Yemen’s executive body on accelerated absorption of foreign aid said on Monday the government has earmarked $5.367 billion out of a total of $8 billion pledged by donors last year, the state news agency Saba reported.
The earmarked sum represented about 67.8 percent of the total pledges and included $1 billion which Saudi Arabia put as a deposit in the central bank of Yemen last year. The Saudi kingdom pledged $3.25 billion in aid to Yemen last year.
The government has also signed agreements with donors for about $1.6 billion out of the earmarked sum, the agency said, adding that some aid pledges of those made at the 2006 donor conference have been reassigned and others considered as new aid pledges.
The body held a meeting chaired by prime minister Muhammad Basindwa that discussed progress on assigning foreign aid and difficulties facing the process, Saba said.
The meeting discussed a report on the issue which said that among the problems facing earmarking foreign aid is that some donors have either delayed their pledges or assigned pledges for projects that were not included in the transitional program for stabilization and development 2012-2014.
The program was prepared last year by the planning and international cooperation ministry in coordination with by the EU, the UN, the WB and the Islamic development bank as a reference to assign and channel the foreign aid.
The report included proposals to be submitted to the meeting of Yemen’s Friends which will be held in London early next month.
The aid pledges were made at two meetings in Saudi Arabia and the US in 2012 as part of the international community’s commitment toward Yemen’s power transition under a deal reached after the unrest.