Aden the focus of Dh500m UAE aid effort

Sultan Al Shamsi, assistant undersecretary for international development at Micad, said on Wednesday that the focus of reconstruction was now being put on Aden to ensure security and power for residents

Volunteers from the Emirates Red Crescent delegation distributes aid to people affected by the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Wam

ABU DHABI // A campaign to raise Dh500 million to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Yemen has overtaken its target and brought in Dh522 million.

The focus is now on reconstruction in Aden to provide safety, security and stability for the southern port city’s residents, the Ministry of International Cooperation and Development says.

“We are working with the King Salman Relief Centre and we already covered eight provinces so far in Yemen,” said Sultan Al Shamsi, assistant undersecretary for international development at the ministry.

“But we are more focused on Aden because the government is already there so we have to start the rehabilitation and recovery stage and hopefully work with them on rebuilding.”

Mr Al Shamsi said the most crucial work taking place in the city was related to security, with police training and upkeep of a number of police stations.

“We are also working on the electricity so we are doing some evaluations,” he said. “Aden is now fine in terms of electricity and we are trying to link it with other neighbouring or surrounding provinces.”

Five power stations are up and running with a few others operating at about half capacity.

“We have a team there but the most important is that we encourage the United Nations staff and international staff to go back to Aden and work there,” Mr Al Shamsi said.

“Otherwise, we cannot really work on our own or just with the King Salman Relief Centre. We need international representation from other organisations.

“You have to go back there and work because then cluster meetings can start on health and education, for example. We need to coordinate with the country team of the UN because we cannot do it alone.”

The ministry yesterday told the UN that its latest figure in public funding to Yemen reached almost Dh808m.

“The funding depends on the issues there and the crisis,” he said. “There is a need now. This campaign is important.

“We have business people and a lot of others from the public here who want to contribute, which is why we sometimes open the fund-raising activities and why Yemen is very crucial, whether you support it through public funding or private funding.”

He said the Friends of Yemen meeting had pledged Dh1.8 billion. “What is very critical is that the crisis has not just begun. It has been going on for a number of years, even before our commitment to Yemen. But we could not really spend because of the transition time.”

He said Yemen’s priorities had to be identified first. “Once the transition came with the new government, they had issues,” Mr Al Shamsi said.

“So we have some unspent funds from the Friends of Yemen meeting.”

The Emirates Red Crescent, which organised the Yemen: We Care campaign, has rebuilt 154 schools in Aden, 33 of which reopened almost three weeks ago.

The organisation ran 11 aid projects in Aden during Eid, including the distribution of meat to the families of martyred loyalist fighters and clothes to the disabled. It also helped to restore health services in the city, providing equipment to the city’s disabled, rebuilding an institute for the blind and maternity health centres in several districts.

Abdullah Al Saleh, undersecretary in foreign trade and industry at the Ministry of Economy, said there were some encouraging signs that GCC countries contributed to the Arab region to resolve a number of crises.

“They are contributing in drawing a road map to the post-conflict era and committed themselves to a number of plans to develop these countries going through these crises,” he said. “These initiatives and this help vary between helping to deal with the crisis and developmental assistance towards the countries, to help them manage and to develop their own economy and population.”

But more needs to be done. “The reform of these countries need sound governance and trust,” said Dr Abdullah Sahar, director general of the Social Development Office in Kuwait.

Mr Al Shamsi was speaking at a forum in Abu Dhabi on the challenges of nation-building in troubled Arab countries.