Challenges and Opportunities: Local Governance: Engine for Stability in Yemen
This paper on the local governance experiment in Yemen seeks to review its past developmental stages and current reality. It includes governorates still under the war’s impact, as well as and those no longer affected by war, but still facing major challenges to reinforcing stability.
Given the current conditions, this paper’s main objective is to be a catalyst for discussion by raising questions on the fate of local authority, the feasibility of applying the system, the political and service challenges governorates face, and the possibilities for strengthening local governance in areas where fighting has subsided to bolster security, services, stability and development.
For this, discussions were organized between executive department leadership in Hadhramawt Governorate, amongst others. Questions were raised on the development stages of local governance, the positive and negative elements of this experiment, and ideas for addressing the questions raised.
Other resources you may be interested in:
Local Service Provision During War: A Case Study of Yemen
This journal article analyzes how conflict has shaped local service delivery across five Yemeni governorates and shows how governance capacity, political stability, resources, and external support, in particular humanitarian aid, effect outcomes. By analyzing how these elements shape local governance capacities, the paper highlights the disparities in service delivery and the challenges faced by local […]
Navigating post-conflict governance in Yemen: Decentralization, federalism, and the path to stability.
This journal article examines enhanced decentralization, federalism, and secession as alternative post-conflict governance models for Yemen and assesses their implications for stability and state-building. The study investigates what governance arrangements best align with Yemen’s political, social, and economic context; how institutional legitimacy and local autonomy can be balanced in a fragile, divided state; and what […]
Strengthening Institutional and Economic Resilience in Yemen (SIERY) – Final Evaluation Report.
This final project evaluation assesses the UNDP SIERY project’s performance from 2020–2025 in strengthening local governance, public service delivery, and economic resilience across nine governorates in Yemen. Given this project has been the largest project in terms of funding volume and geographical coverage supporting local governance in Yemen, it offers interesting insights in the opportunities […]
