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Rural poverty in Yemen

The Republic of Yemen is one of the driest, poorest and least developed countries in the world. It ranks 150 out of 177 countries on the UNDP Human Development Index (2006). An estimated 42 percent of the people are poor, and one Yemeni in five is malnourished. Poverty is endemic, particularly in more remote and less accessible areas.

About two thirds of the population, including 80 percent of the country's poor people, live in rural areas and most of them depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Agriculture is a vital economic sector, providing jobs and income in a country with an unemployment rate of 37 percent and averting migration to urban areas. But the country's poor natural resource base cannot meet the needs of a population that is increasing by more than 3 percent annually. Yemen has the world's fourth fastest growing population, according to a recent UNICEF report.

People in rural areas are poor because they do not have adequate access to basic necessities such as land, safe water, health care and education. In Yemen the ownership and exploitation of strategic resources such as land and water are controlled by the stronger, more influential sectors of society.

Lack of water is a crucial issue. The government estimates that each Yemeni's average share of renewable water resources is 125 cubic metres per year. This is one tenth of the average in most Middle Eastern countries and one fiftieth of the world average. And as the population grows, that share shrinks.

Agriculture uses more than 90 per cent of the country's scarce water supplies, leaving little for household consumption and sanitation. Only 0.7 percent of rural people have access to sanitation services. The lack of clean water has a negative impact on health and contributes to a high rate of child mortality.

For rural women, collecting water for the household is one of the heavier burdens in a disproportionately large work load. In highland and mountain areas women and girls typically spend up to seven hours a day collecting water. As a result, girls are deprived of an opportunity for education.

Despite significant economic and political strides made since unification in 1990 and the 1994 civil war, Yemen remains to a great extent a conservative tribal society. Fundamental social, cultural and religious constraints affect efforts to improve women's status and condition.

Who are Yemen's rural poor people?

The country's poor people are mainly small-scale farmers and sharecroppers, landless people, nomadic herders and artisanal fishers. Women are the most vulnerable members of all groups.

Where are they?

Poverty is more common in the highlands, the semi-desert in the east and north-east, in the sand dune strip and inter-wadi areas of the central Tihama plain, and in fishing villages on the Arabian Sea . Most of the country's rural poor people are concentrated in the six governorates of Sana'a, Taiz, Ibb, Hodeida, Dahmar and Hadramwt, which also have the largest share of the total population. The distribution of land and water resources in these governorates is highly inequitable.

Why are they poor?

Poverty in rural areas is a result of the lack of access to basic resources such as land and water and to services such as health care and education. Isolation makes it even more difficult for poor people to gain access to resources and services. In the country's more remote regions, rural poor people are physically, intellectually, economically, and socially isolated from the rest of the nation.

Rural infrastructure is inadequate. Only 15 percent of the rural population is covered by the national electric grid. The national road network is poorly maintained. Yemen has more than 60,000 km of dirt tracks and trails, most of them suitable only for powerful four-wheel drive vehicles. Transport is costly and time-consuming. This adds to the cost of goods, obstructs efficient administration and restricts social and economic opportunities.

The massive return of migrant workers as a result of the Gulf Crisis left many rural households without remittance income and prospects for employment.

Source: IFAD