Respecting, Protecting and Fulfilling RH in Conflict in Yemen (Phase IV)

Yamaan Foundation is considered a leading voucher management agency in Yemen. Since its inception, Yamaan has implemented voucher programs in more than 5 governorates in Yemen. Yamaan has more than 10 years of experience in working to improve the lives of women and girls in Yemen through the provision of high-quality sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. During the last four years, EKN has supported Yamaan in different phases, initially through Marie Stopes International Yemen (MSIY) by implementing the voucher program in 2016 in Dhamar. The program was then extended during 2017 and was implemented directly by Yamaan and has resulted in the utilization of 14,826 Safe motherhood (SMH) vouchers and 6,152 Family Planning (FP) vouchers and 12,470 assisted safe deliveries and 32,087 antenatal appointments by the end of the previous phase on 30 June 2019 . In September 2019, a new phase has been initiated to expand to an additional district (Dawran Aness) bringing the total number of districts to five. The current expansion was requested as a result of the increase in demands from beneficiaries and health facilities in Dhamar governorate in addition to requests from MoPHP (both North and South) for further expansion of the Yamaan Voucher Programme. As of December 2020, the current phase has resulted in the utilization of 4,197 SMH vouchers and 1,393 FP (of 5,000 distributed each), 3,072 safe deliveries, and 8,370 antenatal appointments. In this project phase, the program will continue the significant uptake of quality SMH and contraceptive services leading to improved sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of Yemeni women in the target governorates and strengthen the capacity of health facilities in these locations. Moreover, Yamaan will provide extra support to public health facilities that are part of the program by integrating performance-based financing (PBF) mechanism which will provide additional incentives that will increase and contribute to the operationalization and improving the quality of services of targeted health facilities that has been weakened by the long-lasting conflict, and further weakened due to multiple epidemics including, most recently, COVID-19. The program will distribute 86,942 SMH and 60,859 FP vouchers between June 2021 to May 2025. The number of vouchers has been selected by a calculation tool that is based on population number, expected pregnancies, number of married women at reproductive age (MWRA), projections of the percentage of services utilization, and budget available. The total population of the catchment area is 2.6 million people and the program is expected to cover 30% of the expected 292,230 deliveries during the 4 program years. During the 30 months of distribution, the program will be reaching the poorest and most vulnerable women – by providing 86,942 SMH vouchers. Out of which, we expect 65,207 safe motherhood vouchers to be utilized and 52,165 skilled birth deliveries to be conducted in Dhamar, Sa’ada, and Abyan. In addition, 60,859 first antenatal care (ANC) visits will be used through the SMH vouchers. Furthermore, Yamaan expects that the FP and SMH vouchers will support a total of 8,607 women to take up a long-acting or reversible method of contraception (LARC) or a permanent method (PM). Finally, Yamaan will help 22 public healthcare facilities to improve the quality of their service delivery through training and the (PBF) mechanism.