UNFPA My Safety Our Future (Phase III)

Sexual and gender-based violence continues to be a significant challenge for women and girls in achieving their full potential, thereby undermining sustainable and inclusive development. Since 2015, gender relations have been impacted by the on-going conflict, displacement, severe economic challenges, near collapse of basic services and fractured governance and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, gender based violence has increased. UNFPA Yemen has submitted a proposal for a Phase III of "My Safety, Our Future (MSOF)" for 2021-2023. The proposal builds on lessons learned from the first and second phases and is a holistic response to the needs of women and girl survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) as well as women and girls at risk of GBV. The MSOF intervention was conceived based on a needs assessment of the GBV situation in Yemen that concluded that the issue is rooted in gender and power inequalities that existed even prior to the current conflict and humanitarian crisis, but have been exacerbated ever since. Phase III builds on findings from a mid-term evaluation conducted in early 2021, and provides an opportunity to improve upon lessons learned from the two earlier phases, also co-funded by Sida. Sida's funding of Phase III is 30,000,000 SEK, and constitutes approximately 33% of the program budget, the rest of which is funded by the Netherlands and Switzerland. The MSOF programme is in line with the broader priorities of Sweden's foreign policy and Sweden's Regional Strategy for the Middle East and North Africa 2021-2025 which highlights the particular importance of applying an integrated nexus approach that links the long-term development cooperation to humanitarian aid and peacebuilding in Yemen. Sida assesses that MSOF is an important intervention that contributes to reduce the vulnerability of marginalized women and girls, particularly those affected by GBV, and lays a necessary foundation to promoting gender equality in the longer term. Sida assesses that the proposed intervention predominantly aims to increase capacity to provide basic public services and promote sustainable development for a particularly vulnerable demographic group in Yemen, but also that it contributes to strengthening respect for human rights for particularly vulnerable women and girls.