Al-Mahara Rural Development Project

Al-Mahara Community Development Project

The Al-Mahara Governorate is sparsely populated. About 80 percent of the population lives in small towns and villages along the coast. Al-Mahara has the country’s richest fishing grounds, where artisanal fishers catch lobsters, shark, tuna, sardines and other species. Cultivated land is limited and many people raise livestock. Most households engage in more than one economic activity, but fishing is the main activity for at least half of them.

Fishers’ associations rely on their own resources to provide services to members such as marketing, procurement of equipment and a social safety net. Women here have more freedom in social life than elsewhere in Yemen. They play a major role in the economy, looking after livestock, weeding and harvesting, but their role in fishing is limited.

The overall goal of the project is to improve the well-being of smallholders and rural communities by encouraging them to take an active part in managing their needs and to use the natural resource base more productively and in a sustainable way. IFAD-funded activities:

• support development of self-reliant communities and strengthen economic partnerships
• build the capacity of rural people, and particularly disadvantaged groups, to determine access to and use of resources, technology and financial services
• build the capacity of public and private institutions and enterprises to deliver equitable, sustainable and profitable financial and technical services to rural communities

Source: IFAD