As part of the EU-funded project “Cash for Work: Promoting Livelihood Opportunities for Urban Youth in Yemen”, UNESCO and the European Union have selected eight Yemeni CSOs for the small grant programme. The programme aims at developing cultural programming and income-generation capacities of selected civil society organizations in order to improve the livelihoods of young artists and culture professionals, with a view on reinforcing the resilience of the creative sector in Yemen.
The call for proposals received an engaged response from cultural CSOs in the county. Out of thirty-two proposals received, eight were selected representing a geographic diversity to include all of the four historical cities targeted by the Cash-for-work project. They are divided geographically to include four organizations from Sana’a, two organizations from Aden, a single organization from Shibam, and another organization from Zabid. The small grants program will offer to fund pilot projects varying from 10.000 USD to 40.000 USD. Funds will be disbursed through a cash-for-work scheme improving the livelihood of all of their participants. In addition, capacity-building and mentoring will be provided together with a networking and exchange platform, with a view to sustaining viable business models in the cultural and creative industries in Yemen. The capacity building and monitoring of the projects will be ensured by the Social Fund for Development, through its SMEPS programme.
The evaluation of the funding proposals examined the ability of the requestors to support sustainable income-generating opportunities for young Yemenis in creative industries while maximizing impact for beneficiaries and reducing cost-effectiveness by drawing on existing organizational resources. The evaluation also paid attention to previous successful experiences, geographical presence of the requestors, gender sensitivity of proposals submitted as well capacity to scale-up interventions and meet communication and visibility objectives.
The selected pilot projects reflect the rich diversity of the creative industries in Yemen to include promoting sustainable artwork development, filmmaking mentorship, poetry, documenting traditional music and audio-visuals, business management in the arts, documentation of heritage architecture in private houses, preservation of heritage documentary collection, and gender-focused training in handicrafts. The six-month projects will serve as an opportunity to energize the cultural scene in Yemen fostering a substantial cultural industry.