Yemen has witnessed a series of catastrophic events and widespread unrest since 2011. Despite this challenging operational context, UNDP projects in Yemen meet their general goals to a significant extent, and achieve a high level of community satisfaction.

The project that was the subject of the winning evaluation – “Rebuilding Livelihoods and Capacities of Conflict-Affected Small-Scale Fisheries Households in Aden and Hadramout” (RELACC) - had a significant impact on the livelihood needs identified. The fisheries sector has been heavily impacted by the conflict, including a ban on fishing in many areas, which has caused a substantial decline in production and loss of livelihoods. In response, the RELACC project created an environment that enabled the reclamation of livelihoods through business and skills training as well as the provision of grants and assets.

To address gender inequalities and overcome related constraints, RELACC project activities were designed based on the understanding of gender roles and relationships in the coastal society, with a gender-inclusive approach that involved both men and women in the design and implementation stages. The project made additional efforts to enhance women’s empowerment in two ways. Firstly, through scheduling the project activities to make it easy for women to attend them without any disruptions, and secondly by promoting women’s enterprises to facilitate the sale of produce and subsequent improvement of household incomes.

Yemen is a very conservative society. The consultant approach was extremely useful to evaluate women’s empowerment from the customary perspective. In particular, the ways in which the project was both articulated and implemented took into consideration the reality faced by Yemeni women. By respecting privacy and local societal norms, women's participation was encouraged. According to respondents involved in the evaluation, the most powerful impact of the project was that those who rejected the idea of women's inclusion changed their perceptions after the project interventions proved that addressing women's needs and rights is necessary.