Marib :Workshop on National Policy for Internal Displacement

Under the auspices of the member of the Presidential Council, Governor of Marib Governorate, Major General Sultan al-Arada, and the Prime Minister, Dr. Moin Abdul-Malik, and with the funding of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Executive Unit for the Management of IDP Camps implemented a workshop on the National Policy to Address Internal Displacement in Yemen today in Marib for representatives of the local authorities in the governorate and districts.

During the opening of the workshop, Dr. Abdul Rahman al-Maftah, Deputy Governor of Marib, gave a speech in which he praised the great role played by the Executive Unit in the governorate since the establishment of the first IDP camp in the governorate.

The Deputy Governor stressed the importance of this workshop, which is the first of its kind, as it is dedicated to discussing the national policy for displacement, especially in Marib Governorate, which has absorbed more than 62% of the IDPs in Yemen. This has led to an increase in the size of the humanitarian gap for the growing needs, as opposed to the decline in the role of humanitarian interventions by partners from the United Nations, international and regional organizations, which puts the burden entirely on the government, local authorities and executive offices.

He emphasized the importance of ensuring that the directors of the executive offices and government units related to the governorate and the directors of the general directorates of the districts participating in the workshop discuss the mechanisms for implementing the national policy for addressing displacement and permanent solutions in a positive way and put forward their observations based on their practical and field experiences that they have gained over 9 years. He wished the workshop participants success in coming up with recommendations and outputs that are implementable.

The Deputy Governor also called on all concerned parties to the need to enhance coordination and cooperation between the different offices and government units to shoulder their responsibilities in managing the next phase, which is focused on recovery and permanent solutions, and to shoulder the responsibility of managing limited resources to meet existing and expected needs.

For his part, Assistant Director of the Executive Unit, Director of the Branches Department, Abdul Rahman Mohsen, pointed out that the Executive Unit is seeking, through the implementation of workshops on discussing the mechanisms for implementing the national policy for addressing displacement and permanent solutions with all concerned parties, to create a shared national vision for implementing the policy and addressing displacement, and to involve stakeholders in planning and decision-making related to their future, leading to permanent solutions.

He stressed that the outputs and recommendations of this workshop, the workshops that have been implemented in some governorates, in addition to the outputs and recommendations of the workshops that will be implemented in the rest of the liberated governorates, will have a profound impact on the process of planning and managing the humanitarian and development file by the local authorities.

This was preceded by the welcome of the Executive Unit’s office manager in Marib, Siif Muthanna, at the beginning of the opening to the Deputy Governor and the Executive Unit for IDPs team participating in the workshop from the leadership of the local authorities in the governorate, pointing out that this workshop comes within the framework of integrating official humanitarian work in the governorate and introducing the national policy for addressing internal displacement in the Republic of Yemen, which was approved by the Prime Minister in 2013 as a government document that deals with the humanitarian file in Yemen and internal displacement issues, and works to protect and assist IDPs and address their situations, wishing the participants success and to come up with recommendations and outputs that can be used to address the issues of internal displacement in Marib Governorate in particular.

In the workshop, which was attended by 53 participants from the leadership of the local authorities, directors of general directorates of districts, and representatives of the Unit in the regions and districts, the policy was introduced, its objectives and mechanisms for addressing displacement were explained, and participants were divided into working groups to discuss the local authorities’ vision for the mechanisms for implementing the national policy.

After extensive discussion, the participants approved the recommendations and outputs approved in the governorates where the workshops were implemented, and added a number of recommendations and outputs that were read at the conclusion of the workshop.

It is worth noting that the Presidency of the Executive Unit for IDPs had launched the opening of the work of these workshops in the temporary capital, Aden, in the presence of the Minister of Local Administration and a number of governors of governorates and the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Yemen. During the past week, two workshops on the national policy for IDPs were implemented in Mukalla and Sayun in the governorate of Hadhramaut.