The Food Security and Agriculture Cluster (FSAC) in Yemen, established in 2012, is co-led by WFP and FAO, and co-chaired by NRC. Yemen is currently facing a dire and precarious food security and nutrition situation whereby a total of 17 million people are considered severely food insecure. Conflict and insecurity continue to be the main drivers of the spiraling food insecurity levels in the country.  

In 2023 FSAC humanitarian partners required $ 2.2 Billion to assist 14.8 million beneficiaries facing precarious food insecurity levels. FSAC partners will provide immediate life-saving emergency food assistance to 14 million most vulnerable  and food insecure individuals. Targeting will be based on harmonized selection criteria, to meet monthly food needs through the most viable and contextually appropriate modality, including: in-kind food, cash transfers, or voucher transfers. Approximately 30 to 40% of the emergency food assistance response will be provided through cash or voucher transfers, contingent on in-depth market assessments and operational feasibility analyses. Given that food assistance meets immediate needs, FSAC partners - through the “twin track” approach - will progressively transition people from emergency food assistance to livelihoods programmes. Based on the needs established through the FSLA and the subsequent IPC analysis, FSAC partners will provide assistance to enhance the investment of available resources to rehabilitate and protect damaged critical community infrastructure and livelihood services. Priorities will include: the stabilization of local food production, the improvement of food availability and access, the enhancement of self-reliance and the support to investments in the resilience of Yemenis. The provision of emergency livelihoods inputs and trainings will increase the availability of food and create employment opportunities as well as strengthen community capacities to sustain their productive assets. FSAC partners will also institute appropriate actions to ensure that returnees could be integrated into sustainable livelihood programmes. A total of 5.8 million beneficiaries will be targeted through various forms of livelihoods activities. Emergency agricultural, livestock and fisheries kits will be provided to 2.2 million individuals to ensure that the most vulnerable households receive timely inputs aligned to the seasonal calendar and contributing to improve agricultural productivity. A total of 2.8 million individuals will be targeted to support the rehabilitation and protection of damaged critical community infrastructure and livelihood services in order to boost household food production, increase household incomes, restore and create employment opportunities. Approximately 0.8 million individuals will be assisted with livelihoods asset-building support, vocational trainings and income generation related to small businesses and enterprises.

Almost nine years into the conflict, it has become evident that short-term assistance modalities need to be combined with longer term strategies, to restore and support resilient livelihood and to ensure sustainable development and food security. For increased impact, FSAC activities are integrated and synchronized with the nutrition, WASH, and health cluster activities at the relevant delivery platform (household, community or health facility levels). It is envisaged that this approach will save lives and lessen the humanitarian caseload in the short term, while at the same time building the road towards recovery in the medium to long term.