Jane Marriott

June 20th is World Refugee Day. It’s a day when the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and others around the world seek to draw the public’s attention to the millions of refugees and internally displaced persons worldwide. Many have been forced to flee their homes due to war, conflict and persecution. Yemen is the only […]

There are many immediate urgent challenges in Yemen: preventing violence, achieving a peaceful political transition, balancing the books, and responding to a humanitarian crisis to name a few. The urgency of these issues, however, should not blind us to challenges that are equally important, but less immediately apparent or urgent. Education is a classic example. […]

The thirty-nine members of the Friends of Yemen (FoY) met at the end of April in London for the seventh time in four years.  The meeting was not about giving more money to Yemen – there’s still $5.1bn of the pledged $8bn to hand out.  Instead, it was about how we – the Government of […]

At the Friends of Yemen meeting in London next week, Yemeni Ministers and their counterparts in the international community will meet to discuss Yemen’s progress in the three areas of security, politics and the economy.  No lasting progress can be made against any one of these areas without progress in the others.  Genuine peace and […]

Barely a day goes by without there being a security incident of some form in Yemen: at its most prominent, we see terrorist attacks and assassinations. We see less of the daily insecurity or food insecurity or violence against women that happens in many countries, including Yemen. Security is a basic human right. Security can […]

The next Friends of Yemen meeting will take place on 29 April in London. The meeting will be opened by the British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, and will be co-chaired by the Yemeni Foreign Minister Dr al Qirbi, the British Minister for the Middle East, Hugh Robertson and the International Development Minister, Alan Duncan, and […]

The rains began in Sana’a this week. Once day it was dry; the next – almost 4pm on the dot, the heavens opened and the streets became flooded. Children rushed to play in the ankle-high puddles and adults hiked up their clothes to avoid them getting wet and sighed. Two weeks ago – 23rd March […]