Local entrepreneurs are the key to capacity-building for Washington, DC–based NGO Partners for Democratic Change.

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.”

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.