40 per cent of IDPs who had been interviewed said that food was their most profound need.

Meanwhile, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is renewing its call for all parties in Yemen to protect children from harm, noting that at least 63 children have been killed during the protests that have taken place across the country since mid-February.

“Over 700 children have been wounded, including 130 by live bullets or ammunitions,” Marixie Mercado, the agency’s spokesperson in Geneva, told reporters.

“The remaining children were injured during physical violence during the protests and demonstrations and exposure to tear gas. The majority of casualties occurred in Sana’a, Aden and Taize,” she said.

Yemen is one of many countries across North Africa and the Middle East that has witnessed a popular uprising calling for greater democracy and freedoms. _____________________________________________________________

http://acelebrationofwomen.org/?p=44235

One Million of Yemen’s Poorest Women and Children

to Receive Health Services in Remote Areas

The $35 million Yemen Health and Population Project was approved by the Board of Directors of the World Bank today. It is designed to deliver maternal, neonatal, and child health services to those districts in Yemen where there are high concentrations of poor health indicators. In the first phase these include districts in the governorates of Sana’a, Ibb, Reimah, Al Dahla’a, Al Baydah, and urban slums in Aden before the services roll out to additional rural governorates.

This project is all about reaching people living in remote areas who have real difficulty getting the services they need for better health and well-being,” said Alaa Hamed, Senior Health Specialist at the World Bank. “In development language we talk about this as MDGs 4 and 5 – the Millennium Development Goals designed to fight infant mortality and improve the mothers’ health. For around one million Yemenis in remote areas this will mean health services reaching them for the very first time.”

The child mortality rate in Yemen is 69 deaths for each 1,000 live births, the highest rate in the Middle East and North Africa region. At 58% for children under 5, Yemen also has the second-highest rate in the world of stunting, a measure of child malnutrition for height and age. Maternal mortality is the second highest in MENA after Djibouti with 210 deaths for each 1,000 live births in 2008.

Less than half Yemen’s population of 23 million people have access to basic health services, a problem made all the more complicated in rural areas by widely scattered and remote geographical locations. The challenge is to both improve the quality of health services and to get those health services – and the supporting logistics of medical supplies and drugs – to communities not served by fixed health facilities which are unreachable for around half the rural population.

To help tackle this geographical challenge, the Yemeni Government requested the Bank’s assistance in designing Outreach Services as an essential element of the health service delivery system. The $35 million project will focus on around one million children and just over a million child-bearing age women, about half of whom currently do not have access to basic health services.

“The government continues to address the challenges and contributes to the design of a national program for better delivery of health and population services. But there remains the pressing need to deliver services through population-based and disease-specific programs, which this project provides,” said Dr. Abdul Kareem Rasea, Minister Public Health and Population.

The model designed for the project offers service in three ways. Integrated Outreach Services will deliver a core package of maternal and child health services at temporary sites using mobile teams on a periodic basis of about four times a year. This will be complemented by community-based services focusing on health education, active case finding, and referral, in addition to home-based delivery. The third element of the model comprises referral facilities for management of complicated cases that cannot be treated at the outreach level. All of this is designed to complement the routine delivery of services at existing fixed facilities and is not intended to replace it.

“This is an ambitious project given the geography and a long history of struggling to improve health service delivery,” said Benson Ateng, Sana’a-based World Bank Country Manager. “We are combining our efforts with donor partners, namely, WHO, UNICEF, and UNFPA, with the shared goal of really making a difference in the health of many poor people in Yemen.”