Yemen has a heavily cash-based economy with low levels of financial inclusion. The country’s formal banking sector is highly underdeveloped, undercapitalized and concentrated in urban areas, leaving it inaccessible for most Yemenis. Plans by the Central Bank of Yemen to develop and improve electronic interbank transactions and local electronic payment systems, including mobile money services, […]
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by Mareike Transfeld, Mohamed al-Iriani, Maged Sultan and Marie-Christine Heinze After six years of war, state institutions in Yemen have fragmented along multiple fault lines. The security sector is no exception. Given their role as central nodes of the country’s security governance structure, this Policy Report explores governorate-level Security Committees in three governorates that have […]
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Since its introduction to Yemen in 1997, microfinance has been viewed as a strategic tool to alleviate poverty and reduce unemployment, for it provided a means for the financial inclusion and economic empowerment of small and micro entrepreneurs by expanding financial services to them. However, persistent challenges facing the microfinance industry have stunted its development, […]
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Yemen’s fisheries sector holds untapped promise in contributing to the national economy, with a coastline of more than 2,500 kilometers and rich fishing grounds offshore. Yet the sector has long faced many structural challenges that have limited its production and potential contribution to overall economic output, which have been exacerbated during the ongoing conflict. This […]
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The Development Champions Forum held multiple online discussions in the period from 20-24 June 2020 to discuss the reasons behind the recent deterioration in the foreign exchange rate of the Yemeni rial. The Champions also discussed possible immediate interventions that can be applied by the concerned parties to curb the rial’s depreciation against foreign currencies. […]
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The sustainability of a peace agreement in Yemen will, amongst others, depend on two critical insights: First, in a conflict that is largely over access to resources, the issues of distribution and control of those resources can make or break peace. Second, where peace agreements lack provisions that create overall economic stability, warfare can resume […]
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by Tarek Barakat, Ali al-Jarbani and Laurent Bonnefoy This Brief analyzes the state of the private sector in Yemen during the ongoing war and explores its potential to contribute to the country’s peace requirements. It presents challenges entrepreneurs face and the potential contribution of these in sectors that are central to the construction and sustainability […]
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by Abdulkarim Qassim, Loay Amin, Mareike Transfeld and Ewa Strzelecka The current political and economic conditions in Yemen make it difficult for CSOs to continue functioning on an effective level, while a lack of human and organizational capacity are hampering project results. Nevertheless, Yemeni CSOs contribute to peace requirements in various sectors and remain an […]
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This White Paper explores the historic development of Yemen’s microfinance industry and its players, as well as the impacts of the ongoing conflict. This analysis is followed by recommendations that address four specific areas – capacity building, financing, program design and research – to help create a more conducive operating environment for microfinance overall. The […]
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by Maged al-Kholidy, Yazeed al-Jeddawy and Kate Nevens Despite its major transformative potential, local level youth work is often overlooked by mainstream international discourses on national level peace processes and violent conflict. This Brief sheds light on young peoples’ activism before and during the war, the challenges they are currently facing, their visions for the […]
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by Fatima Saleh, Scott Preston and Mareike Transfeld The increased political capture of the Yemeni media since 2014 has reinforced diverging political discourses and has contributed to polarization across society and to political fragmentation. Practitioners face steep challenges in composing professional stories. Journalists are subject to harassment, intimidation, abduction and violence. Yet, Yemeni journalists remain […]
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Human capital in Yemen has long been at the lowest levels across all indicators due to the successive conflicts in the country and the weak investment in human development. Over five years since the onset of the ongoing war in Yemen, human capital accumulation has continued to regress. This video emphasizes that human capital is […]
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This White Paper addresses the impact of Saudi Arabia’s increasingly restrictive handling of its expatriate workforce on the economy in Yemen. The kingdom’s policies, which have forced tens of thousands of Yemenis to return home, have resulted in a dramatic loss of income from remittances for their families in Yemen at a time when the […]
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The sixth meeting of CARPO and the EastWest Institute’s ‘Iran-Saudi Dialogue Initiative’ dealt with knowledge production and knowledge dialogue in context of the highly conflictual relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia and explored the potential of academic exchanges and scientific cooperation in defusing such tensions.
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by Abdulsalam al-Rubaidi This Study presents insights into alternative values and visions offered to society by leading contemporary Yemeni novelists with the aim of laying the basis for a better future of their country. CARPO Associate Fellow Abdulsalam al-Rubaidi analyzes six contemporary Yemeni novels, each of which is built around widely debated issues in Yemen, […]
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This White Paper assesses the multifaceted pervasiveness of corruption in Yemen. It is demonstrated, amongst others, that patronage networks are now emerging among previously marginal or unknown figures and that the financial involvement of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates has extended patronage across national borders. It is argued that any anti-corruption agenda must […]
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This White Paper assesses the factors weighing on private sector development in Yemen. It lays out the impacts of the 2011 uprising in Yemen, the ensuing political crisis and the current conflict on the economy and the private sector. Following this, recommendations are offered to both the Yemeni government and international stakeholders regarding steps that […]
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This White Paper deals with the role of local councils in Yemen and analyses their current situation. In the absence of central state authority and despite all the challenges they face, these councils remain important instruments for coordinating humanitarian relief efforts and local-level conflict mediation. Local councils are among the best-equipped and best-established institutions to […]
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This White Paper proposes an institutional structure for a future reconstruction process in Yemen: a permanent, independent, public reconstruction authority that empowers and coordinates the work of local reconstruction offices, established at the local level in areas affected by conflict or natural disasters. This proposal does not arise only from lessons learned from previous reconstruction […]
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This brief summarizes initial findings of the author’s research among displaced school children in Sana‘a in spring 2016, based on the internationally recognized Child PTSD Symptoms Scale (CPSS).
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This brief addresses the relationship between gender and natural resources in conflict-affected Yemen. It describes the impact of the war on women’s access to water resources and sanitation facilities and analyzes the role of women in decision-making and water-distribution processes
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This report is the result of a conference with the same name, which was jointly organized by CARPO and the Regional Office Gulf States of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) at the Dead Sea in April 2017. The papers by prolific experts on Yemen included in this publication discuss the changes, obstacles and limits for successful security sector reform in Yemen during and after the conflict and offer respective recommendations for national and international policy-makers in the field.
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The fourth meeting of CARPO and the EastWest Institute’s ‘Iran-Saudi Track 2 Initiative’ dealt with the political, social and economic risks posed by current environmental challenges to Iran and Saudi Arabia alike. The workshop brought together academics, environmental experts, security analysts and former diplomats from Iran and Saudi Arabia as well as international experts.
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The third meeting of CARPO and the EastWest Institute’s Iran-Saudi Track 2 Dialogue Initiative was dedicated to the repercussions of changing global energy markets on Iran and Saudi Arabia. The workshop brought together policy experts and economists from Iran and Saudi Arabia as well as experts from Europe.
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In order to make better sense of Tehran’s energy policy and to more accurately assess the overall situation in the Iranian energy sector, this paper argues that attention needs to also be given to Iran’s long-term developments. Unlike the past, Iran is now increasingly utilizing its oil and natural gas production domestically.
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The second meeting of CARPO and the EastWest Institute’s Iran-Saudi Track 2 Dialogue initiative took place in spring 2016 in Bonn. Current and former diplomats, analysts and security experts from both countries met alongside European scholars and experts to discuss “Iranian and Saudi Perspectives on the Refugee Crisis”.
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This report focuses on the work of the Commission on the Forcibly Retired in the Southern Governorates, which was established in the framework of the GCC Initiative. The author argues that if the unity of Yemen is to be preserved, the only path forward is to take concrete and earnest steps to rebuild trust between North and South through transitional justice, once the ongoing war has come to an end.
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Initial hopes that the nuclear agreement between Iran and the E3+3 would increase regional security and decrease political tensions have been dashed. Against this backdrop CARPO organized a conference on EU-Middle East relations early this year.
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The twin elections of 26 February 2016 are the first to be held after the nuclear agreement between Iran and P5+1 has been signed. This report sheds light on the current political climate in Iran and presents analytical criteria to apprehend both the interplay between parliament and government, as well as the key tasks for the Assembly of Experts.
Read more...![Yemen. Actors, Factors, Scenarios [in German]](https://carpo-bonn.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/CARPO_Report_01_Cover.jpg)
This report offers an overview of the current context, the most important actors as well as relevant factors for future developments in Yemen. Three possible scenarios for the next 1-2 years are elaborated and options for German development agencies are proposed.
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