Focus on Yemen | Project Overview & Respondent Demographics

Project Background 

The Status of Women in the Middle East and North Africa (SWMENA) is a gender-focused research project that evaluates the status of women in three countries: Lebanon, Morocco, and Yemen. SWMENA is a project by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). 

Project Goals 

• Improve the status of women in the broader MENA region by strengthening local NGO capacity to effectively advocate on behalf of women
• Train local NGOs on using solid data in their advocacy efforts and employ better strategies in approaching members of parliament, other governing bodies and the press about policy recommendations 
• Build local data collection and analysis capacity 

Project Methodology 

• Evaluate existing data on women, identify gaps, and design national surveys to capture needed data 
• Before conducting the SWMENA survey, key NGOs in Yemen that work on several aspects of women’s issues completed a short survey to identify their data needs and advocacy priorities.
• Survey questionnaires include a core section that is standard across the three countries and a distinct country module that deals with country-specific gender issues 
• After data collection in all three countries, a final report will be created with comparisons across regions, between countries, and between communities within each country.

Project Research Areas 

• Political and civic participation; Economic participation and well-being
• Social attitudes towards women’s roles, violence, reforming laws
• Social autonomy (access to education, role in household decision-making, control over household resources)
• Health and education