Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effect of the conflict in Yemen on the (a) health and (b) protection from violence of women and girls in that country.

Yemen remains the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with nearly 80% of the population, 24 million people, now in need of humanitarian assistance. This includes 1.1 million acutely malnourished pregnant or lactating women.

The conflict in Yemen has only served to exacerbate the specific vulnerabilities and the limitations faced by women and girls across the country, with the number of incidents of gender-based violence reportedly rising by 70% since the start of the conflict.

The country ranks last out of 144 countries on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index; women and girls continue to face entrenched gender inequalities that limit their access to services, livelihoods and other opportunities.