ABU DHABI // The Emirates Red Crescent on Saturday launched a month-long campaign to ease the suffering of 10 million Yemenis after the onslaught by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
ERC staff will start gathering donations from the public at 200 sites including malls, banks and offices, as part of their You for Yemen programme on Sunday. Proceeds will be used in ERC aid projects in the troubled country.
The campaign was launched under the directives of President Sheikh Khalifa, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed, Ruler’s Representative in the Western Region and Chairman of the ERC, called on businesses and philanthropists to support the campaign.
“The suffering of our people in Yemen compounds daily with eminent threat of a real catastrophe,” he said. “The UAE, led by President Sheikh Khalifa, realised early that the size of the impending catastrophe would affect millions of Yemenis.
The ERC has delivered Dh94 million in aid to Yemen, helping 124,000 families or about 620,000 people.
It set aside Dh300m for relief and development projects and sent seven ships to Aden with 15,000 tonnes of food and goods.
The UAE’s aid to the port city will rebuild the lives of people it played a major role in liberating from the Houthi rebels, who stormed Aden in March.
The ERC aimed to “match the scale and extent of the damage”, said Dr Mohammed Al Falahi, secretary general of the ERC.
“Emirates Red Crescent is conscious of the huge humanitarian efforts that are needed for the next phase, which will be aimed at improving the lives of our Yemeni brothers and restoring life to what it was before the crisis.”
The campaign will “appeal to supporters, philanthropists and donors to assist about 10 million people in Yemen”, Dr Al Falahi said.
“This will go a long way with the Government’s commitment to implement more programmes and projects that meet the needs and aspirations of our Yemeni brothers to lead life in dignity.”
The ERC is focusing its relief efforts in Aden but will take aid to other provinces as they are liberated.
In the first phase of the latest campaign, food bought from local markets in Yemen is being distributed in some provinces.
Generators, provided in coordination with the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Humanitarian Foundation, are helping to get electricity to health, education and other institutions. “There is no doubt that the repercussions of the crisis in Yemen have resulted in a difficult humanitarian situation in all areas of even basic life, and aggravated the scale of suffering epitomised by images of enormous destruction,” Dr Al Falahi said.
“The UAE, as always, is renowned for its swift response to the plight of victims.”
Also yesterday, Tariq Abdou Ali, director of Aden International Airport, thanked the UAE for restoring operations there.
Aden International reopen to commercial flights next month after a five-month break caused by the conflict, reported Al Ittihad, the Arabic-language sister paper of The National.
Donations can also be sent to campaign accounts at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Sharjah Islamic Bank, by text message, the ERC website and social media accounts.
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EXPATS
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
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A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
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- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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