SEMC (Studies and Economic Media Center) organized a hearing session on the Priorities and Needs of Youth and Women in Bait AlFaqih district – Hodaiada Governorate , within “Voices of Youth and Women” project that is implemented in cooperation with the EU commission in Yemen and in Partnership with Abi Musa Alashari Association in Hodeidah.
During the session, youth & women provide a presentations on the situation of education, health and hygiene services. They also listen to the local authority clarifications on projects implemented in the directorate and services such as health, education, electricity, water, roads and other needs which occupies the priority for 300,000 people of Beit al-Faqih Directorate.
In the opening, Mr. Mustafa Nasr, the head of SEMC clarifies the importance of this session in enhancing the communication between youth , women & local authority to find out the level of services provided to citizens and its responsive to the needs and priorities of young people and women. He pointed out that this session comes within the project of The Voice of youth & Women that has achieved a number of meetings with the youth and women in the targeted districts. It has come out with a number of priorities and trained local authorities to integrate them in local plans.
He emphasized on the role of activists at local communities in promoting community accountability to the relevant authorities to provide services, praising the role of the local authority at Beit Al-Faqih District represented by Secretary General, who has struggled to improve services in the district, provided a distinct example among many local councils.
Participants reviewed the deterioration of education in the district and hygiene, poor health services and frequent interruptions in electricity and water.
The Secretary General of the local council, Sheikh Zaid Munasar, provided an explanation of the projects implemented by the local authority during the last year. He pointed out the obstacles that the local council faces in the implementation of projects either in the weaknesses of the annual budget of the district which doesn’t exceed 240 million YR ,or the obstacles of the local community.
He represented the privileged cooperation between the local council, youth and women over the past period were invited youth and women representatives to participate in local council meetings based on the outputs of previous training in the project, and expressed his full readiness to cooperate with the youth and civil society representatives to serve the development of the Directorate
The Executive Offices in the district reviewed some problems they face as the Director of the Office of Education, said that the number of students in the district 50 000 students, while there are only 1400 teachers ; therefore, we seek the cooperation of volunteers who teach with less than $ 35 per month that contributed to the rise in the enrollment of girls to education by 300%.
The director of electricity Corporation pointed to the collapse of the power grid in the district, he clarified the largest challenge facing the Directorate of electricity is non-payment of electricity bills, which reached 160 million YR, as was the case with water, where debt rose among the citizens, and many of the stalled projects because of the failure of Rural Water Authority to do its obligations to complete water projects.
This session resulted the signing of an initial agreement to ignite joint-work efforts among local authority, youth & women in addition to media individuals of the district, as these hearing sessions aim to reach the highest levels of communication and responsiveness between youth & women at one side and the local authority at another, in the aim of enhancing decentralization in Yemen.
This session was facilitated by Mr. Labeeb Sha’ef, and is a part of “Voices of Youth and Women” project, which is granted by the EU Commission in Yemen. This project aims to enhance and strengthen communication between influential youth and women, CSOs, and local council members to enhance decentralization and local governance, in addition to responsiveness to the needs of youth and women.
The project, ” the voices of youth and women” , carried out by the center in 5 Yemeni provinces in cooperation with EU mission in Yemen.
The Center is a non-profit organization working to raise awareness of economic issues to promote transparency, good governance, citizen participation in decision-making and finding a vocational and professional media.
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