Yemen

White Ribbon Alliance Members in Yemen are advocating for the inclusion of free delivery in the Safe Motherhood Law which will be put to a vote in October 2012; and for a reallocation of the health budget to facilitate recruitment of health workers at the local level where they are most needed, with a strong focus on reducing delays in accessing treatment for pregnant women.

National Safe Motherhood Alliance keeps up pressure for Safe Motherhood Law to provide Free Delivery and end Child Marriage

The White Ribbon Alliance in Yemen - the National Safe Motherhood Alliance (NSMA) has strong organisational links with the Ministry of Health and across NGOs. NSMA is renewing its focus on widening membership to include private sector stakeholders by engaging them through awareness raising events.

An advocacy campaign for supporting the redrafting of the Safe Motherhood Law to include free delivery has been launched in Parliament and many activities regarding this issue have been started such as:

• Holding a national meeting in the capital Sana’a where many national and international partners participated in a serious discussion about the most effective ways to successful delivery of this law in the next parliamentary session- Decision makers from all areas including parliamentarians were presented to in the meeting.
• Public Hearing activities: NSMA implemented many public hearings in two districts directed to local communities, health providers and policy makers and discuss health services. One of these activities attracted the Hadramout governor’s interest and a special committee was formed to follow up the recommendations of this activity.
• Training of the advocacy team (representatives from NGOs, GOs, volunteers, media) to build their capacity. Seventy-five advocacy team members are being engaged with to improve advocacy performance.

NSMA is continuing work with parliamentarians and organisations to overcome opposition to the Safe Motherhood law around issues of the minimum age of marriage and clauses on Female Genital Mutilation.

Looking forward NSMA are planning to hold the government accountable during the next budgetary discussions and elections to ensure Safe Motherhood is a priority and receives adequate funding by engaging with television and newspaper media and lobbying policy makers.