13th May 2014 Sana’a, Yemen
Implementation: a Recipe for Success
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 Yemen and the international community together – deliver implementation on the ground.
We hear the word implementation from politicians, diplomats, NGOs, civil society organisations and the media all the time, but what does it actually mean?
Implementation describes the process whereby an idea, or a policy, moves from the paper it was written on to become a reality. The Gulf Cooperation Council Initiative and the National Dialogue Conference (NDC) outcomes have set the vision for Yemen: a vision of a united Yemen, grounded in democratic principles, based on the rule of law and human rights with economic opportunities for people to improve their lives.
It’s fair to say that implementation in Yemen will be difficult, but by no means impossible if the right structures and people are in place. So what is the recipe for successful implementation of the NDC outcomes? A number of key ingredients are needed:
Firstly, the vision needs to be transformed into a series of bite-size objectives. Responsibility for delivering these objectives should belong to different implementing organisations – like government ministries and agencies, or civil society organisations. The international community must also support – which is where the new Friends of Yemen Working Groups come in.
These organisations (especially the ministries) should then turn these objectives into tangible programmes and projects, and then put them together into a single plan for the ministry. Management Boards should then be created to ensure the ministry implements the programmes it’s signed up to do. Funding needs to be prioritised and allocated between and within ministries in accordance with what they can deliver over what timescale.
The second ingredient is recruiting skilled people to deliver the programmes and projects. The Yemeni Civil Service (the people that work in the ministries) need good strategic awareness, strong project management skills, as well as being dedicated and hard-working. For example, the broad plan to implement the minimum age for Child Marriage could go something along the lines of: the Ministry for Human Rights creates a team to draft the new law; at the same time the ministry collaborates with the Ministries for Health and Finance to create a team to design and deliver a nationwide campaign – using say TV, digital, print and radio – to raise awareness of the social, health and economic benefits the law would bring. Once the law is passed by parliament, the police and the courts could then be tasked with making sure people stick to it.
The third ingredient is assurance, in the form of groups tasked with monitoring ministries’ and other organisations’ progress on delivering their programmes. These groups could be internal or external to the government and provide regular updates to the president, the public, and international community on progress. For external actors – responsible media, civil society and the international community also have roles to play here.
So does Yemen have all the ingredients it needs? It has at least some: the GCC initiative and NDC outcomes set the vision; the constitutional and electoral reform bodies have work plans in place and steady progress is being made; and the new FoY structure brings skills and assurance.
But some ingredients are still missing, such as coordinated programme and project plans for ministries and the FoY Working Groups, and a Yemeni Civil Service with the right skills across the board. If Yemen is to successfully implement the NDC outcomes and improve peoples’ lives, these missing ingredients need to be thrown into the mixing bowl sooner rather than later.
Despite the short period of time for you in Yemen, we feel that you are getting to know Yemen very deeply.
Implementation keys is to make simple people feel the change for real, and that can not be except through education and job creation.
Yemen is rich country with full of accumulated administrative and financial corruption among the politicians due to the ignorant polices have been carry and lake of planes. But the most of Yamani are simple and creative, what they need only a real developing , sustainable programme. Where we can shorten that as follow :
– Compulsory education pre – sec school & good loans for high edu.
– Correction of financial system
– Correction of social security system
These are the first part of “Recipe for Success”
You see ” Jane” these what are people needs, where the politicians can not understand how to do it …. and that is the reason why they turn to corruption as a solution for them self’s.
We are NGO with full detailed programme to implement the above main solutions to calm people by creating jobs, getting them out of poverty…… and stop politician of punishing them self’s and others and Yemen. Peacefully.
Local resources are available, beside real friends ” as you” advice, that what can present the implementation alive.
We welcome very much your writings and points, specially ” when you say : “WATER, WATER ALL AROUND… BUT NOT A DROP TO DRINK” ….. And that is exactly how is Yemen.” Rich country with full of hunger,poverty, Ignorance, corruption, and social injustice “
The history of Aden tells it all. It was the first cosmopolitan centre in the Arabian Peninsula and a precursor of modernity, multiculturalism and moderate Islam. Aden was a vibrant, civil and enlightened urban community until late sixties where Jews, Christians and Muslims lived together with other atheist faiths. The picture was slightly different at the surrounding Southern Arabian sultanates, but tolerance was transferable then through their decedents in Aden and the enlightened tribal customs of the South. The communist era, followed independence of the British occupation, affected political and economic freedoms but did not intrude in the inherited socially liberal values, religious practices and personal freedoms. Islamism remained a low profile until unification in 1990.
During unification, especially after the 1994 cessation war with the North, imposition of Northern religious values and customs prevailed. This has impacted negatively on civil, gender and religious liberties, undoing years of enlightened progression. Women had to concede their achieved liberties and social prominence to conservative male dominated environment. Illiteracy crept at rural communities, especially women, and southern institutions were relentlessly dismantled and tribalised. Southern good education, health and fiscal systems were systematically replaced by retarded bureaucracies, informal work practices and kickback ethics. It was a cruel disenfranchisement of a national identity and a disastrous setback of any chances of rights based development. This situation is getting worse and should impact on instability and regional insecurity. Being driven for the last twenty four years to accept eccentric religious messages, gender inequity[1], rogue human traders and corruption at unprecedented scale, Southerners distrust of western donors and political allies of the north (especially the US) is on the rise. The impression is that western elite ignore the suffering of their crippled identity and put political and economic interests on the demise of their remaining social assets.
Stability and security can only be achieved if rights based development has bearers on the ground. The Southern proposition may represent a key renaissance of modernity in this troubled yet strategic corridor of the Arab Sea. It has the economic and social assets, the history of law and order and simply the like-mindedness to be a geopolitical partner at ease with regional neighbours like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.
Thank Ms.Jane Marriott
Many thanks for all UK’s efforts to yemen
Good recipe but we have illegal powers and armed groups, they are the waiters who will poison it