Saudi Arabia to organize virtual donors conference for Yemen on Tuesday

Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Under the direction of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia is organizing a virtual donors conference for Yemen on Tuesday in partnership with the United Nations, Saudi Press Agency reported on Friday.

The Kingdom will announce its funding for the United Nation’s emergency Humanitarian Response Plan for Yemen. This year’s pledge is expected to be substantive and will cover emergency needs created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event will take place on 8:00-13:40 EDT (New York). It will be attended by Faisal Bin Farhan, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, Supervisor General of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) and Adviser to the Royal Court and Mark Lowcock, Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Commenting on the upcoming conference, Dr. Al-Rabeeah said: “The humanitarian needs globally and in Yemen have been expanding rapidly. There are more humanitarian crises, either natural or man-made, than ever across the world. Unfortunately, this hasn’t resulted in increased funding from donors globally. Yemen has been a priority for Saudi Arabia for the past four or five decades. From the onset of COVID-19, Saudi Arabia has established a strategic plan to help countries in need. Top of the list is Yemen. Yemen needs a lot of help because of the weak and fragile health system in the country.

"It is precisely for this reason and Kingdom’s determination to help Yemen that the government of Saudi Arabia is hosting the pledging event for the humanitarian response plan in partnership with the United Nations. We are hoping this event will receive attention from the international community and donor countries globally. We are optimistic that this pledging event, despite the economic crisis and COVID-19, will receive very positive responses and we hope to see this will reflect positively on Yemen.”

Saudi Arabia’s pledge will include more than 10 relief projects with 11 UN agencies. The most urgent sectors of needs will be included. Last year, Saudi Arabia pledged $750,000,000 and reached 11 million beneficiaries. Food security, agriculture, heath, nutrition, WASH, coordination, RRMS, shelter, logistics, camp coordination and camp management, as well as Emergency Employment & Community Rehabilitation were funded.

Saudi Arabia has been the largest consistent donor to Yemen. The total of its funding to date is $16.9 billion. Forty pledges for a total of $2.6 billion dollars were promised by donors in 2019.

Last year, Lowcock told the UN Security Council that the Saudi pledge was done in full respect of the best humanitarian donorship principles. He said: “the Contribution was channeled through the UN as a single, unearmarked grant early in the year, which I consider a best practice in humanitarian donorship.”