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Introduction

Yemen is in the midst of an unprecedented crisis. Following the Houthi capture of Sana’a in September 2014 and the gradual takeover of government institutions in the first quarter of 2015, the incumbent government, including President Hadi, fled and took refuge in the southern port city of Aden and later in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. ¹ The Houthis kept pressing south while a Saudi Arabian-led coalition of nine Arab countries initiated a military campaign to restore the ousted government to power.² This plunged the country into a civil war that is still ongoing.

This conflict has had wide-ranging effects. The violence has eroded peoples’ earnings and contributed to the unreliable payment of public sector employees; violence has disrupted supply chains and a blockade of the ports have restricted the imports of both food and fuel, which is particularly harmful given Yemen imported approximately 90 percent of its food prior to the conflict; a crippling of civilian health facilities at a time during which poor health and disease is pervasive have further diminished peoples’ welfare and eroded their ability to lead productive lives; and a number of natural disasters have further affected household assets and their ability to earn a living. Given all of these factors, household reliance is at a breaking point, and large swaths of the country are facing the risk of famine.

In the midst of these events, this note projects the poverty rate in 2016 utilizing the 2014 Yemen Household Budget Survey (HBS). Coming almost a decade after the last similarly comprehensive analysis of living standards was carried out in the country using the 2005 version the data, the survey provides insight in how households might adapt to the conflict, and also provides a usefual benchmark of income and non-income dimensions of poverty in 2014 before the conflict escalated in 2015. Additionally, particular attention is paid to food security and social protection given their importance following the escalation of the conflict.