Press Release – Jeddah, 18 December 2016: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the world’s second largest inter-governmental organisation, convened senior representatives from the UN, World Bank and ambassadorial diplomats from over 40 nations yesterday at a preparatory meeting for a humanitarian conference to support Yemen. The OIC Secretary General also called for the “adoption of quality humanitarian intervention initiatives” that are “commensurate to the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen”.
The OIC, a body spanning 57 Muslim nations, has committed to organising an international conference to provide humanitarian and development assistance to the Yemeni people. The conference will take in cooperation with the United Nations, the Yemeni Government, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and several international donors, namely the USA, Germany, Sweden, Japan and the UK.
Yesterday’s preparatory meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, focused on pooling efforts from partnering organisations (including the Gulf Cooperation Council and the World Bank) and participating countries in the planning of such a conference.
Nations represented at the meeting by official Ambassadors to Riyadh included the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands, Finland, as well as several OIC member states from the Muslim world.
In his address, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Partnerships with Middle East, Central Asia, Mr. Rashid Khalikov said that only $150 million had been received from the total $1.6 billion pledged by international donors in 2016. He added that seven million people in Yemen do not know from where they will get their next meal.
Abdur-Raqueeb Saif Fath, Minister of Local Administration and Chairman of the Higher Committee for Relief in Yemen, presented UN findings of the scale of the humanitarian disaster in Yemen. These included:
- 21.2 million Yemenis needing different forms of humanitarian aid;
- 19.3 million Yemenis not having access to safe drinking water;
- 14.1 million Yemenis suffering a shortage of food;
- 2.2 million Yemeni children suffering from acute malnutrition.
The OIC Secretary General, General Yousuf Al-Othaimeen, said “the aim of this meeting is to find ways to support the Yemeni people”.
He added “today, we are required to adopt -in cooperation with other international organizations- quality initiatives for humanitarian intervention that would be commensurate to the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The conference that is being planned is an important step towards boosting response and coordination system among active parties in Yemen to ensure non-multiplication or duplication of mechanisms”
The Secretary General also stressed the need to “bridge the huge gap in the required financing for humanitarian action in Yemen”.
