Yemen

Profiling for durable solutions in northern Yemen (2010)
Following a recommendation by the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of IDPs, a profiling exercise was launched in northern Yemen in early 2010 with the aim of painting a comprehensive picture of the displacement situation in Al Jawf, Amran, Hajjah, Sa’ada and Sana’a governorates to inform strategic planning and global monitoring.

The exercise was a protection cluster initiative, and the profiling partners included the Yemeni government, UNHCR, DRC, the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO), the Yemen Red Crescent and a number of NGOs. DRC was the implementing partner, and ECHO partially financed the exercise.

The final profiling report was published in December 2010, and its findings and recommendations informed the development of the Yemeni government’s durable solutions strategy. According to Walter Kälin, who served as the UN secretary general’s special representative for IDPs’ human rights from 2004 to 2010: “Profiling helped a lot to convince the government that an IDP strategy looking not only at actual assistance but also at durable solutions, was important. It also helped donors to come back and quite generously address the situation.” More specifically, the profiling results were useful in the following ways:

• Based on the preferences and intentions expressed by the IDPs surveyed, the government’s strategy included consideration of local integration and settlement elsewhere as potential solutions rather than the previous exclusive focus on return. Khaled Fansa of UNHCR Yemen said: “Because we were not talking only about numbers, but about intentions with regards to durable solutions, the profiling was useful for future planning and will help us to respond to future needs.”

• As a result of collaboration with a wide range of partners through the UN country team and protection cluster, the findings also fed directly into the consolidated appeals process (CAP) for Yemen.

• The profiling information collected was also used for the planning and programming of humanitarian interventions, and for advocacy work with the Yemeni government.

The exercise also served as a reminder of a number of profiling lessons:

• The timing of a profiling exercise should be considered in advance to feed into planned policy or funding initiatives, which helps to maximise the impact of the information collected.

• The evidence base established by a profiling exercise is significantly enriched by methodologies that combine qualitative and quantitative data. The partners in Yemen conducted many more focus group discussions than initially planned because the information gathered proved to be invaluable.

• Profiling exercises, particularly large-scale ones, benefit from a dedicated manager or management team, an investment that improves the quality of the exercise and the results it generates.

• By engaging with communities affected by displacement, a profiling exercise reveals the range of short and long-term challenges IDPs face, a valuable resource for informing joint interventions by governments and their humanitarian and development partners.

• Comparing findings across geographical locations is vital for targeted programming. The importance of disaggregating data by sex and age is widely recognised, but this exercise showed the importance of disaggregating by location as well.