Saudi Arabia's KSRelief increases its support for FAO emergency activities in Yemen

Rome – QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Rabeeah, Supervisor-General of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSRelief), today signed an agreement that will help scale up FAO’s emergency activities in Yemen.

The initiative titled, “Emergency support to protect the agriculture-, livestock- and fisheries-based livelihoods of highly vulnerable conflict and COVID-19-affected populations in Yemen” will see an additional $8 million in support from Saudi Arabia’s KSRelief as part of a five-year Strategic Joint Cooperation Agreement with FAO first announced in 2021.

The news funding aims to help 34 500 highly vulnerable, conflict-affected households in Yemen to protect or rehabilitate their agricultural livelihoods and to enhance household food security.

Speaking at the virtual signing ceremony, the FAO Director-General said: “I am so delighted and appreciate the generous contribution of support from KSRelief.”

Secretary-General Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Rabeeah said KSRelief valued FAO for being a true partner over the last few years.

Critical support

The project aims to deliver critical support to fishers, farmers and pastoralists to enable them to continue food production both for household consumption as well as to sell in local markets.

Not only will this contribute to enhancing food availability and access – thereby reducing acute food insecurity and contributing to the recovery of agricultural livelihoods and household incomes – but will also enhance the nutritional value of household and community-wide food baskets.

FAO will distribute critical inputs in support of crop production, livestock production and fisheries to build the resilience of beneficiary households in the mid- to long-run at both the household and community levels. The inputs will be distributed alongside training on good agricultural practices, animal husbandry best practices and good fish handling practices.

Cooperation

This new contribution re-affirms a growing engagement between FAO and KSRelief in Yemen.

KSRelief had previously donated approximately $33 million in support to FAO emergency and resilience interventions, focusing mainly on supporting crisis-hit Yemeni families.

Since 2016, funding from KSRelief has reached more than 1.4 million households, or over 9.7 million people, in Yemen