A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit our embassy in the Yemen.
The visit was at the invitation of the FCO. Having been to the embassy in Sweden, this was a chance to meet British civil servants working in a more challenging overseas environment. I chose the Yemen in part because of the strong Yemeni community in Sheffield, who came to work in the steel industry in the 1950s, but also because it is a country full of examples of British civil servants taking forward vitally important work.
A challenging environment
By any standard, Yemen faces enormous challenges. It is a poor country that has been mired by numerous civil wars since independence. The population is young, intensifying the challenge. It has major environmental and economic challenges – on current estimates it is due to run out of water in 25 years. In the most recent UN human development report, Yemen came last out of 146 countries in the gender equality index.
Yemen’s most immediate challenge, however, is security. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) represents a significant local, regional and international threat which has grown significantly since the Arab Spring.
In 2012 the country stepped back from another, potentially lethal, civil war. Instead, a political transition agreement was reached – this was supported by Yemen's neighbours and the international community, including the UK, which plays a leading role as one of the co-chairs of the Friends of Yemen Group.
Under the political transition agreement, the long-standing President Saleh stepped down, to be replaced by his deputy and a broad coalition government on an interim basis. During the political transition process a National Dialogue Conference, drawn from every part of Yemeni society, and including 30% women, was established – the conference is charged with setting out a future for Yemen.
The security situation has had a major impact on how the embassy operates. Faced with both threatened and actual attacks, staff now live within a fortified embassy compound in ‘pods’. These are modified 40-foot Red Sea steel shipping containers. Transport out of the compound is heavily protected, and informal visits into the city of Sana’a or elsewhere are simply not possible. Staff work a ‘six weeks on, two weeks off’ rota.
A common mission in the face of difficulty
Despite these very challenging and restricted working conditions, there is a real sense of the embassy working as a single team towards a common mission.
There is a real sense of the embassy working as a single team towards a common mission
There are regular all-staff meetings, an active association for locally-engaged staff, brainstorming sessions to drive forward improvements, regular newsletters and an ‘Employee of the Month’ award. The 2012 People Survey results – 97% return with 86% engagement were amongst the best in the FCO and would be the envy of most parts of the Civil Service.
Particularly impressive for me was the close working between the different departments housed at the embassy, which gave real life to the FCO’s ambition for ‘One HMG Team Overseas’. The Ambassador Jane Marriott, provides excellent leadership and, as a result, they have forged a real sense of common purpose and direction. What could have been a major source of tension has been turned through strong leadership and teamwork into a positive advantage.
The schedule for the two days was a packed one, taking in the Elections and Referendum Communion, the British Council, a visit to a Migrants’ Centre and meeting with Yemeni business leaders. The UK is part-funding the ambitious biometric voter registration exercise ahead of national elections. DFID is supporting the humanitarian effort to deal with the estimated 265,000 refugees and 100,000 stranded migrants in Yemen. These are relatively small but vital projects that are making a real difference.
A particularly memorable experience was talking to the mostly young men at the Centre who had been lured to Yemen on the promise of work in Saudi Arabia and who now just want to go back to their homes in Ethiopia and Somalia.
Also very impressive was the work being done by British Council staff. Severely restricted in their formal work by the security issues, they had nevertheless managed to do great work on training English language leaders, and empowering women to increase disability awareness.
There was huge interest in how to create a strong civil service
Another highlight of the tour was the talk I gave on the topic of the Civil Service in a meeting with political and community leaders working on the future of Yemen. There was huge interest in how to create a strong civil service – Yemen’s own civil service is seen by many to be overstaffed and having major issues of corruption and patronage. It brought home to me the huge strengths of our own civil service.
A key moment for Yemen
Yemen itself is now at a critical point. The National Dialogue Conference is now reaching a conclusion and will report soon. A new constitution then needs to be drawn up and elections held to form a new government and parliament. Success in this would give the country the leadership to reform its civil service and begin to tackle its major economic, security and environmental challenges.
The alternative – a return of the old guard, escalating violence and potentially complete breakdown – would be too terrible to contemplate.
It was a privilege to be able to go on such a brilliantly organised visit and see British civil servants doing such vital work in such challenging circumstances. Above all, this is a team with a sense of direction and purpose.
1 comment
Comment by Karen Hammonds posted on
Hi I read with great interest your report on the yemen above. I am not yeminise but I was born in Aden, which of course is now known as Yemen. I have often thought it would be nice to visit my birth place but with it being a volatile country would be wary of doing so. It is therefore interesting to read that there are positive things happening in the country.