Events and Meetings
The YPSC met the Saudi development and reconstruction program for Yemen in August 25,2020 represented by the Saudi ambassador and the program team to coordinate their efforts and build strategic plans and partnership supporting Yemen’s recovery and reconstruction phase. During the meeting, the SDRPY presented a summary of their program and forward actions where they are willing to achieve with support of the YPSC.
In June 24th, 2020 the YPSC members had a great opportunity meeting the UK Foreign Minister virtually to get him closer to the main economic issues hitting the country’s economy and also get the minister to know the YPSC members and SMEPS. The YPSC members and SMEPS gave a brief on the YPSC aims, achievements and contributions to respond to COVID-19. In addition, the YPSC briefly presented the major economic issues they face including: currency fluctuation which is very much related to the fiscal and monetary policies of the country, collapse and weakness of the Yemeni banking system and CBY’s role in managing cash, and other main challenges.
Over a course of one month after all the logistic preparations, the YPSC held a meeting in February 26-27, 2020 in Amman, Jordan with the international communities and donors including World Bank, EU, IMF, ILO, DFID and EU ambassador exploring synergies and discussing the possible support helping YPSC to achieve their objectives. This includes the YPSC technical role in supporting international communities and donors in designing and implementing their programs, projects and studies as well as formulating a mechanism to facilitate the flow of data and information needed to the international communities and donors. Therefore, the YPSC formulated a partnership memo with the World bank clarifying the policies and procedures to ensure a mutually beneficial and respectful partnership between the YPSC and all donors starting with the World Bank Group. This focuses on engaging the YPSC in developing and implementing the World Bank program strategy for Yemen FY 2020-2021.
During the meeting, the YPSC presented their policy framework setting the priority actions and appeals from the international community and donors to solve the major economic policies facing the private sector; this includes:
- Fiscal and monetary policies
- Infrastructure, transportation, and the movement of people and goods
- Enforcement of laws and regulations
To achieve the objectives set in the YPSC policy memo, the cluster members set several meetings with related parties. In February 26, 2020 the members met with the UN Special Envoy (Mr. Martin Griffiths) in Amman, Jordan to propose their technical advisory role to the UN Special Envoy in matters related to the Economic file. The UN Special Envoy welcome the proposal and was happy to have the YPSC as an additional support his office roles. Both parties including the YPSC and UN Special Envoy expressed their willingness to work together and agreed that: The YPSC will function as the technical advisory body for the UN Special Envoy in the economic discussions and other associated files of concern with the economy. The YPSC will also work to:
- Advise the UN Special Envoy Office on peacebuilding initiatives, including options to bring the conflicting parties to commit to ending attacks on civilians and civilian objects, including infrastructure, institutional buildings, businesses, and everything related to the business enabling environment.
- Propose an overall economic recovery strategy.
- Identify the economy's most critical challenges.
- Recommend options for interventions that would help in alleviating the challenges facing the economy, and to what enables an early recovery, a successful process of stabilization, the restoration of governance and reconstruction.
After the YPSC launching, in January, 2019, came the first step of engaging the Yemen Private Sector Cluster in the humanitarian & development efforts. In July, 2019, the YPSC held a meeting with the World Bank Group in Amman, Jordan to explore synergies, foster mutual understanding and cooperation to help the YPSC in achieving its objectives and goals and to engage the YPCS in developing and implementing the World Bank program strategy in Yemen FY 2020-2021. As a result, the World Bank and YPSC agreed and formulated a partnership memo highlighting their joint work mechanism that serves the goals of the YPSC and is aligned to implement the objectives of the World Bank FY 2020-2021.
The YPSC was launched in January 18, 2019, Amman, Jordan under the World Bank’s initiative of Bringing Back Businesses in Yemen. The cluster is an inclusive body made up of representative bodies of the private sector from all over. The cluster aims to align and coordinate the efforts of the private sector in the ongoing humanitarian, development, recovery and reconstruction work giving it a voice in economic decision making through building strong strategic partnerships with the government, national, international agencies and the UN in emergency, peace building and stabilization efforts and to advocate & find solutions to ease business environment. During its launching, the YPSC formulated a policy memo, highlighting their role in decision making within the humanitarian, development and R&R efforts. After a while of the launching, the YPSC had several internal meetings to build their mandate and governance structure. They also worked on formulating their strategic working paper and action plans to move forward.