The inspiring year for Youth Leadership Development Foundation

The organization has officially launched “KUNTROL”, an Information Communication Technology (ICT) system that aims to develop a unified, integrated, multifunctional and multilingual management information system (MIS) responsible for automating and digitizing key front-end business processes and functions in the organization. It is a platform to improve the quality of the organization's outputs and also to introduce the ICT management model to other national civil society organizations. This has helped the Foundation to achieve the goals at the lowest cost and limited time, as it implemented many different activities and training courses, through the application on online platforms including WhatsApp and Zoom. And it implemented all 2020 projects within emergency situations, as it witnessed a significant expansion, as the number of beneficiaries reached 14,431, and 1,126 families, expanding significantly in the region.

During the year 2020,  YLDF built a generation of young leaders, innovators and change makers to become engines of social change and implement the sustainable development goals and the 2030 plan, focusing on climate action and epidemics in the context of the Corona pandemic, and on the devastating environmental and health issues that Yemen faces such as water scarcity, desertification of agricultural land, waste management, and others; Where recent assessments showed the effects of climate change on water resources, agricultural production resources, biodiversity, and the increase in emissions from energy and transportation, in addition to the devastating effects of  Corona pandemic on the health sector, which is increasing in Yemen at alarming rates, and gave young people the opportunity to be part of a dynamic network of young leaders Creative Yemenis who want to help their communities build back better, develop skills in social innovation methodologies as well as increase skills in problem solving, enhance presentation capabilities, and expand knowledge of the Sustainable Development Goals.

 

It has worked to increase access to food for highly vulnerable families through emergency life-saving food assistance, to contribute to responding to the exacerbating impacts of COVID-19 on vulnerable families, strengthen the resilience of host communities in supporting IDPs, and enhance self-reliance of displaced and vulnerable women in affected areas from conflict, through livelihoods and protection interventions.

 

The Foundation has supported the effective participation of Yemeni women in the peace process, influencing decisions that affect their lives, and ensuring the building of a comprehensive and gender-sensitive peace through a strengthened and effective civil society and community initiatives, and increasing the role of community organizations in general, especially in the field of gender and conflict prevention during the pandemic COVID-19, and worked to make recommendations related to local issues, to the Office of the United Nations Envoy, the United Nations and the international community, and local civil society organizations - youth-led organizations, engaged in peacebuilding by reaching out to Yemeni women's groups, networks, individuals and CSOs Yemeni youth (women and men) with the message of ceasefire, start of peace talks, response to COVID-19, reduction of gender-based violence by raising awareness of vulnerable communities and NGOs in this aspect.

 Youth Leadership Development Foundation participated in the Yemeni Youth Peacebuilding Conference in November 2020, and the conference was able to bring young people together, from all sectors and political parties, in light  the possibility of achieving peaceful coexistence. The conference was carried out with the wide participation of young Yemeni men and women at home and abroad, also an active presence of decision-makers at the international level, led by the UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths, representatives of a number of UN agencies, the European Union ambassador and the British ambassador to Yemen.

The participants in the conference stressed the need to enhance their role in the peace-building process and decision-making at its various stages and levels, and to involve them within the negotiation delegations and in the peace-building process. The UN envoy to Yemen called for the participation of young Yemeni men and women in his advisory team, and recommended all parties and international actors, including the UN envoy, to develop effective mechanisms to implement UN resolutions 2250 and 2419. At the conference, young men and women stressed the importance of enhancing human security and a long-term approach to addressing and preventing the root causes of conflict, by urging Member States to increase the investment of resources in peaceful institutions and initiatives, including the adoption of gender-sensitive economic and social development policies, and gender mainstreaming. Mainstreaming a gender perspective in security sector reform programs and the transitional justice mechanism.

More than a thousand young men and women - who participated in the conference through  "Zoom" program and conference halls in a number of governorates and countries and consultative meetings - demanded the release of all detainees and forcibly disappeared persons, accountability for human rights violations and an end to the policy of impunity, as well as an end to the recruitment of children and forced recruitment. All parties must open corridors and roads between Yemeni cities and regions such as Taiz, Al-Dhale’, Sana’a, Marib, Al-Hodeidah and Lahj, open Sana’a International Airport and other Yemeni airports to commercial flights, and end all restrictions and obstacles imposed on the activities of young women and men within civil society in general in all regions. They also stressed the importance of neutralizing education from conflict, economic empowerment programs and projects, also capacity-building programs and projects for young women and men in various fields, as well as ensuring and promoting equal opportunities in education and work. They stressed the need to renounce the language of terrorism, extremism and violence, enhance trust between local communities and civil society organizations, and ensure that organizations apply the principles of good governance and partnership with local communities; Incorporating a youth and gender perspective at all levels of programs and administrative structures, enhancing coordination and integration between organizations at all levels, and ensuring the availability and tracking of funding that takes into account the priorities of the youth, women, peace and security agenda at the local level. The recommendations of young men and women included pressure towards stopping external interference, stopping external military support to prevent the conflict from escalating, and striving to activate dialogue between the Yemeni parties according to national low that are not linked to external wills.