National Children and Youth Strategy of the Republic of Yemen.

This National Children and Youth Strategy is a 10-years nationwide sectoral document aiming at enhancing protection and development of all Yemeni children and young people through four main interventions (i) enabling all children and young people to reach their potential and become active contributors to Yemeni society; (ii) preventing children and young people from becoming disadvantaged in their childhood and youth, through specifically targeted multi sectoral intervention, at critical stages of their life-cycle; (iii) targeting children and young people already experiencing extreme levels of disadvantage; and (iv) creating new levels of synergies and collaboration between all stakeholders, committed to the protection and development of children and young people. With this Strategy, Yemen adopts a life–cycle approach that takes into account the vulnerabilities and opportunities that children and young people face over the life-cycle period, and selects appropriate priority interventions aimed at critical life stages that will create cumulative inter-generational positive effects. These critical stages are (1) pregnancy, birth, infancy and early childhood (0–5 years); (2) school age (6– 4 years); and (3) adolescence and youth (15–24 years).
The National Children and Youth Strategy of Yemen has a adopted a Vision mainly focused on creating a society where all Yemeni children and young men and women are protected, valued and respected, and have equitable access to a full range of social, health, educational, employment and leisure opportunities to reach their potential and develop as healthy, responsible and active citizens.
To achieve the overall purpose of the Strategy, the document adopts nine strategic goals, as follows (i) create a greater understanding of, and commitment to the challenges and potential contribution of Yemeni children and young people; (ii) highlight ‘gaps’ and ‘linkages’ across all related sectors; (iii) provide an integrated, holistic and coordinated framework; (iv) indicate national priority areas for intervention; (v) develop awareness of and active commitment to the principles and values of Islam, the Constitution, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the principles of the Yemeni Revolution; (vi) share new and creative inter-sectoral options for dealing with challenges and opportunities; (vii) provide critical input to the Third Five Year Plan/Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper; and (ix) create new mechanisms to ensure more effective collaboration and coordination between all involved stakeholders (including Government agencies, civil society, the private sector and young Yemenis) and foster more active participation of young people in community and national life.
To help eliminate hunger and malnutrition, the Government aims at (i) creating a comprehensive national nutrition plan; (ii) strengthening and scaling up school health and nutrition; (iii) improving coordination and cooperation among institutions to ensure nutrition supply for the most needy mothers and children; (iv) ensuring early detection and referral of malnourished children for rehabilitation to be achieved through preparing and implementing a nutrition monitoring system, and building the capacity of health care to treat medium and extreme cases of malnutrition; (v) setting up a National Early Childhood Development (ECD) Program articulated within a holistic package and approach incorporating health, education and nutrition interventions for children and their caregivers; and (vi) promoting agricultural and animal production through advisory financial services, marketing, transportation and storage services to guarantee a secure, balanced and continuous nutrition supply.
In order to make agriculture and fisheries more productive and sustainable, main interventions seek to (i) invest in the promising production sectors that require potential and intensive labor force to create job opportunities for both males and females, including fisheries, tourism, transfer industries, minerals, and agriculture; and (ii) introduce policies to limit Qat production.
Rural poverty reduction shall be faced mainly with actions aiming at increasing the level of schooling, especially female education, in these areas. This objective needs to (i) develop and expand the food program in rural areas with the specific aim of attracting girls enrollment in school; (ii) develop and implement a National Plan - including incentives and proper and safe housing for female teachers coming from outside the area - for attracting, training and retaining more qualified female teachers in rural areas; (iii) granting support for rural girls enrolling in secondary education; and (iv) strengthening the media coverage of youth participation and contributions in these areas.