ESD in Yemen

ESD is working in Yemen through The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Asia and the Middle East (AME) and through USAID's Yemen Basic Health Services Project (BHS).

Working in Yemen is part of ESD's initiatve to scale-up  high-impact best practices in family planning, and maternal, neonatal and child health across the AME region. The overall goal of the AME Bureau and its partners is to reduce maternal, newborn and infant mortality and morbidity, and to prevent unintended pregnancies in the region. 

Other ESD activities in Yemen include: the "Safe Age of Marriage" Project, a partnership between ESD, BHS and the Yemen Women's Union, which engages community educators in Amran Governorate to teach the local population about the negative consequences of child marriage, with the goal of ending the practice of child marriage in Amran and beyond; assisting BHS and the Yemen Midwives Association with helping midwives to set up private practices in the most remote areas of Yemen; refurbishing health centers and using a mobile clinic to deliver health services; and engaging religious leaders as advocates of reproductive health and family planning.

Yemen Basic Health Services Program: USAID's three-year BHS Program assists the Yemeni government in improving maternal and child health in the five northern and eastern governorates of Amran, Sa’ada, El Jawf, Marib, and Shabwa. BHS works closely with the Yemen Ministry of Health and Population to provide community level access to quality health care services and knowledge of healthy behaviors.

In the News:

Pathfinder Meets with Minister of Endowment (Saba News Agency, July 2010)

Making Pregnancy More of a Choice, Less of a Risk (Global Health Magazine)

To Help Reduce Yemen’s Maternal Mortality Rate, Midwives Trained to Manage Their Own Private Clinics (Yemen Times, July 7, 2008)

Five Health Practices Can Save Babies' and Mothers' Lives  (Yemen Observer, July 1, 2008)

Mobile Medical Units Visit Tunisia with an Eye to Improving Services (Yemen Observer, May 1, 2007)

Preachers Trained in Health Education in Marib (Yemen Observer, May 1, 2007)

Success Stories:

Making Pregnancy More of a Choice, Less of a Risk

Using Religious Leaders to Deliver Reproductive Health/Family Planning Messages (PDF)