Unlike Arab Spring, the war in Yemen was not that much shocking to the regional and international community. Many studies estimated that Yemen could be another Afghanistan or Somalia. The regime in Yemen was only able to tolerate with internal crisis and contradictions rather than finding a radical solution.
These volcanoes of internal contradictions and crises in the Yemeni scene started to explode since the emergence of Southern Movement in 2007, then the so-called youth revolution during the Arab spring in 2011. Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) initiative followed to resolve conflict and maintain ‘nominal’ legal transformation of power from Saleh to his deputy Hadi. The National Dialogue Conference was concluded and immediately followed by a massive and violent Yemeni war that eventually turned into a regional and international war. During this war, the contradictions of the history, forces and influential issues of the Yemeni society emerged. All parties, issues and crises that were under the surface show up to move, fight and unite in order to hold a position in the scene. The war aggravated the economic and humanitarian situation, which was formerly deteriorating.
Despite GCC initiative and UN efforts to stop the war, the continuing failure to achieve a positive sustainable peace shows clearly that the Yemeni crisis has not been dealt with in depth, considering the root of the crisis.
The compound Yemeni crisis has been simplified by making a deal between the government and representatives of the opposition or a deal of truce as happening now between the parties to the conflict without figuring out the real reasons of instability in Yemen or coming up with a clear future vision. The Yemeni crisis got more complicated by regional and international interference shifting Yemen into a battlefield.
The origin of the crisis in Yemen comes from a history of negative political practices and conflicts of interests since pre-unity which dispersed rather than uniting, and the roots of the crisis were not given serious consideration.
The structure of active forces in the Yemeni scene has changed before and after the war. New parties emerged, such as Houthis, Southern Resistance and Salafists. The process of building peace in Yemen is complex and needs clear strategies, specific priorities, huge programs for reconstruction and development, and most of all enough time to process.part 1
Complexities of Local Authority Structure in Governorates
Despite international initiatives, the political process in Yemen was not progressing. The same applies to military operations which remained in place on the border between the north and the south (pre-unity line). Though all parties realized there is no use of the military solution to this war, each side is reluctant to make any concessions, betting on the collapsing of internal fronts over time. In the meantime, Yemen’s economic and humanitarian situation is deteriorating.
The civil war in Yemen has caused a complete destruction of the economy and a dramatic deterioration of humanitarian conditions. As a result, this war left vast areas without the existence of central state institutions, divided between two governments and two authorities who are unable to provide services or salaries to their citizens, leaving a chance for extremists to take a role in the scene. Due to the roots of the Yemeni crisis and the complexities of the current war, central state institutions is expected to remain fragile for years even after any political settlement.
With the absence and fragility of state institutions and deteriorations of services and living conditions, the local community holds to ‘remnants’ of local councils; though they are not any more activated in most governorates. Many of them are just ‘nominal’ rather than having an active role in the scene. Civil society and social figures are the ones dominating the humanitarian scene in the governorates. They have a major and critical role alleviating the war impact on people. They also have been able to play meditating roles among armed groups, helping to agree on a number of local cease-fires and facilitating delivery of humanitarian assistance even through war front lines. In addition, they assist in a number of prisoners exchanges between different groups. They preserved what is left of civil peace, social fabric and state institutions.
These local forces have proved that they have a wide experience and influence in handling the complicated local relations and coping with roots of problems. Local councils are a pioneering experiment that has been misused to serve the ruling regime objectives. The actual authority granted to them in accordance with the Local Authority Law is very limited at the level of development and resource management. Most post-war governorates have crossed those limited laws due to central government fragility.
part 2
Local Governance, Reconstruction and Development… Road to Peace
Records show that post-war countries tend to have very weak and fragile state institutions. As those countries are exposed to post war fluctuations due to negative consequences of war. The immense damage to infrastructure makes it very difficult to sustain good living conditions and meet citizens’ high expectations. Besides, trust among parties to the conflict is almost none existed. This is what is happening in the Yemeni scene nowadays.
The international experience of the post-war countries affirmed that giving a great attention to local authorities in managing their own affairs, providing needs and strengthening internal social peace has a great impact on a continual political process and comprehensive stability.
In order to control chaos in governorates structures, fill the absence and fragility of state institutions, strengthen security and stability in governorates, and support the efforts of the second track and strategic peace building plans for Yemen from the bottom and up, stability must be strengthened by giving local authority more authority. This would be feasible only if local authority turned towards local governance by giving them more power to manage their living, development and security affairs by achieving the following objectives:
Enhancing security.
Covering the humanitarian and living need of citizens and providing services.
Development, local resource management and reconstruction.
Setting the scene for federal system.
Building trust between social and political forces and promoting domestic social peace.
Prepare local ground into sustainable peace.
Confronting ideas of extremism and paying attention to youth and job creation.
The international and regional community’s response towards Yemeni crises is significant and necessary, considering the deteriorating humanitarian and economic conditions that Yemen has reached. However, the main concern nowadays lies in avoiding the repetition of the same mistakes of the first transitional period. Otherwise, those mistakes without a doubt will lead once again to the outbreak of several scattered wars in Yemeni governorates.
Handling Yemeni crisis can take two parallel tracks. The first track should put the priority on stopping the war, turning towards local governance, strengthening stability in the governorates, improving the humanitarian and living conditions of citizens, resolving internal conflicts and finally starting a real political process. Focusing on strengthening stability in governorates and turning towards local governance will have a positive continual impact on supporting the political process at the national level.
The second paralleling track is planning a sustainable peace in Yemen, in which the roots of the Yemeni crisis are tackled and past grievances and reconciliation are adopted.part 3