RECONSTRUCTING YEMEN: LONG-TERM AND WAR-RELATED CONSTRAINTS TO SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Many of the proposals for post-war reconstruction of Yemen are founded upon idealistic and unrealistic visions of the state of the country. This article, by contrast, focuses on the multiple and complex problems which will have to be faced once Yemen returns to a semblance of recognisable governance. It lists the different types of constraints which will have to be addressed, both intrinsic and international. Internally, there are both long-standing factors which are unrelated to the war situation and others which are largely war-related. Externally there are factors which depend on the country's international partners, such as the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and multilateral and international financial institutions. In the first category, water scarcity and other climate change factors are the most fundamental, followed by demographic issues including social infrastructure, the age pyramid and the overall discrepancy between the growing size of the population and the available natural resources. War - related constraints are primarily of two kinds: the deep and serious fragmentation of the country, and the socio-economic impact of years of dependence on humanitarian aid. Equally important, are the development strategies imposed by the external financiers and the likelihood that the available financing will be well below both need and expectation. Throughout, the article briefly outlines suggestions to address these constraints, insofar as this can be done in ignorance of the outcome of the war.