Strengthening inclusive local governance and peacebuilding in Yemen

Conflict Setting

Since the internationally supported—and celebrated—transition process in Yemen broke down at the end of 2014, Yemen has been in a state of open war. The warring parties are supported by rival regional powers and are internally fragmented. As a result, the war has not only displaced millions of people and created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, but has also undermined already weak state institutions and fragmented local governance and service provision.

Questions of local governance and local service provision therefore loom large: if the war continues, dialogue, services, and a functioning policy process at the local level can help insulate Yemen’s citizens from the worst of its effects and safeguard increasingly fragile institutions. If a breakthrough in the peace process is achieved, functioning and inclusive local governance will be essential to make peace stick, by delivering a tangible peace dividend to citizens and by safeguarding local progress while a new government hashes out difficult compromises at the centre.

Local governance structures provide very an entry point for both the stabilisation of the country, to help secure the necessary conditions for a peace process, and to help make a peace agreement function in practice—and in any scenario the local authorities will play a key role in providing basic services to the local population.

The project activities fall under three main clusters.

1. Initiating and sustaining policy discussions: the project aims to build consensus among national elites in Yemen on how local governance in Yemen can play a long-term role in stabilisation and recovery and to inform international policymakers of the importance of considering different Yemeni perspectives on local governance in their programming.
2. Supporting inclusive consultations and dialogues in four Yemeni governorates: the project supports an inclusive consultative committee in each governorate that complements the existing administrative set up and advises the governors on development and peacebuilding needs and priorities. In cooperation with GIZ, these committees also act as the steering committees for small project grants, implemented by district local authorities with support from GIZ.
3. Support to local mediation and reconciliation activities: the project supports local peace initiatives in the four project governorates. We build on strong Yemeni mediation traditions to provide mediators with additional tools and skills, support selected initiatives, and help mediators and communities raise funds from local businesspeople, international organisations, and community members themselves to restore services once conflicts could be successfully mediated.

As with all of Berghof’s Yemen projects, this project is implemented jointly with our long-standing Yemeni partner, the Political Development Forum (PDF).

Funded under the stabilisation mechanism of the German Federal Foreign Office, the project strives for stabilisation through local governance by combining peacebuilding and development approaches: The project ‘Strengthening inclusive local governance and peacebuilding in Yemen’ forms part of an overarching programme which is implemented jointly with GIZ, and which interlinks peacebuilding initiatives and support to local governance approaches at governorate level (Berghof/PDF) with infrastructure support and development approaches at district level (GIZ).

Jointly with UNDP, Berghof holds regular coordination meetings for Local Governance implementers in Yemen to support information exchange and increase chances for collaboration amongst organisations working on local governance support in Yemen.

Two initiatives in the governorate of Dhamar have been supported by the Peace Support Facility, an instrument aimed at building public support for the peace process through achieving concrete and rapid improvement in peoples’ lives in priority areas identified by the UN Special Envoy to Yemen. All of Berghof’s Yemen projects are closely coordinated with the Special Envoy’s Office.