Yemen Health Nutrition and WASH Project

pipeline

Since 2017, the World Bank has supported Yemen’s health sector through large-scale emergency operations that have delivered essential health, nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services to millions, while gradually investing in local institutions and systems. These efforts have sustained human capital in a protracted crisis, reaching nearly 24 million beneficiaries and training over 18,000 health personnel. Despite achievements, challenges in Yemen persist—including low immunization rates, malnutrition, conflict-related access constraints, declining donor funding, and reliance on external third-party implementation. The upcoming operation will prioritize integration to address malnutrition, strengthen local capacity, and revamp health workforce development by aligning community cadres with national strategies, improving training systems, and creating job opportunities for health workers. It will also consolidate health and WASH service delivery for efficiency, invest in solar energy to reduce fuel dependence, and introduce new implementation modalities to enhance sustainability and local ownership. The project will consist of 5 components: Component 1: Delivery of integrated health, nutrition and WASH services:Component 1 will prioritize delivering an integrated minimum service package (MSP) across all levels of care—primary, secondary, and tertiary. A Geographic Accelerator sub-component will tailor area-based interventions to local needs, combining MSP delivery with nutrition, WASH, and social protection interventions.Component 2: Systems building for sustainable delivery of health, nutrition and WASH services:Component 2 focuses on building sustainable systems for health, nutrition, and WASH service delivery by strengthening sub-national institutions and the health workforce. It includes tailored training for ministries and local health offices in planning, monitoring, and financial management, alongside support for refining national health strategies. A dedicated subcomponent will address critical health workforce reforms, aiming to resolve systemic bottlenecks and establish more sustainable funding mechanisms for health worker salaries. These reforms will also contribute to job creation and retention in the health sector, helping transition from volunteer-based service delivery to a more stable and professionalized workforce.Component 3: Support to prevent and respond to communicable disease outbreaks:Component 3 will retain emergency response capacity through disease surveillance, rapid response teams, laboratory support, and public health campaigns, with potential links to pandemic fund initiatives. It will also deliver emergency water trucking and fuel to hospitals and water facilities, while establishing clear transition plans to phase out reliance on fuel and trucking.Component 4: Project management:Component 4 will consist of supervision costs, monitoring and evaluation, third party monitoring and financing of E&S compliance requirements, fiduciary aspects and procurement. Component 5: CERCA zero cost CERC component will support the operation in the case of emergencies.