Understanding Community Resilience in Yemen: Insights from the Field (1)

1 July 2021

ARK Group recently had the pleasure of announcing the launch of the research project ‘Understanding Community Resilience in Yemen’, in partnership with the Conflict to Peace Lab at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, The Ohio State University. The focus of the partnership is to understand how Yemenis relate to the notion of community resilience, how community members perceive risks and threats to their communities, and identify the embedded institutions, networks, resources and norms that enhance community resilience. The aim will be to assist local communities and relevant stakeholders to address or reduce local risks and threats to community resilience and empower or leverage existing efforts to strengthen community resilience.

Here we cover a few preliminary findings of the primary research (key informant interviews) we conducted in 14 target locations across Yemen. The target locations included urban and rural settings across six governorates. A total of 47 key informants (male and female of various age cohorts) were recruited, including Sheikhs, Aqils (community liaisons), managers of local civil society organisations, doctors, business owners, and members of the armed forces/security sector, among others.

Respondents across target locations described community resilience in terms of how their communities adapted and responded to key challenges and threats, including economic collapse, armed conflict, lack of social trust, or climate-induced crises. When asked to share their views on the present levels of resilience of their communities, most respondents unsurprisingly described very negative scenarios. One respondent from Ibb city, for example, emphasised the rising poverty levels and widespread beggary, which he believes are common to all regions of Yemen. However, others spoke about their community’s ability to adapt to a myriad of challenges and how that process brought people together. As one respondent from Aden noted, “In fact, with great difficulty, people were able to coexist and socialize together in light of the changes imposed on them by war. First, over a period of six years, it is not one or two issues. The interruption of salaries... the electricity shortages, the loss of the daily wage. There are no daily jobs, agriculture is considered non-existent, and foodstuffs from the market have become expensive. All of these crises have created a kind of social solidarity among the people.”

Overall, respondents were split on whether divisions within and between communities have deepened since the start of the current conflict in March 2015. In Hadhramaut, for example, respondents have not seen growing divisions and fragmentation. A respondent from the Wadi region noted that that the displacement of non-locals helped increase community resilience and helped unify Hadrami locals against outside threats. An interviewee from Marib, a governorate that has experienced a massive influx of IDPs over the last few years, noted that despite economic hardships, youth and civil society initiatives have made life “more bearable.” The responses raised interesting questions about the relationship between displacement, community resilience and social cohesion, which will be relevant for existing policy-oriented research in this space.

Asked to identify the primary challenges or threats undermining community resilience, the interviewees mentioned above all civil conflict and insecurity, economic deterioration (currency devaluation, unpaid salaries, unemployment) and natural disasters (e.g., floods). Responses illustrate that the economic deterioration has been more severe in the south. In Aden, Hadhramaut or Taiz, economic downturn was the first source of concern described by key informants. In contrast, within Houthi-controlled communities, respondents emphasized the effect of airstrikes, as well as criminality and personal insecurity.

Furthermore, a majority of interviewees also identified land and property disputes as a key driver of local conflict that undermines community resilience. This finding is consistent with previous survey research conducted by ARK in Yemen which identified land disputes as the dominant source of local conflict. Interviewees pointed towards corruption, greed, lack of authority/absence of rule of law, and access to water as the main drivers of land disputes.

Surprisingly, less than 20% of respondents mentioned disease or public health crises—quantitative surveys previously conducted by ARK in Yemen identified disease and illness as a primary concern for populations across governorates. However, when asked directly about the impact of COVID-19 on their communities, most interviewees said that the pandemic took a heavy economic and psychological toll on people. According to one respondent from Taiz, it “had significant negative effects on society because there is no strong health system to contain the pandemic. Community awareness is also very low, to the extent that people are not satisfied with the measures. The very bad economic situation made people also unable to comply, take precautionary measures or stop practising professions and running businesses because of the limited daily sources of income. We are not able to adhere to any procedures.” 

Perceptions of community resilience also varied across urban and rural target locations, with the important caveat that some rural areas have been urbanized during the conflict and with various waves of internal displacement. With few exceptions, in areas that have historically served as peripheries to major cities—such as Al-Misrakh district (near Taiz), Dis Al-Sharqiayh (near Mukalla), and Shibam and Al-Khuraibah (near Seyiun)—respondents expressed more confidence in their community's ability to adapt to external threats. In the next stage of research, we will investigate additional contributing factors for observed differences in resilience across urban, semi-urban and rural communities across the north and south.

In the next post of this series, we will examine the mechanisms, institutions, and key local actors that, according to interviewees, have sustained or contributed to the resilience of their communities.