The Netherlands Embassy in close consultation with the Government of Yemen decided in 1999 to include the agricultural sector in its support programme. At the end of 2001 it decided to further widen the target area for Dutch support to include all other privately owned productive companies, including services, trade and small and medium industry.

The support of the embassy will not be directly aimed at productive sector companies, but rather at the elements that together create the “enabling environment”. The most important player in this enabling environment is the government. A fair, transparent and efficient public service is needed to create an enabling environment where the private sector can grow and thrive, leading to increased production and employment, and thus aiding in poverty alleviation.

Agriculture now provides 17% of GDP and 6% of export earnings. Almost 70% of the national working force are active in agriculture. Rural people and in particular farmers, men and women alike, constitute the largest group of private entrepreneurs.

On the initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MAI) a process of discussions started in 1997 aiming to reach recommendations on improvement of the performance of the agricultural sector.

The results of these discussions have become known as the Aden Agenda. This agenda was further elaborated in the Agriculture 21 Agenda (A21A), that was approved by the Cabinet in 2000. The objective of A21A is to restructure the Ministry and put its organisation in line with its new mandate as well as with the decentralisation policy aims. Under the A21A more emphasis will be placed on livestock, rain-fed agriculture, irrigation efficiency improvement, watershed management, desertification and quality assurance & control.

The Embassy agrees with MAI that the implementation of  A21A is essential to improve performance of this sector and is therefore willing to support its implementation.

Regarding the non-agricultural part of the economic sector, the Netherlands Embassy will decide during the course of 2002 how best to support the general enabling environment for the private sector. This is needed to support economic development in general and the private sector in particular. Essential for such an environment are strong and efficient institutions, a clear legal framework with an independent and unbiased jurisdiction, an efficient banking sector and close co-ordination between all stakeholders (ministries, authorities, companies, chambers of commerce).