Baroness Hodgson of Abinger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hodgson of Abinger on 2016-05-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that aid and humanitarian help is able to gain access to Sa’ada and Hajjah.
Baroness Verma
The UK is the 4th largest donor to the crisis in Yemen and has more than doubled its support over the last year to £85 million for 2015/16 to respond to the humanitarian crisis. UK aid is focused on the most urgent life-saving needs, and has so far helped more than 1.3 million Yemenis who have been affected by the conflict with food assistance, medical supplies, water, and emergency shelter. Through our support to UN agencies and NGOs working in Sa’ada and Hajjah, people in need in these Governates are being provided with water, sanitation and hygiene support, health and nutrition assistance, shelter kits and cash to help address emergency food needs.
We work with partners such as UN agencies and NGOs who have good access and a strong track record of delivering and monitoring assistance in difficult and dangerous places. The security situation across Yemen is, however, impacting the ability of humanitarian organisations to access populations to deliver assistance, and to make assessments of their needs. The UK continues to urge all parties to the conflict to take all reasonable steps to facilitate rapid and safe access for humanitarian agencies to all people in need in Yemen.
UK aid is also supporting the UN to co-ordinate the international humanitarian response and to facilitate the delivery of aid across Yemen according to where needs are greatest including to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UN Humanitarian Air Service and the Verification and Inspection Mechanism.
