SMEPSer

(2022 - 2025)

The SFISH project aims to improve the productivity and resilience in Fish value chain with the goal of creating job opportunities, improving livelihoods and food security, and household nutrition. This will be done by providing direct technical and financial support to MSMEs, business cooperative associations and lead firms in critical fisheries sectors to sustain their impact in sustaining demand of products and services in the sector through technical support, institutional strengthening, risk management, financial & administrative support, business advisory & consultancy services, business continuity management & asset transfers. Provided support will help restore the ability of the target MSMEs, Business Associations and Lead Firms to increase productivity, production, generate income, and create jobs, while increasing the supply and access to basic food commodities in the targeted communities.

Targeted Governorates

• Al Mahra, Aden, Hadramaut and Taiz

Planned Beneficiaries to Target

• Smallholder producers                               1,500
• MSMEs (Youth & Women)                         1,200
• SMEs                                                              3,880
• Fish Cooperative                                          5
• Lead firms                                                     5
•  Total                                                              5,115

Project Value                                    $ 28,475,000

(2022 - 2024)

The project aims to serve as a scalable platform that offers a combination of complementary short-term and medium-term activities to strengthen food security in Yemen, as well as flexibility for adjustment to the evolving food security situation going forward. The project focuses on building the resilience of Yemeni households to food security crises and improving household food security and nutrition by increasing food availability, access and utilization in the project areas. The project components will be closely coordinated in the project areas to achieve the project outcomes. SMEPS will implement the related activities under increasing production and sale of nutritious products (livestock/dairy, horticulture, Farmer's organizations' groups, food processing, fisheries and Fisheries cooperatives) through an innovative, participatory and interactive learning approach. This will be achieved by building the capacity of project beneficiaries to adopt the most suitable practices and new technologies to their production systems. To ensure high technical performance, FAO will build the capacities of the selected field technical teams in the targeted Governorates.

Targeted Governorates

Taiz, Sana’a, Al-Hudaydah, Dhamar, Abyan, Lahj

Sectors

• Food Processing, Livestock, Agriculture, Fish

Planned Beneficiaries to Target

• Small Women Dairy Groups                    33  (5 members)
• Pioneer Women Dairy Groups               40 (10 members)
• Collecting Centers                                     7  (20 members)
• Seedling Centers                                       7  (20 members)
• Agro-Processing Women Groups          40 (15 members)
• Fisheries Cooperatives                            6 (50 fisher)
• Total                                                      133 (1,745 members)

Project Value                                    $ 512,645.03

October 2023 – June 2026

The Food Security Response and Resilience Project (FSRRP) in Yemen is targeting the severe food insecurity in Yemen through enhancing productivity in dairy and sesame value chains with the objective of meeting households' and community’s food security needs. FSRRP – Yemen is also going to support MSMEs targeting micro-producers, SMEs and cooperatives to be more resilient communities to cope with the current food insecurity, health, nutrition and poverty.

More to the continuing food insecurity crisis in Yemen which has been exasperated by a protracted conflict that destroyed the economy. Yemenis are starving to death, with only 10% of its food produced locally and an economic collapse shrinking real GDP by 48.4% over the same period. This in turn created an enormous unemployment issue, with over 32% of the population unemployed by 2019 and as a consequence people were being driven into chronic or acute food safety deprivation.

The FSRRP project seeks to address the differential impact of the crisis on women and girls, as gender inequality plays a major role in food insecurity, undernutrition, and poverty. Public services shutting down and the currency devaluating, made every import expensive and caused an ever-greater scarcity of imported goods. In 2020, this situation was further compounded by the exhaustion of foreign aid resources which resulted in the increase of food prices and lack of access to basic necessities.

Women-headed households, already facing discrimination in the labor market, bear the brunt of these challenges. They spend a larger portion of their budgets on food due to unequal wages and limited job opportunities. The FSRRP project seeks to mitigate these issues by providing support to livestock, agriculture, and private sector components through livestock producers, sesame farmers, supply chains, and agricultural co-operatives & leading companies stabilizing the economy, and ensuring access to vital resources for vulnerable populations in Yemen.

Targeted Governorates:

Taiz, Al-Hudaydah, Dhamar, Abyan, Lahj, Al-Jawf, Hajjah, Shabwah, Al-Dhale.

Sectors:

Livestock, agriculture, and private sector.

Planned Beneficiaries to Target:

Livestock                                                                       11500

Agriculture                                                                    4000

Supply Chains                                                               200

agricultural co-operatives & leading companies    120

Project Value:                                17,751,832.15 $

Donor and parteners:

World Bank - Food and Agriculture Organiztion of the United Nation - FAO.