Almotamar.net - The Government of Yemen and its humanitarian partners launched on Monday the 2014 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan (YHRP), with a strong appeal for support to meet the critical needs of millions of vulnerable people in the country.

“The scale of current needs makes Yemen one of the largest humanitarian emergencies globally,” the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr Ismail Ould Cheick Ahmed, said at the launch. “In 2014, more than half of Yemen’s population will need some form of humanitarian assistance. The recent conflict in Sa’ada and Amran has increased the vulnerability of thousands more people, and limited humanitarian access.”

Some 14.7 million people will need humanitarian assistance in 2014. This includes 10.5 million people who are food insecure, more than a million children under-5 who are acutely malnourished, 13.1 million people who have no access to safe water and adequate sanitation, 8.6 million people without access to health services, more than 300,000 people who are still displaced in the north and more than 264,000 refugees.

The 2014 humanitarian response plan is forward looking and focuses on the early recovery, durable solutions and resilience, with the aim to lift people out of vulnerability. It aims to meet the needs of 7.6 million people out of 14.7 million who need humanitarian assistance in Yemen this year. The plan requires US$592 million to implement.

In 2013, only 53 per cent of the humanitarian requirements were met. Clusters like protection, education and early recovery, in particular, were under-funded. There was, however, a welcome increase in the involvement of Gulf organisations and national partners from Yemen, in the response.

This year, humanitarian activities have been prioritised based on overall needs assessments that involved partners in the southern, central and northern regions. The assessments found that women, girls and boys were particularly vulnerable because of lack of access to protection, education, health care and economic opportunities.

“On behalf of the NGO and UN partners in Yemen, I appeal to donors, Gulf and Yemeni partners to support the 2014 humanitarian response plan,” the Humanitarian Coordinator added. “Yemen is going through a positive political transition, but this process can only succeed when the humanitarian needs of millions of vulnerable Yemenis are fully met.”