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Abstract
Rural development planning in Yemen suffers from a lack of integrated analysis
and monitoring to combine natural resource and land use indicators with socioeconomic
data. This paper takes a first step in this direction by undertaking an
integrated assessment of the constraints and opportunities for agricultural
development in rural areas. The analysis includes an assessment of the biophysical
environment in a selected study site; a description of rural livelihoods
based on household data; and an assessment of rural institutions. Taken
together, the findings yield a coherent assessment that water scarcity is the main
constraint facing rural development in Yemen’s rain-fed highlands; that this key
constraint is further exacerbated by changes in the social structure and
livelihood strategies of households such as seasonal male migration; however,
lastly, we find that rural institutions offer a strong mechanism for participatory
development that could support natural resource management and rural
development.