Local entrepreneurs are the key to capacity-building for Washington, DC–based NGO Partners for Democratic Change. <br /><br />Few organizations, global or domestic, operate in the remote tribal regions of Yemen, the most deprived areas of the poorest country in the Middle East. Here, a lack of education and services engenders a youth susceptible to violence and tribal conflicts, and competing over scarce resources makes any interaction, already fraught with tension, even more incendiary. Feuds are commonplace. Terrorism thrives; “Al-Qaeda is luring young men with offers of money,” says Wardah, a woman leader working with Partners-Yemen. “They make terrorists out of people,” she says. “Al-Qaeda will spread if we don’t learn to stand up to them.” <br /><br />Rule of law is a particular challenge in areas like these, especially when the hotbeds of rampant instability are so remote. But the need to build a foundation for stability, growth and prosperity is urgent when the stakes are so high.
