Understanding community resilience in Yemen: how parallel institutions meet essential needs in the absence of the state

Abstract

ABSTRACTHow do Yemeni communities build and sustain resilience in wartime when state institutions are weak or absent? Based on original research across 14 communities in Yemen, this paper compares international and Yemeni conceptions of community resilience, explores how local residents assess threats to their communities, and identifies the actors, institutions, and norms that enhance community resilience. We show that parallel institutions—non-state socio-political, cultural, religious and economic networks and practices used to fill governance gaps or bypass state institutions—bolster community resilience through the provision of material, social, and existential resources. Data from the field demonstrate that patronage, kinship and brokerage are three categories of parallel institutions which, alongside civil society organisations (CSOs), play a particularly salient role in sustaining community resilience in Yemen. However, the downsides of parallel institutions—including nepotism, favouritism and further weakening of state legitimacy—pose complex challenges for the donor community and local stakeholders. The further weakening of state institutions will likely lead parallel institutions to play an increasingly salient role, while increasing the burden of providing essential services. AcknowledgmentsThe authors thank Erica DeBruin, Joey Huddleston, Chris Gelpi, Gabby Levy, Teri Murphy, Cameron Macaskill, Stacey Philbrick-Yadav, Natalie Romeri-Lewis, and Steve Sharp for their helpful comments.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), ‘Human Development Report 2014: Sustaining Human. Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience’, 2014, https://sdgs.un.org/sites/default/files/publications/1789hdr14-report-en-1.pdf.2 Iona Craig, ‘On the ground: Done with dictatorship?’ Index on Censorship 42, no. 3 (2013): 114–116.3 Stephen W. Day, Regionalism and Rebellion in Yemen: A Troubled National Unity (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012).4 Helen Lackner, Yemen in Crisis: Road to War (London: Verso Books, 2019); Becky Carter, “Social Capital in Yemen”. Institute of Development Studies, 23 June 2017, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5975f1b0e5274a2897000012/138-Social-capital-in-Yemen.pdf.5 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), ‘Humanitarian Response Plan. Yemen’, 25 January 2023, https://reliefweb.int/attachments/d9eed03e-0cab-4010-bb48- 618a2b0ae1aa/Ye_HRP_2023_Final.pdf.6 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), ‘Yemen Country Factsheet 2022’, Jan.-Dec. 2022. https://reporting.unhcr.org/index.php/document/4387.7 It is unclear at the time of writing if the newly formed eight-man Presidential Council announced in April 2022. (requiring President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to step down) will be able to provide solutions to the fragmentation of political authority.8 ʿAqīls are locally-elected representatives who perform a variety of governance and security functions in their. respective neighbourhoods. While they are private citizens, their role is recognized by Yemeni election law, which authorizes them to operate as local law enforcement (especially in rural communities). For more information, see Ahmed Nagi, Eleonora Ardemagni, and Mareike Transfeld, Shuyyukh, Policemen and Supervisors: Yemen’s Competing Security Providers, Carnegie Middle East Center, 27 March 2020, https://carnegie- mec.org/2020/03/27/shuyyukh-policemen-and-supervisors-yemen-s-competing-security-providers-pub-81385.9 Julia R. Azari and Jennifer K. Smith, ‘Unwritten rules: Informal institutions in established democracies’. Perspectives on Politics 10, no. 1 (2012): 37–55; Erica Chenoweth, Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021): 47–53; Roger Mac Ginty, Everyday Peace; How So-Called Ordinary People Can Disrupt Violent Conflict (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021).10 Interpeace, ‘Assessing Resilience for Peace: A Guidance Note’, April 2016, http://www.interpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2016-FAR-Guidace-note-Assesing-Resilience-for-Peace-v7.pdf.11 Field research was covered under a reliance agreement between the institutional review boards of The Ohio State. University and Utah State University, (IRB Protocol #11399, 1 December 2020).12 Access to the Arabic-language interview questionnaire and focus group discussion guide are available the appendix.13 Michael Ungar, ‘Modeling Multisystemic Resilience: Connecting Biological, Psychological, Social and Ecological. Adaptation in Contexts of Adversity’ in Michael Ungar ed., Multisystemic Resilience: Adaptation and Transformation in Contexts of Change (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021): 6.14 Ungar 2021, 9–10.15 Michael Ungar, ‘About Resilience’, Resilience Research Centre, https://resilienceresearch.org.16 See The World Bank Group (2013) ‘Building Resilience: Integrating Climate and Disaster Risk into Development’. Washington, DC. Available at: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/1663917 ‘Assessing Resilience for Peace: Guidance Note’, Interpeace, April 2016, p.9. Available at: 2016-FAR-Guidace.note-Assesing-Resilience-for-Peace-v11.pdf (interpeace.org); Lauren Van Metre and Jason Calder, ‘Peacebuilding and Resilience: How Society Responds to Violence’, Peaceworks No. 121, United States Institute for Peace. https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/PW121-Peacebuilding-and-Resilience-How-Society-Responds-to-Violence.pdf; USAID (2013) ‘A Framework for Analysing Resilience in Fragile and Conflict Affected Situations’.18 European Union Foreign and Security Policy, ‘Shared Vision, Common Action: A Stronger Europe’, June 2016. https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/eugs_review_web_0.pdf; World Bank, Pathways for Peace: InclusiveApproaches to Preventing Conflict (Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group 2018), https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/4c36fca6-c7e0–5927-b171-468b0b236b59; F. Denton, T.J. Wilbanks, A.C. Abeysinghe, I. Burton, Q. Gao, M.C. Lemos, T. Masui, K.L. O’Brien, and K. Warner, ‘Climate-resilient pathways: adaptation, mitigation, and sustainable development’, in Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Geneva, Switzerland: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2014), https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WGIIAR5- Chap20_FINAL.pdf; USAID, ‘A Framework for Analysing Resilience in Fragile and Conflict Affected Situations’; United Nations Development Group (UNDP), ‘United Nations Development Assistance Framework Guidance’, June 2017, https://unsdg.un.org/sites/default/files/2017-UNDAF_Guidance_01-May-2017.pdf; United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), ‘Building Resilience in Ethiopia’, 16 November 2022, https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/projects/GB-GOV-1-300363/documents.19 Lucy, Faulkner, Katrina Brown, and Tara Quinn, ‘Analyzing community resilience as an emergent property of dynamic social-ecological systems’, Ecology and Society 23, no. 1 (2018).20 Cavelty et al. 2015; Joseph 2013.21 During fieldwork, we used the term qudra ʾalā al-ṣamud ;(‘ability to withstand’) to describe resilience. For community resilience, the term used was qudrat al-mujtamaʿʾalā al-ṣamud ;(‘community’s ability to withstand’). Ṣamud ;(steadfastness) was not chosen since the term has various religious, cultural, and political connotations that do not align with the study’s primary objectives.22 Variations of the word ṣabr are mentioned 75 times across 23 chapters of the Qurʾān.23 The Ḥūṯhis have used resilience (ṣamud) consistently in their media and propaganda. Speeches by Ḥūṯhi leader Abdulmalik Al-Ḥūṯhi associate resilience with local military capabilities and production, and withstanding Saudi airstrikes, the blockade, and the various shocks residents in their territories withstand such as hunger, lack of employment, and shortages of basic goods. See ‘a’wamil ṣamud al-sha’ab al-Yemeni fi muwajahat al-udwan al- Amreeky al-Sa’udi’. Ansarollah. 28 March 2021, https://www.ansarollah.com/archives/423340.24 Stacey Philbrick Yadav, Yemen in the Shadow of Transition: Pursuing Justice Amid War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2022).25 Hesham M. Al-Mekhlafi, ‘Yemen in a time of cholera: current situation and challenges’, The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 98, no. 6 (2018): 1558.26 Manfred, Wiebelt, Clemens Breisinger, Olivier Ecker, Perrihan Al-Riffai, Richard Robertson, and Rainer Thiele, ‘Climate change and floods in Yemen’, Development Strategy and Governance Division, International Food Policy Research, Washington, D.C. ;(2011); Dorte Verner and Clemens Breisinger. Economics of climate change in the Arab world: case studies from the Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia and the Republic of Yemen. 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Denmark 2021, https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/sites/www.humanitarianresponse.info/files/ documents/files/for_us_but_not_ours-short_version-final_drc.pdf; M.P. Suprenant, R. Hussein, N. Al Dheeb, H. Basaleem, M. Zaman, and L. Yasukawa, ‘Internal Displacement’s Impact on Health in Yemen’, Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, Geneva, Switzerland, January 2020, https://www.internal displacement.org/sites/default/files/publications/documents/IDMC_ImpactsonHealthinYemen.pdf.32 HelpAge International, ‘The food, fuel, finance crisis: Yemen under the spotlight’, 27 March 2023. https://www.helpage.org/news/the-food-fuel-finance-crisis-yemen-under-the-spotlight.33 Age International, Protection Cluster Yemen, ‘Yemen Protection Brief’, January 2021. https://www.ageinternational.org.uk/policy-research.34 COVID-19’s third wave reached Yemen in the summer of 2021. Vaccination numbers remain very low. 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Sustainability Series, 9 March 2022, https://carpo-bonn.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/CARPO_report_09_09–03- 22_EN.pdf; Hadil al-Mowafak, ‘Yemen’s Forgotten Environmental Crisis Can Further Complicate Peacebuilding Efforts, YPC Research Debrief’, Yemen Policy Centre, February 2022, https://www.yemenpolicy.org/yemens-forgotten-environmental-crisis-can-further-complicate-peacebuilding-efforts; Helen Lackner, ‘Climate Change and Conflict in Hadramawt and Al Mahra’, Berghof Report 12, Berghof Foundation, Berlin, 21 December 2021, https://berghof-foundation.org/library/climate-change-and-conflict-in-hadhramawt.38 Chenoweth, Civil Resistance, 47.39 ʿAqīls are locally-elected representatives who perform a variety of governance and security functions at the. neighbourhood level. 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Yemen’, SWMENA Project, 2013, https://iwpr.org/wp- content/uploads/2020/12/SWMENA_Yemen_Health_Care.pdf; Rehab Al-Dhamari, ‘The struggle of Yemeni women between war and harmful social norms’, OXFAM, 3 February 2021, https://views- voices.oxfam.org.uk/2021/02/the-struggle-of-yemeni-women-between-war-and-harmful-social-norms.48 World Bank, ‘Yemen: The Vital Role of Women Farmers in Climate Change’, 30 March 2022. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2022/03/30/yemen-the-vital-role-of-women-farmers-in-climate- change.49 ACAPS, ‘Life goes on in Yemen’, Mercy Corps, ‘Sharing to Survive: Investigating the Role of Social. Networks During Yemen’s Humanitarian Crisis’, 31 January 2022, https://www.mercycorps.org/research- resources/sharing-survive-social-networks-yemen.50 Zabara Bilkis and Tobias Zumbrägel, ‘The Role of the Environment in Peacebuilding in Yemen’, Center for Applied. Research in Partnership with the Orient (CARPO, Sustainability Series, 9 March 2022, https://carpo-bonn.org/wp- content/uploads/2022/03/CARPO_report_09_09–03-22_EN.pdf; Hadil al-Mowafak ‘Yemen’s Forgotten Environmental Crisis Can Further Complicate Peacebuilding Efforts’, YPC Research Debrief, Yemen Policy Centre, February 2022, https://www.yemenpolicy.org/yemens-forgotten-environmental-crisis-can-further-complicate- peacebuilding-efforts; Helen Lackner, ‘Climate Change and Conflict in Hadhramawt and Al Mahra’, Berghoff Foundation, 21 December 2021, https://berghof-foundation.org/library/climate-change-and-conflict-in-hadhramawt.Additional informationFundingFunding for this study was provided by the Conflict to Peace Lab (C2P) at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at The Ohio State University.