The government of Yemen and UNDPYemen Mine Action support approved [Archives:2003/642/Local News]

On 11 June 2003, the government of Yemen and UNDP signed the Second Phase of the UNDP support to the Yemen National Mine Action Program. Building on the excellent results achieved under the program's first phase, this program will focus on the following key results.

a. Further strengthen and develop the management and technical of the Yemen Executive Mine Action Center (YEMAC) and its regional branches.
b. Improve the safety of the mine affected communities by reducing the landmine threat through the implementation of an integrated mine action program.
c. Contribute to the Yemeni economy by safely returning additional mined land to the Yemeni communities for a productive use.
d. Meet the needs of the mine victims and develop strategies for their socio-economic reintegration
e. Further improve the Mine Risk Education (MRE) program to reduce accidents and causalities among Yemeni citizens through massive awareness raising campaign
A UNDP press release has further mentioned that the project budget is envisioned at $ 3.8 million to be spent over a period of three and half years. An initial amount of $ 1.1 million for this phase of the program has been secured from UNDP ($ 450,000), DFID/UK ($ 250,000) and the government of Yemen ($ 400,000). These contributions are in addition to the $13.1 million already provided to the first phase of the UNDP mine action support project by the governments of the United States, Japan, Norway, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. The government of Saudi Arabia has made a contribution of $ 3 million bilaterally to the government of Yemen.
With such generous contributions from the above donors and financial and technical support by the UN system including UNDP, YMAP has become a leader in this area and been recognized as one of the best programs in the world.
The program was signed from the government side by H.E. Ahmed Mohammed Sofan, the Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Planning and International Co-operation, from the side of the Executing Agent, by H.E. Kassim Ahmed Al-Agam, the minister of State, Member of the Cabinet, and Chairman of the National Mine Action Committee, and from the UNDP side by Mr. James W. Rawley, the UNDP Resident Representative in the Republic of Yemen. Representatives of donor countries also attended the signing ceremony, which was held at the Prime Minister's office. On the other hand, a program of support for the ” Modernization of the justice Sector in Yemen” with a total budget of $ 2.2 million was signed on 14 June 2003 between United Nations Development Program, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation. UNDP will finance the initial phase of the project with a contribution of one million dollars.
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