Studies & Economic Media Center (SEMC) is a non-profit organisation that was established in 2008. Its mission is to improve the economic system and make it more transparent. The centre is doing so by working on:

1. Rehabilitation and raising awareness on economic and development issues
2. Promoting transparency, good governance and citizen participation in decision-making
3. Creating a free and professional media
4. Economic empowerment for women and youth
5. Reducing the impact of conflict on development

SEMC has experience in preparing  studies and analysis of political, economic and environmental issues, and has conducted advocacy at local and national level. It has extensive experience in working on decentralisation and building regulatory and institutional structures of local government, where it worked during the past three years in five Yemeni governorates to strengthen decentralisation and local governance in collaboration with youth and women.

SEMC also worked on the preparation of a vision of fiscal decentralisation and resource-sharing between the federal government and the regional governments in order to be included in the new constitution of Yemen.

SEMC was successfully involved in drafting and lobbying for the access to information law through the "Analytical Study of the extent of Yemeni institution's commitment to the public right to access the information, and transparency's standards" project. In cooperation with the UNDP, SEMC is implementing a project of issuing the Guide of Transparency and Information disclosure, which is considered the first guide to include international measures on how to implement the transparency measures and information disclosure in public and private institutions and civil society. Besides that the centre builds capacity of (female) journalists, officials and institutions on social, economic and financial issues and women rights. It conducts economic research, disseminates the findings and organises media campaigns.

SEMC was successfully involved promoting citizenship, social coherence and gender equality through the implementation of many projects like The Team – Yemen in cooperation with Search For Common Ground.

SEMC has a large partnership with many local and regional networks specialising in transparency and good governance, and has led advocacy campaigns for public policies that support transparency and accountability at the national level in Yemen. It works in collaboration with a large number of international and local organisations and the private sector in Yemen.

Some key implemented projects include:

• Independent journalism project (Taiz, Sana’a, Aden, Hadramout - 12 months)
• Strengthening the voice of the private sector (Sana’a, Aden, Taiz, Hudeidah, Hadramout - 12 months)
• Building the capacity of prosecutors and the courts of public funds on the issue of corruption (all governorates - 12 months )
• Advocating for the right to access to information law (Sana'a - 9 months)
• Examining the Yemeni institutions' commitment to transparency (Sana’a - 5 months)
• Student media training project on economic journalism (Sana’a - 12 months)
• Training journalists to analyse the state budget (Sana’a - 7 months)
• Working Women's Rights Project (Sana’a -12 months)
• Strengthening the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (Sana’a - 12 months)

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If you would like more information on SEMC and their activities, follow their work on Youtube (Arabic)

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