Under the auspices of the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and International Cooperation (SCMCHA), Mr. Abdulmuhsin Tawoos, the first consultative meeting with humanitarian partners was held today.

At the meeting, which was attended by heads and representatives of international, UN and local organizations, Tawoos stressed the importance of implementing sustainable, development and service projects, giving priority to livelihood projects due to their sustainable consequences in alleviating the crisis for citizens.

Mr. Hussein Al Suhaily, Coordinator of the Humanitarian Action Localization Initiative in Yemen, Chairman of TYF, praised the Council's sponsorship of this meeting, which reflects the urgent need of all humanitarian actors to review the humanitarian response mechanism in Yemen and to address the imbalances in United Nations-led humanitarian operations since 2015.

Al-Suhaily stressed that the localization of humanitarian action in Yemen, in accordance with the commitments of the Charter for Change and the Grand Bargain, and appropriate to the local context, would meet the actual needs of beneficiaries and communities, and direct humanitarian grants and assistance towards recovery, economic empowerment and sustainable development.

Al Suhaily called on UN and international organizations to enable local organizations to lead the humanitarian response and to agree on the localization framework and effective coordination mechanisms that would ensure partnership in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the humanitarian program cycle, a structural change in the quality of interventions and the design of projects, and a commitment to maximum transparency towards all partners and beneficiaries in the assistance provided by States and donors to Yemen. He also called for the establishment of a consultative committee comprising representatives of donors, UN and international organizations, local organizations and government agencies to localize the humanitarian action, fill the gap between needs and available resources, accelerate the empowerment of local organizations and promote their capacities, and optimize the investment of grants and assistance in the implementation of humanitarian and development projects.

For his part, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Mr. David Gresley, said that we will work to promote the response in various under-funded sectors, including livelihoods, create the best framework for improving humanitarian action, support economic growth and fill the current gap.