15 percent of Yemenis live on less than a dollar a day (Business).

The World Food Program (WFP) in Yemen has announced that price hikes are among the factors of a notable rise in the number Yemenis living below the poverty line, a fact that will further frustrate attempts to achieve the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the country.

According to World Food Program representative in Yemen Muhammad Al-Kohin, the last three months have witnessed an increase of six percent in the number of Yemenis living below the poverty line, defined as two dollars per day, because of drought and a sharp rise in food prices.

"It is hard to give accurate numbers", he said, declaring that the situation is worse than it was three months ago. He called for an assessment of the situation on the ground.

The rise in food prices has created a considerable gap of USD 28 million in the WFP's budget for its project in Yemen, and one of USD 756 million in its general budget.

Al-Kohin explained that 2008 programs were planned according to food prices in 2005, and that USD 48 million had been allocated for the program in Yemen according to this method. However, the WFP found that this was not enough to buy items needed to help the poor.

"The program's total cost has risen up to USD 76 million," he explained.

Al-Kohin warned that, if the program didn't receive enough money to cover the gap, it would have to reduce food portions or cut down on the number of the program's beneficiaries. In this were to happen, about 320,000 people would be deprived of aid in the form of food.

He added that the WFP had designated 30 countries, including Yemen, as being the most affected by the international hike in food prices. "The crisis is great", he said, "and there is no magical solution for it".

He estimated that 15.7 percent of Yemenis live on less than a dollar a day, and that 45.2 percent of Yemenis live one less than two dollars a day.

He considered the rise in food prices to have had a negative impact on the malnutrition levels suffered by 40 percent of Yemenis.

"The problem is not about the presence of food, it is about the family's ability to afford it. The rise in food prices has brought Yemen seven years back in its achievement of the MDGs", he explained.

When asked about possible solutions to this problem, Al-Kohin pointed to short-term initiatives such as increasing imports in the private sector to help stabilize the market, and importing red wheat or cheap mixed wheat with a high nutritional value.

Regarding agricultural lands in Yemen, Ismail Muharram, President of the Agricultural Researchers' Committee in the Ministry of Agriculture, said that 65 percent of agricultural lands in Yemen depend on the rain, while 30 to 35 percent depend on water from aquifers, and added that most of these areas are used to grow qat.

Yemeni pensioners

A government-led study on the economic, social and health status of Yemeni retirees concluded that the majority of them had stopped working before the legal age, and this despite the fact that the legal ages for retirement in Yemen -60 years old for men and 55 years old for women- are premature compared to other countries.

The results of the field study confirmed that 67.4 percent of the retirees didn't want to retire. Of those interviewed, 52.4 percent weren't surprised by their retirement, while 47.1 percent were.

67.2 percent didn't want to retire but were convinced that they were not capable of working anymore, and 74.7 percent confirmed that they were still capable of working after retirement.

According to the study's findings, most Yemeni retirees remain unconvinced with retirement, declaring that they are still capable of working, and emphasize the necessity of reconsidering the official age of retirement provided by the law.

The study added that the age of retirement and period of service provided by the law were unfair to workers of the public sector, as they contributed to removing elderly men and women from gainful employment before their time, thereby depriving them of their right to work and the country of a work force proven in its strength and maturity.

According to the study, 74.8 percent of Yemeni retirees think that low pensions and the expensive cost of living are big problems today, and 87.8 percent believe that pensions should be raised and living standards improved, with laws to establish clubs and offer jobs to men and women after retirement.

Those interviewed emphasized that the average pension, which doesn't exceed YR 1,000, is not enough to cover basic living needs of pensioners and their families, due to the drastic increase in the cost of living.

The study included 864 cases distributed over six cities (Sana'a, Adan, Taizz, Al-Hodeida, Al-Mukalla and Sioun) and attributed the prominence of retired men in the study -- 88 percent for men compared to 12 percent for women- to the limited number of Yemeni women entering the workplace.

The study pointed to the stability of the Yemeni family with 83.8 of the interviewed retirees married and living with their wives in stable families, and drew attention to the fact that average retirement age was 59.5 years old for 70 percent of those interviewed.

In its conclusion, the study recommended the raise of pensions according to current living standards. It also called for the implementation of serious economic plans to control the irrational fluctuation of prices, re-distribute national income and reduce corruption.

Researchers called for the end of the stigma associated with retirement, which equates retreat from the workplace to incapability and a premature end to life. They suggested that older Yemenis maintain their social position in work that better suits their experience and age, and stressed the importance of maintaining to-be retirees in the fields of consulting, qualifying and training despite their age.

The study highlighted role of social institutions in caring for pensioners as well as the importance of raising legal awareness among retirees to cover all their rights from the constitution to the pension law.

Finally, it dwelled on the importance of solving the growing problem of unemployment among sons and daughters of the pensioners to improve both parties' economical circumstances.

Unemployment among youth

Many studies and seminars have focused on the unemployment crisis in Yemen, and have produced the recommendations that follow.

First, the current employment offices in ministries must be developed to include professional databases for job seekers, information about the labor market, and professional guidance for youth to find jobs in the public and private sectors.

Second, the private sector must be encouraged to open employment offices to help youth find jobs, offer loans and marketing services to individuals for small projects, and provide workers with social insurance in accordance to the law.

Third, coordination between higher education institutions and the labor market must be achieved to enable graduates to upgrade their skills in tandem with development in the labor market.

Fourth, Yemen's youth must be encouraged to become involved in professional work and keep up with changing times.

Fifth, Yemeni legislature must provide protection from unemployment with a new work law, and international agreement number 168 regarding protection from unemployment adopted by the General Conference of the International Work in its 75th session in June 1988 must be ratified.

Sixth, the Ministry of Civil Service must review its employment policies

and social insurances that depends on transparency, achieving justice and equal opportunities for job seekers and the holders of university and professional degrees....

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