UK in Yemen

Friday the 11th of October is International Day of the Girl and an opportunity to reflect on the challenges that girls all over the world still face every day. In July of this year, the UK and UNICEF sponsored Girl Summit, an event held in a school in London which aimed to galvanise a global […]

Today is the International Day of Democracy. This year’s theme – Engaging Young People on Democracy – is particularly relevant for Yemen. Three years ago, young Yemenis took to the streets in pursuit of democracy. Yemen’s democratic journey has been guided by the National Dialogue Conference, which led to the agreement of a new social […]

Spanish philosopher George Santayana said that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Yemenis have very good memories and yet the cycles of violence, revenge and power continue. As we saw in the National Dialogue, most Yemenis want peace, stability and basic economic and social rights. The NDC outcomes gave Yemen a plan to get […]

Like so many of those I have spoken to in the past week, I am looking forward to Ramadan. I am conscious that this Ramadan is an opportunity for all of us who live in Yemen to think about the values at the heart of this holy month of reflection, consideration for others and avoidance […]

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 […]