Despite the substantial advancements on many development fronts, Yemen continues to face multi-dimensional challenges in its endeavor to pursue economic development, political reforms, and enhance peace and security in the region, especially in the post 11 September 2001 international context. The Government of Yemen is extremely concerned about those interrelated challenges which contribute to being one of the poorest countries in the world and to the country’s low level of human development.

Yemen ranks 151 out of 177 countries in the 2005 UNDP Human Development Index, underscoring the need to enhance the accessibility of the population to the basic necessities of their livelihood.
The structural and long-term development challenges facing Yemen have adversely undermined the effort of the state as well as the other stakeholders in improving the livelihood of the people. Population growth remains very high, although declining to 3.02%, indicating that population is doubling every 19 years, reaching 38 million by 2026.

Sharp imbalances between the available water resources and consumption lead to increased demand gap and further depletion of the ground water reserves. Limited human resource development reflected in low enrollment in basic education as more than 2 million children are still outside schools, in addition to high child malnutrition (46%) and maternal mortality (366 in 100,000 live births). Also, unemployment is on the rise due to insufficient jobs created in the economy. Finally, weak infrastructure is exemplified in limited road stretches (11km for each 1000 km2), electricity coverage (30%), safe water (36%), and telecommunication (4 lines per 100 inhabitants).

In an effort to address those challenges, the Government of Yemen (GoY) has set a number of socio-economic development goals as stipulated in the Yemen’s Strategic Vision 2025. The vision aims at transforming Yemen to a middle human development country with a diversified economy and social, scientific, cultural and political progress. It implies raising the living standards to ensure decent and dignified lives for all Yemenis.