Cash for Work: Promoting Livelihood Opportunities for Urban Youth in Yemen

Yemen’s unique cultural heritage is recognized by UNESCO for its Outstanding Universal Value to humanity. The World Heritage Sites of the Old Cities of Sana'a, Shibam, and Zabid are the remains of an extraordinary urban civilization in the Arabia Felix. The Historic City of Aden is also the site of modern Yemeni heritage. In the current conflict, Yemeni heritage and culture is vulnerable to severe risks. Valuable heritage sites have been affected by a diversified level of collateral damages. For UNESCO, the deterioration of Yemeni culture affects the identity, dignity, and future of its people – and their ability to believe in the future.

The provision of income-generating opportunities and the promotion of cultural expressions present a major contribution to peacebuilding, reconciliation, and recovery. Youth in Yemen are the most affected by the conflict and the associated unemployment crisis. Youth involvement in stabilizing communities through rehabilitation works and cultural programming is key to fostering social cohesion and reducing armed violence.

In partnership with the European Union, UNESCO has launched emergency response actions to cooperate with esteemed local partners to provide emergency relief assistance, safeguard heritage, and foster sustainable cultural development. UNESCO’s interventions focus on the protection and promotion of tangible and intangible heritage through:

• Youth and community participation in the implementation of income-generating activities for heritage safeguarding and cultural programming;
• Capacity building, specialized training, and targeted demand-driven assistance to better safeguard, manage and promote heritage and reinforce resilience;
• Reinforcing cooperation with national stakeholders and international partners, in particular networks of cultural heritage professionals to ensure a coordinated share of information, actualized in the preparation of Site Rehabilitation Plans drafted with local consultation;
• Technical consultation, expert assessment and data collection as essential instruments to identify priorities, establish risk-mitigating measures and prevent further damage as well as plan recovery strategies;
• Monitoring and assessing damage, destruction, looting, and illicit trafficking by working with modern technologies such as satellite imagery;
• Advocacy initiatives to raise awareness of the threats that culture faces in conflict and on the importance of its protection and promotion as an element of resilience for peaceful co-existence in multicultural societies.

Immediate Interventions in Heritage Rehabilitation

• Sana’a: Roofs, walls, windows and facades of private houses, public spaces around Sailah and the main Mosque, City Wall, Sana’a National Museum, Bustan gardens and Al-Qasimi, sanitation and infrastructures, souq area at Bab al-Sabah;
• Shibam: Main Souq, City Wall, Oasis, private mud houses, infrastructure, public squares and urban landscape, Sesabana trees;
• Zabid: Structure and architectural details of historic houses, central Souq, Bab Siham and Bab Shabariq, Museum in Citadel, Mydan square, City Wall,, gardening works, architectural details of remarkable buildings;
• Aden: Central Crater District, public squares; Water Tank reservoirs, National Museum and Sultan Palace, the Market, facades carpentry and wooden balconies of historic houses.