Decades of political instability and cyclical armed conflict have curtailed Yemen’s economic growth, job creation and labor productivity. Sharing a collective sense of urgency to address Yemen’s worsening economic and humanitarian crises, 22 of Yemen’s leading socioeconomic experts convened as part of the Rethinking Yemen’s Economy initiative to discuss job creation in Yemen and develop […]
Read more...Author: Mirjam Schmidt
Transitional Government in Post-Conflict Yemen
To maximize the effectiveness of governance in post-conflict Yemen, two options stand out for the composition of an immediate post-conflict government to lead a transitional period in the country. First, a consensus government with cabinet seats divided among the key Yemeni political factions. Second, a technocratic caretaker government appointed by a consensus prime minister. In […]
Read more...Restructuring Public Finances in Yemen
This Policy Brief addresses the issue of public finances in Yemen, which have long suffered from an overdependence on energy exports, one of the lowest tax collection rates in the world, and chronic budget and balance of payments deficits. With the intensification of the conflict in 2015, energy exports and foreign grants were frozen, while […]
Read more...Generating New Employment Opportunities I: Yemeni Labour Market
Decades of political instability and cyclical armed conflict have curtailed Yemen’s economic growth, job creation and labor productivity. Before the current conflict, much of the country’s working population was engaged in unskilled labor, working in rural agriculture or informally employed in small businesses. Sharing a collective sense of urgency to address Yemen’s worsening economic and […]
Read more...The Development Champions
The Development Champions are a group of senior Yemeni experts and professionals from various backgrounds and with established expertise in development and economy. The Development Champions discuss priorities for intervention by national and international policymakers, issue respective recommendations and are thus at the heart of the Rethinking Yemen’s Economy initiative. The aim of this initiative […]
Read more...The Road to Reconstruction
The ongoing conflict in Yemen has imposed grievous costs on Yemenis, damaging lives, property, and infrastructure, and collapsing the country’s already fragile economy. And yet the conflict will eventually subside. Previous reconstruction efforts in Yemen following conflict or natural disaster have suffered from lack of coordination with and unrealistic expectations from international donors, as well […]
Read more...Civil Servant Salaries
The rising wage bill for the public sector is a timebomb that threatens future economic stability in Yemen. The public sector is one of the main employers in Yemen and accounted for 32% of total government spending on average during the period from 2001 to 2014. This very heavy burden on public expenditure calls for […]
Read more...The Need to Reform the Public Sector Wage Bill
This Policy Brief addresses the issue of Yemen’s bloated public sector. Amid consistently large budget deficits, the inflated public sector wage bill is fiscally unsustainable and threatens to undermine economic recovery and future stability in Yemen. Recognizing the multiple challenges of reforming the public sector, even in a stable country, the recommendations brought forward in this […]
Read more...Priorities for Private Sector Recovery in Yemen
This Policy Brief addresses the need for private sector recovery in Yemen and gives recommendations for the improvement of the overall business and investment climate. While the private sector has shown a far greater degree of resilience than the public sector and in many cases stepped in to replace government services, its situation – and […]
Read more...Local Governance in Yemen
Local councils are among Yemen’s most important state institutions. Responsible for providing basic public services to millions of Yemenis, local councils represent official governance and the Yemeni state for vast swathes of the population. The intensification of the conflict since March 2015, however, has undermined the councils’ ability to operate effectively in most areas of […]
Read more...Transitional Government in Post-Conflict Yemen
This Policy Brief offers recommendations to maximize the effectiveness of governance in post-conflict Yemen – whatever the composition or structure of the government. It presents three case studies on government models previously introduced in Yemen, Tunisia and Lebanon after periods of instability. These case studies offer useful lessons on the challenges, risks and opportunities of […]
Read more...Tafahum – An Ideational Fundament for West Asia and the Arabian Peninsula
by Christian Koch and Adnan Tabatabai This CARPO Brief discusses the need to construct ideational pillars for a tafahum, or common understanding, of how to define a process towards regional integration and a shared security architecture for West Asia and the Arabian Peninsula (WAAP). This is an evolutionary process, which begins with the essential building […]
Read more...The Repercussions of War on Women in the Yemeni Workforce
This Policy Brief sheds light on the impact of the ongoing conflict in Yemen on women’s participation in the workforce. It finds that the protracted conflict has, on the one hand, pushed more women into the workforce and new labor markets, in some cases into professions previously dominated by men. On the other hand, the […]
Read more...Turning Interdependence into Complementary Action
by Julia Gurol & Parisa Shahmohammadi This CARPO Report lays out what the role of China could be in the quest to safeguard the JCPOA. It outlines the viewpoints of Brussels and Beijing, and sketches converging and diverging interests and their influence on respective policy choices. It assesses two scenarios for the future of the […]
Read more...Reconstruction and Recovery in Yemen
This Policy Brief brings forward the results of in-depth discussions held by the Development Champions with the aim of developing recommendations and guidelines to ensure the reconstruction and recovery of Yemen is a comprehensive, effective process that has a long-term positive impact. The Champions’ recommendations include measures to link immediate humanitarian interventions to Yemen’s long-term […]
Read more...Economic Confidence-Building Measures – Civil Servant Salaries
This Policy Brief brings forward crucial recommendations resulting out of the fourth Development Champions Forum in Amman, held in December 2018. The Development Champions recommend that the Yemeni government resumes salary payments to all civil servants working in the administrative apparatus of the state registered in the Ministry of Civil Service database of 2014 across […]
Read more...Understanding Peace Requirements in Yemen
by Mareike Transfeld & Marie-Christine Heinze This CARPO Report serves as a background paper to five short studies Yemeni-international researcher tandems will develop in the course of 2019. It places a particular focus on ‘peace requirements’, a term that seeks to draw attention to the manifold challenges to establishing stability and building peace in Yemen […]
Read more...Back to Crisis Mode. Iran’s Quest to Manage Internal Crises and External Pressures [in German]
by Adnan Tabatabai This CARPO Report is dedicated to an analytical discussion about how the ongoing crisis surrounding the nuclear agreement between the E3/EU+3 and Iran is affecting the foreign policy conduct of the Islamic Republic, its internal power balance, as well as the future of state-society relations in Iran. This is the German translation […]
Read more...A Strained Alliance. Transatlantic Views on the Middle East
by Adnan Tabatabai This CARPO Brief provides the readers with a reflection of the discussions held during a workshop organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) and CARPO, which brought together policy experts from the think tank communities of Europe and the United States. The focus of the discussions was on specific country contexts (Turkey, […]
Read more...Priorities for Government Policy in Yemen
This Policy Brief outlines recommendations for the immediate priorities of the Government of Yemen, both to achieve quick wins and to prepare the ground for medium and long-term success. These recommendations are the outcomes of in-depth discussions held during the fourth Development Champions Forum convened on 8-11 December 2018 in Amman, Jordan. They are designed to […]
Read more...Annual Report 2018
We look back at the year 2018 as yet another year during which we have been able to further consolidate our young organization. We have completed, continued and launched projects in line with the institutional raison d´être laid out in CARPO’s vision and mission. It has been our pleasure to continue our work with partner organizations from Europe and the Middle East, and we are proud to have established new partnerships in the course of 2018. Read more
Read more...Working Paper: Bridging the Relief to Rehabilitation Gap in Yemen. A Conversation with National and International Experts
herausgegeben von Andrea Warnecke and Bilkis Zabara This publication is an output of our 2018 summer school, which introduced students to the theory and practice of linking relief, reconstruction, and peacebuilding efforts in Yemen in light of the ongoing war. As the fighting and airstrikes in Yemen have continued unabatedly, several international governmental and non-governmental […]
Read more...Annual Report 2017
The year 2017 was a special one for CARPO: In the course of this year, we have taken significant steps forward in institutionalizing and professionalizing our nascent organization on the basis of our visions and principles. Our vision to conduct independent research and analysis in partnership with experts from the Orient is reflected in all our activities and projects. Read more
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