Executive Summary

Members of the Yemeni diaspora, often regarded primarily as remittance providers and external advocates for the homeland, increasingly employ digital tools in ways that shape conflict dynamics, peacebuilding, the humanitarian response, and the global understanding of Yemen’s cultural heritage. This policy paper, drawing on original interviews and building on social anthropologist Alex de Waal’s political marketplace framework, argues that policymakers, practitioners, and peacebuilders should reassess their understanding of Yemen’s diaspora and engage with its digitally empowered members as influential transnational political actors embedded within Yemen’s political economy.

By extending the political marketplace framework beyond territorial boundaries, this paper conceptualizes diaspora actors as capital providers, narrative brokers, and legitimacy entrepreneurs operating through intersecting flows of finance, influence, and digital visibility. It demonstrates how, in the context of Yemen’s war-fractured economy and society, platforms such as WhatsApp, Zoom, X, and Instagram have compressed transaction costs, accelerated mobilization, and enabled hybrid online/offline interventions across advocacy, peacebuilding, justice and accountability, humanitarian response, and cultural heritage.

When policymakers and practitioners regard diaspora actors not merely as symbolic ambassadors, they can engage with them more effectively — as transnational intermediaries whose involvement impacts legitimacy, resource flows, and domestic and international narratives. However, diaspora actors’ engagement can be, wittingly or not, deeply entangled in networks of patronage, war economies, and reputational competition. Digital mobilization expands the speed and scope of inclusion, yet simultaneously intensifies asymmetries of power, risks to beneficiaries and local contacts, and exposure to coercive dynamics.

Select Recommendations

For Donors and Policymakers

• Invest in projects guided by conflict-sensitive engagement frameworks that assess how diaspora funding and advocacy intersect with local and international patronage systems, business networks, and territorial power centers.
• Develop flexible funding mechanisms embedded with safeguarding and accountability standards that allow diaspora-led initiatives to access small-scale, rapid-response grants.
• Mitigate digital risk exposure by supporting digital security training for activists, particularly women, who face targeted harassment online.

For Practitioners and NGOs

• Co-design accountability and safeguarding protocols with strategically selected diaspora partners.
• Integrate informal fundraising actors into protection ecosystems, offering advisory support through online platforms on consent, beneficiary protection, and data privacy.

For Diaspora Actors

• Conduct informal conflict-sensitivity assessments before mobilizing funds or advocacy campaigns to avoid reinforcing faction-aligned economic networks.
• Adopt safeguarding standards for beneficiaries and in-country partners who are exposed to greater risk.
• Strengthen transparency practices by publicly disclosing funding sources, beneficiary selection criteria, and delivery mechanisms.

This policy paper is part of a series of publications produced by the Sana’a Center and funded by the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The series explores issues within economic, political, and environmental themes, aiming to inform discussion and policymaking related to Yemen that foster sustainable peace.