• Life-saving emergency medicines and reproductive health supplies - benefiting nearly 500,000 Yemenis, with more than 80,000 women and girls across 14 governorates - were delivered in Sana’a on 21 September 2016. This is a major breakthrough in delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance. Previous supplies have taken up to five or seven months to reach Sana’a from ports in Al Hudaydah and Djibouti due to air and naval blockades.
• Comprehensive and basic emergency obstetric care equipment was distributed to health facilities in Sana’a and Al Hudaydah Governorates. These will benefit an estimated 45,800 pregnant women.
• Reproductive health kits were distributed to 24 health facilities across 12 districts in Sa’ada Governorate. These will address the reproductive health needs, including complicated deliveries of some 43,000 women and girls of reproductive age (15 to 49 years).In addition, 50 midwives have been equipped with clean delivery kits to assist in home deliveries
• The recent mission of the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator included a visit to the Althowrah Hospital in Al Hydaydah Governorate where UNFPA has provided reproductive health kits and equipment for basic and comprehensive emergency obstetric care, aimed at serving approximately 170,000 women and girls of reproductive age.
• The development of a reproductive healthy strategy for Yemen is currently under way. UNFPA is advocating for the inclusion of humanitarian and gender-based violence issues in the strategy.
• A joint meeting between UNFPA, UNICEF and WHO was held to improve coordination, build synergies, and compliment maternal health interventions between the agencies.
• Mainstreaming of gender-based violence as a prevention measure across WASH, shelter and health clusters was successfully advocated with guidelines developed to be adopted in the coming months.
• A total of 321 beneficiaries (274 female, 47 male) were reached with gender-based violence services in September, with the highest being for psychosocial support services (202) followed by health services support (96).
• In resource mobilization efforts, proposals were submitted in September to the United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Kuwait, and King Salaman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, amounting to a total of $11.5 million.
• UNFPA continues to face long delays in receiving supplies from the port in Al Hudayadh and securing visa for staff to travel to Yemen. These pose significant challenges for an effective humanitarian response.