Mr. Ali Khaled Ali Yahya was awarded a Master’s Degree in International Development with distinction for his thesis titled: Monitoring and Evaluation Practices for Water Quality in Aden, Yemen, which was submitted to the Inclusive Development Research Center (IDRC) – Sana’a University. The MA defense was held on Wednesday, September 10, 2025.

The MA Viva-voce Committee, which was formed based on a resolution issued by the Graduate Studies and Scientific Research Council, consisted of the following:

Committee Members Designation Position

1 Prof. Mohammed Yahya Al-Rafiq External Examiner Chair

2 Prof. Hesham Mohammed Naji Main Supervisor Member

3 Assoc. Prof. Abdulwahab Yahya Abdulqader Internal Examiner Member

The thesis aimed to:

• Examine existing monitoring and evaluation systems for water quality in Aden.

• Identify the main challenges hindering their effectiveness.

• Propose actionable, implementable recommendations for improvement.

The findings revealed that water quality monitoring and evaluation systems in Aden are highly fragmented and inconsistent, operating reactively rather than proactively. These shortcomings were attributed to governance failures and entrenched institutional practices.

In light of these findings, the researcher offered several key recommendations, including:

• Strengthening the operational capacity of regulatory bodies.

• Providing targeted training programs.

• Establishing a public complaints system.

• Developing more structured practices, such as forming coordination teams and shared information systems.

• Implementing structural reforms, including the development of an integrated management information system, legal framework reforms, sustainable financing, and the introduction of independent third-party monitoring to enhance transparency and accountability.

The defense session was attended by a number of academics, researchers, and interested ‎participants, colleagues and the researcher’s family members.‎