As part of UNDP’s COVID-19 response in Yemen, the office established a Rapid Response Facility (RRF) to help the government and authorities address the pandemic.

The COVID-19 RRF aims to generate income opportunities through humanitarian and development responses through mainstreamed activities that cope with ongoing UNDP interventions.

The focus of the Facility will be to focus upon preparing and protecting Yemeni from the pandemic and its impacts. It will also work to address the provision of adequate response during the outbreak and to help Yemen recover from the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19.

UNDP Yemen will rely on local and global experiences in responding to large scale emergencies including health epidemics such as cholera.

The main areas of RRF work will be:

1. Increasing Covid-19 awareness among Yemenis

UNDP will create public awareness about COVID-19 by managing the dissemination of information. Messages about the risk factors for its transmission, its prevention, control among the community and planned and ongoing testing, as well as caring and treatment efforts will be conveyed. The RRF will also support behaviorally informed messaging to encourage adherence to policy and inspire people towards positive social behavior such as washing hands, social distancing, respecting lockdowns (if imposed), etc.

2. Strengthening public health systems

To improve sanitation and hygiene in select high-risk areas, UNDP is extending the reach of ongoing and pipeline UNDP-supported water, sanitation and hygiene (water systems), solar power and livelihoods (soap and masks) sub-projects to previously uncovered healthcare facilities and public handwashing sites.

3. Creating Livelihoods for vulnerable populations affected by the disruptive effects of COVID-19

To mitigate the effects of an outbreak on the livelihoods of the poor, the RRF will work to ensure food and nutrition security and respond to critical COVID-19 preparedness and response needs. To do this, UNDP is partnering with, and providing grants to, local civil society organizations, women, and youth groups to:

a. Sustain operations of existing community-prioritized micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs);

b. Provide knowledge on COVID-19 transmission and prevention; and,

c. Build skills to produce and distribute basic preventive materials like masks to local healthcare facilities, and soap for handwashing at UNDP-supported sub-project sites, public handwashing sites, and household use.

Designing advocacy and awareness campaigns

To help the spread of misinformation, UNDP has developed a series of posters, radio campaigns and 10 video snippets that are being disseminated to the Yemeni public to help raise COVID-19 awareness and to help curb the spread of the virus.

The COVID-19 RRF will help vulnerable people affected by the crisis and to raise people awareness about how to protect themselves from COVID-19.