The Women’s Solidarity Network (WSN) is deeply concerned about the humanitarian consequences of the military escalation affecting several areas across Yemen, particularly along the western coast, in Taiz Governorate and the Bab al-Mandab area, as well as conflict-affected areas in Marib, Al-Jawf, Al-Bayda and Lahj. These developments have triggered new waves of displacement, forcing thousands of families to leave their homes and communities in search of safety.
According to data released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM)On 13 September 2026, more than 125,000 people have been displaced as a result of the recent escalation. including 82,164 people displaced since the beginning of September alone. More than 2,000 people have also been forced to cross the sea to Djibouti, including women and children. Reports continue to indicate further displacement as violence and armed conflict persist.
Through its members and partners, the Women’s Solidarity Network has observed that women are not only among those affected by displacement; they are also an essential part of the response. Women are sharing information about displacement movements and emerging needs, helping families access services, and mobilising support within their communities, while women activists, local initiatives and organisations are working to fill gaps in the response. At the same time, displaced women face challenges related to safe shelter, income, healthcare, mobility, and access to humanitarian assistance and services. The response must therefore be grounded in women’s experiences and actual needs and ensure their meaningful participation in decisions affecting their lives and communities.
This new wave of displacement comes at a time when Yemen’s humanitarian response is already facing enormous needs and a severe shortage of resources. According to the 2026 Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan, 22.3 million people require humanitarian assistance and protection. The Plan aims to
reach 12 million people, including 9.4 million people facing the most acute needs. The response requires USD 2.16 billion, including USD 1.6 billion for priority interventions.
Humanitarian Localisation Is an Urgent Necessity, Not a Promise for the Future!
The current crisis once again demonstrates the need to move from discussing humanitarian localisation to putting it into practice. Since the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit, donors and humanitarian organisations, through the Grand Bargain, have committed to working towards providing at least 25% of humanitarian funding to local and national actors as directly as possible. A decade after this commitment was made, a significant gap remains between commitment and practice.
In Yemen, data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Financial Tracking Service (OCHA FTS) for 2025 indicate that national NGOs directly received approximately USD 76.2 million out of USD 704.6 million in funding recorded by recipient organisation type under the Humanitarian Response Plan—only around 10.8%. Preliminary data for 2026 indicate approximately USD 18.6 million out of USD 438.1 million recorded, or around 4.3%, while noting that data for the current year remain preliminary and subject to updates.
By contrast, the Yemen Humanitarian Fund (YHF) demonstrates that increasing direct funding to national organisations is possible. In 2025, 59% of the USD 22.6 million directly allocated by the Fund went to national NGOs, exceeding the Fund’s 50% target.
Humanitarian localisation does not mean that Yemeni organisations implement programmes while funding and decision-making remain in the hands of international actors. Local organisations are present within communities before, during and after crises, and possess direct knowledge of their needs. Genuine localisation means ensuring that funding reaches these organisations and that they are partners in setting priorities, allocating resources and making decisions. This applies particularly to women’s organisations and women-led organisations, which must be recognised as humanitarian actors in their own right, rather than merely as a means of reaching women beneficiaries.
Accordingly, the Women’s Solidarity Network calls for:
1. Protecting civilians and ensuring humanitarian access: All parties to the conflict, including the Houthis and forces affiliated with the Yemeni Government, must comply with international humanitarian law; protect civilians, civilian objects, displacement camps and gathering sites, and displacement routes; and ensure safe and unhindered access to humanitarian assistance.
2. Releasing humanitarian personnel: The immediate, safe and unconditional release of all United Nations personnel, staff of national and international humanitarian organisations, and civil society workers detained by the Houthis, while ensuring the safety and freedom of movement of humanitarian workers and protecting their premises and property.
3. Scaling up the urgent displacement response: UN agencies and humanitarian organisations must strengthen their response to the needs of displaced people and host communities, particularly in areas
receiving new waves of displacement, and ensuring the provision of shelter, food, water, healthcare, protection and essential services.
4. Engaging women in leading the response: Women in displacement-affected and host communities must be directly consulted, and women and local women’s organisations must be meaningfully involved in needs assessments, priority-setting, and the design, implementation and monitoring of the response. Their role as humanitarian actors—not merely beneficiaries—must be recognised.
5. Increasing funding for the humanitarian response: Donors should increase their contributions to Yemen’s humanitarian response and provide urgent and flexible funding commensurate with the scale of needs. WSN also calls on the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen (SDRPY) to strengthen its support for humanitarian services in affected communities and areas hosting displaced people.
6. Mobilising the national private sector: WSN also calls on Yemen’s national private sector, as part of its social responsibility, to provide the necessary support and respond to these urgent humanitarian developments.
7. Increasing direct funding to Yemeni organisations: Clear targets should be established to increase the proportion of direct funding provided to national and local organisations, including women’s organisations and women-led organisations; funding procedures should be simplified; and their meaningful participation in priority-setting, resource allocation and decision-making must be ensured.
8. Strengthening transparency and accountability: Regular and transparent data should be published showing the volume and proportion of humanitarian funding reaching Yemeni organisations, both directly and indirectly, and progress towards international commitments on humanitarian localisation should be measured.
Yemen does not need to wait for another crisis before reforming its humanitarian response system. What is needed today is the protection of civilians, an urgent response to the needs of displaced women and men, humanitarian funding commensurate with the scale of needs, and a greater share of resources and decision-making placed in the hands of local actors who are already present within affected communities. Yemeni women must be an integral part of leading this response and shaping the decisions that guide it.
15.09.2026
