Sheba Youth Foundation for Development is implementing a youth initiative project to combat information disorder in YemenThe project aims to increase digital awareness, analyze and verify misleading information among young people, enhance their capabilities in combating misinformation that fuels conflicts and threatens public peace, enhances the role of young people in information protection methods and combat information chaos with high credibility, professionalism and impartiality without siding with any party and instilling trends that enable individuals to confront them in a practical and realistic way. The Foundation has implemented three phases of the project so far, as follows: A six-day training program in combating information chaos and digital safety, targeting 25 young women and men. Choosing 12 young leaders in the youth initiative to combat information chaos. A five-day training program for trainers in combating information chaos for young leaders in the initiative. Advanced training in digital safety and digital security that lasted for three days for the young leaders of the initiative. Create a Siraj platform to enhance public digital security and information safety through awareness, analysis and verification. Progress 84%

In May, Sheba Youth Foundation for Development began implementing the Waad Network project.   The Foundation, as a local partner in Yemen, is implementing this project among 11 international partners of Karama International in the Middle East and North Africa. The project aims at knowing the needs of adolescent girls and designing programmatic interventions commensurate with the empowerment and development of the capabilities of this group of society. The Foundation carried out a hearing session for 15 girls under the age of eighteen, in addition to a number of webinars with girls from other partner countries in the project. The Foundation also participated in the establishment of the Waad Network for young girls from all the countries targeted by the project. Waad Network is interested in empowering young girls and enhancing their leadership skills, as well as promoting the role of girls in the field of climate change. This project is implemented in partnership with Karama International

The Foundation hosted the screenings of the Karama Yemen Festival for Human Rights Films in Taiz Governorate, by showing nine films from the festival. The number of attendees reached 600 from different social groups, half of whom were females. This project was implemented in partnership with YWT, and funded by the European Union Delegation.

Founding partner and CEO of Sheba Youth Foundation Ms. Ola Al-Aghbari briefed the Security Council on the role of youth and women in achieving security and peace and the situation in Taiz City. The text of the briefing ,Madam President, Distinguished Members of the Council  At the beginning, I would like to thank the Government of Norway for giving me the opportunity to give this briefing on behalf of Sheba Youth Foundation for Development (Sheba), a local youth-led foundation through which I work with many young people and women in order to achieve security and peace in my country, Yemen, which has been afflicted by war for more than 7 years. I am Ola Al-Aghbari, a young woman from Yemen, and like me are thousands of Yemeni youth and women who are on an unsecured land from shells and air strikes, but we insist on continuing and working every day to promote community coexistence and achieve peace and security in Yemen. I am here to give this briefing on the efforts of women and youth in the process of peacebuilding in Yemen and the situation in my city, Taiz, and about our efforts in the local mediation to make a difference in the lives of the local people whose suffering is on the rise while receiving no support or backing from any party. ,Madam President, Ladies and Gentlemen Through Sheba Youth Foundation and due to our belief in the importance of the role of youth and women in resolving community conflicts, and due to the weak performance of the local authorities because of the war, we have formed community councils that work to resolve conflicts that occur among people on a daily basis. These youth councils have become important references for society in resolving conflicts and alleviating tensions.. But the role of youth is not limited to working only at the local level, but it also extends to hopes and aspirations to work at the national level and participate in the peace negotiations that are taking place between the parties to the armed war. Therefore, in this regard, Madam President, we have recently, in cooperation and partnership with a large number of youth organizations and coalitions from various regions in Yemen, launched the first youth support group, which aims primarily to push the voices of youth at the national level by lobbying for the formation of a youth advisory council that works with the office of the UN envoy to Yemen so that Youth’s visions can reach the negotiating tables; this work arises from our belief that peace negotiations on the Greater homeland should not be limited to the parties to the armed war, but it should also include non-armed groups such as youth, women and civil society. These are the efforts made by youth and women every day on the ground, which if we stopped to make, the problems would have worsened more and more and we would have lost many of our friends and loved persons in the war. These efforts, which are not highlighted by the media only interested in the war and destruction in Yemen, prove that youth, women and civil society are able to participate in the peacebuilding process. Thus, they need your support and also the support of the international community to maximize their effects, and ,too, to be a step in the right path towards achieving Security Council resolutions, especially 1325 on Women, Peace and Security and 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security. ,Madam President, Ladies and Gentlemen I am from Taiz City. I have traveled for longer than 120 kilometers for eight full hours on the road down to the south to reach you here so as to give this briefing. This trip would have taken less time had it not been for the closure of the main roads. I passed through bumpy roads and dangerous mountain paths that are constantly cut off either due to accidents of vehicles and heavy transport trucks, or because of torrential rains and rockslides in rainy seasons, all of which are accidents that often cause casualties among civilians. As for the other road east of the city, many citizens in Taiz, before the war, used to travel through it from one side of the city to the other in a period no longer than ten minutes, but today this main road is closed and we now need at least six hours to arrive. Such alternative sub-roads have become real death journey paths for all those passing through them including the commercial convoys, humanitarian crews, travelers, patients, students and workers who work in facilities located at one edge of the city while reside at the other. So, this is what makes people’s lives dark and cruel, and adds more severe torments to their suffering, which turned Taiz into a repulsive environment coinciding with the exit of medical competencies and large capitals, and even international and local organizations that moved their centers of work to Sana’a and Aden and left this city to die more than seven years ago. Until this moment, Taiz is still suffering from road closures, lack of services and neglect, which is the worst stage the city has gone through, and I stress here that despite this suffering that more than three million people endure every day, Taiz is off the spotlight. Politicians have paid no attention to it, nor has it been at negotiating tables, nor was it able to draw the conscience of the world to what is happening in it, despite addressing its case under the item “Understandings on Taiz” approved by the Security Council in Stockholm Agreement under Resolution 2451 of 2018. ,Madam President, Ladies and Gentlemen Women, youth and civil society in Taiz City are making a lot of efforts to reopen the main roads closed due to the war and to reactivate basic public services. Women and youth have carried out several mediation campaigns to reopen roads since 2015. These campaigns required a lot of efforts, all

This project, implemented by the Foundation for the third time, aimed to empower youth politically by qualifying them in political participation, digital advocacy, and digital security. 20 active male and female young participants in the community were selected and qualified in a qualitative training program that included: Political Participation Digital Advocacy Digital Security After they completed the program, the third generation of the project implemented an advocacy campaign for the cause of opening roads in Taiz Governorate via the platform they started “Sada Platform“. The project was implemented in partnership with Friedrich Ebert Foundation – Yemen Office

For almost seven years, the ongoing fighting in Taiz and the blockage of main roads in and out of the city resulted in cutting the water supply to the city. Additionally, inside the city nine water tanks came under the control of Yemeni government allied forces who used to sell the water and use the revenues for administrative costs. Afraid to confront the military, the government Water Authority inside the city cut the water supply but that also deprived residents in three districts Al-mudhafar, Al-qaherah and Salah of water. Women, girls, and children would travel long distance on unsafe roads to fetch water which sometimes put them at risk of sexual abuses and also sniper attacks. PartnersYemen supported Ola Al-Aghbari, a young Yemeni civil society female leader who heads Sheba Youth Foundation (Sheba), to address this problem. Ola started negotiations with local authority and military actors so that the wells management is transferred to the local authority in Taiz. Soon after, however, Ola came under attack by some radical mosque preachers who spoke against the initiative citing that “People who allow a woman to lead them are doomed.” To overcome this challenge, Ola sought the support of influential local figures and political party leaders in the city. After consultations with them, she agreed with them to form a committee that included a prominent tribal leader, a representative from the local authority, a representative from the Chamber of Commerce, a local female mediator and lawyer, and a highly respected local caricaturist. The mediation committee members were selected based on their status and influence. With Ola’s facilitating, the group managed to convince the military commanders to hand nine water tanks to the Office of the Ministry of Water and Environment (OMWE) in Taiz city. So far, military actors signed agreements to hand over six water wells one of which is now officially under the control of OMWE. During this mediation process, the mediation committee reached out to the governor of Taiz and engaged Taiz security who agreed to deploy security men to guard the water wells after they are handed over to the local authority. The OMWE had major shortage in budget that they could not make a commitment to maintain the water network. Additionally, OMWE happened to have 16 water trucks in its backyard that were donated by the King Salman Center for Humanitarian Relief. The trucks where not in use due to lack of budget to pay for drivers and fuel. The mediation committee came up with a creative idea and convinced the OMWE to rent the water trucks to a private company and the money of the rent would go to cover the administrative fees for OMWE and to pay salaries for the security personnel guarding the water wells. To ensure sustainability, part of the agreement was also that OMWE will start charging beneficiaries for water so that it can use that to fund its operations. This initiative not only gave access to 41 thousand residents in Al-mudhafar, Al-qaherah, and Sala districts but also support governance structures in the governorate so that they can deliver services. As the director of OMWE noted “Thanks to the successful mediation by Sheba Foundation, taking control of the water tanks is a first step to revive the role of the Water Authority so that it can better serve the people.” Colonel Adnan Al-Saqaf, the deputy director of Taiz police, committed to protect the water tanks. The success of this initiative created a demand and support for similar interventions. Several civilians and community leaders demand Sheba Youth Foundation to continue its mediation efforts to bring public facilities under the control of the local authority. The director of National Water Resource Authority (NWRA), a government entity that manages water resources in the city, praised the Women-led Committee mediation efforts and requested that Sheba Foundation negotiate the release of the NWRA headquarter which is currently occupied by a military force in the city. “There were several local initiatives to free the water facilities before but all of them failed. However, there are tangible and sustainable results on the ground led by Sab’a Youth foundation and we hope that continues” Toran Al-hadad, one of the participants in the initiative, said. Female activist Ashwaq Al-Saqqaf said that mediation like these can also convince military actors to evacuate schools and government facilities. The intervention created confidence in the role of women in the society. In the words of Jamal Al-Maghrabi, a participant in the initiative, “Taiz would have been better off if members of the local authority were women.” In the words of Ola “As women this initiative gave us prominence. One of the military commanders [we talked to] said that this is the age of women not men.”

In October 2021, Sheba Youth Foundation for Development held the first consultative meeting to unite efforts to involve youth in the processes of peacebuilding, with the participation of 7 youth platforms and components: Youth Platform for Peacebuilding Youth Peace and Security Pact Yemeni Young Leaders Network Aden Youth Consultation Wa3i Youth Platform Youth Voices Council for Peace and Security Civil Alliance for Peace The meeting ended with the formation of Youth Support Group – YSG, which aims to ensure the engagement of youth in peacebuilding processes. The meeting came within the framework of seeking to implement the recommendations of the policy paper of the lost path… involving youth in the first track of peacebuilding, which included recommendations to form a youth group to pressure the involvement of young people in the first track of peacebuilding operations and to form a youth advisory group for the office of the UN envoy in Yemen. The seven youth components are currently implementing a broad advocacy campaign to engage youth in peacebuilding processes.

Sheba Youth Foundation started early with a women-led local mediation campaign to return the water corporation’s tanks controlled by military forces and citizens to the administration of the corporation, to enable it to re-provide its services to citizens. On August 4 was the first field visit to see the issue of the woman who controlled the tanks of the Local Water Corporation located in Al-Mujalia area, where Ms. Ola Al-Abri, director of Sheba Youth Foundation, the implementing foundation of the Water Sector Initiative – Taiz, met with the Sabri woman whom the security forces and the administration of the Water Corporation was unable to take and her family out of the headquarters of the corporation’s tanks. During the meeting, it was agreed with the woman in control of the tank to find alternative housing for her in return for handing over the corporation’s tanks, which was the first success of the mediation campaign led by Sheba Youth Foundation. On August 3, the mediation committee formed by the Water Sector Initiative Project, led by the activist Maeen Al-Obaidi and the project coordinator Shorouk Al-Refaie had their second field visit, where the activist Rashad Al-Sami’i, Lieutenant-Colonel Osama Al-Sharabi, Director of the Security Media Department at the Governorate Police, and Mr. Fouad Al-Faqih, Deputy Director of the Office of Social Affairs also participated in the mediation committee, while the director of the Local Water Corporation and the directors of Salh and Al-Mudhaffar districts participated in the visit. The mediation committee met with the military leaders whose forces are located in the headquarters of the Local Water Corporation’s tanks in the areas of Thaabat, Political Security Office, and Al-Manakh, and agreed with them to hand over the tanks to the LWSC to enable it to re-provide its services to citizens after the Corporation committed to submitting a memorandum to the governor to provide security protection for these tanks. On September 4, the local mediation committee led by Sheba Youth Foundation, with the support of Yemen Partners International, succeeded in returning all the tanks of the Water Corporation in Taiz City, to the administration of the Water Corporation. The handing over was attended by the members of the mediation committee headed by Ms. Ola Al-Aghbari, the military leaders who were stationed at the tanks headquarters, the two deputy directors of the  LWSC for Technical Affairs, Eng. Abdo Ali and for administrative and financial affairs Eng. Sultan Jamil, the director of Al-Mudhaffar District, Mr. Ahmed Ali Jamel, and the assistant director of the Governorate Police, Colonel Adnan Al-Saqqaf. During the visit, the committee signed the minutes of handing over the tanks to the administration of the LWSC with the security leaders, the director of Al-Mudhaffar District and the two deputy directors of LWSC.

Local mediation hands over the water corporation’s tanks to its administration in Taiz A local mediation in Taiz city succeeded in returning the water tanks that were controlled by military forces to the administration of the Public Authority for Water and Sanitation in the governorate. Whereas, the process of receiving water tanks that were controlled by military forces, namely tanks belonging to Political Security Hill, Manakh, Majaliah, Thaabat, and reservoirs of the Foundation’s yard, was mediated by a local authority led by the Sheba Youth Foundation, as part of the implementation of the Taiz Water Sector Initiative project. The Assistant Director of Police in Taiz Governorate, Colonel Adnan Al-Saqqaf, confirmed the completion of the process of receiving the water tanks of the General Corporation for Water and Sanitation to enable the Corporation to work to provide water services to citizens. Al-Saqqaf explained the commitment of the Governorate Police Department to protect these reservoirs and cooperate with the Water Corporation to serve the public interest. The Deputy Director of the Water Corporation, Engineer Abdo Ali, confirmed that receiving the water tanks, after the success of mediation carried out by the Sheba Youth Foundation, is the most important step in order to restore the role of the institution and enhance its ability to provide water services to citizens. Engineer Abdo Ali thanked the military forces that delivered the water tanks for maintaining the tanks and delivering them with full equipment and without any reservation. The Information Officer of the Taiz Water Sector Initiative Project, Muhammad Al-Haribi, said that the Sheba Youth Foundation is implementing this project aimed at strengthening the capabilities of local authorities in Taiz Governorate to provide services to citizens with the support of Partners Yemen International. He explained that the project included the preparation of a general policy paper on the reality of the water sector in the governorate and possible solutions, holding various sessions and workshops to discuss them, in addition to implementing reforms to four water networks to ensure water reaching the citizens. The process of receiving and delivering took place in the presence of the director of the Mudhaffar Directorate, Mr. Ahmed Ali Jamil, the assistant director of the Police Department, Colonel Adnan Al-Saqqaf, the director of the Moral Guidance and Security Media Department, Captain Osama Al-Sharabi, the CEO of the Sheba Youth Foundation, Ola Al-Aghbari, and members of the local mediation committee. The process of receiving tanks belonging to the Water Corporation comes within the framework of the Taiz Water Sector Initiative project, which aims to enhance the capabilities of local authorities to provide water services to citizens.

Continuing to strengthen and build the capabilities of its team, Sheba Youth Foundation implemented an extensive training program for its team, throughout the current year 2021, which included several training courses and workshops in the following areas: A training program with Portal 365, led by the expert trainer, Mr. Adel Salah. The training included important aspects, including preparing the strategic plan, writing project proposals and mobilizing funding. A training program on the administrative side, which included several training workshops, presented by the expert trainer, Dr. Ibrahim Al-Muslimi. A training program in peacebuilding presented by trainer Malik Seitz in the Jordanian capital, Amman. A training program in financial aspects, which included several training workshops, presented by the financial accountant Basem Mohamed.   This program, which aimed to raise and strengthen the capabilities of the Foundation’s team, was implemented with the support of BElink Academy & Nuffic organization.