#BringDevBack shows the people of Yemen are already thinking about rebuilding their country despite ongoing conflict.

Yemenis have launched a social media campaign with the hashtag #BringDevBack – or Bring Development Back to Yemen – highlighting how years of war have destroyed the opportunity for development.

The campaign shows the people of Yemen are already thinking about rebuilding their country despite the ongoing conflict.

Wesam Qaid, executive director at Sanaa-based economic developmental organisation SMEPS, told Al Jazeera the goal of the campaign is looking towards a hopeful future.

“I am so proud to be part of this campaign #BringDevback in Yemen, it’s an important message. It means ending the war, it means thinking about the future, it means hope and jobs for young people,” Qaid said. 

“And it means getting the country moving again in the right direction.”

For many, it is also a way of showing humanitarian aid is not enough and their country needs major investment for reconstruction.

“We need development back in Yemen. We are including everyone in this campaign: from different backgrounds to political views,” Farah al-Wazeer from SMEPS told Al Jazeera.

“We need development to have a better education, to have food and water to be secured. We need more jobs and we definitely need more rights and freedom,” she added.

Since the campaign started, people on social media have been sharing their view of what issues need to be tackled to help improve Yemen.

For many, education, jobs, and healthcare are the most important parts of rebuilding Yemen.

Many others are simply sharing examples of community initiatives to empower each other.

Abdulrahman Sharhan, one of the people participating in the social media campaign, told Al Jazeera he thinks development is essential to the future of Yemen.

“It’s about creating jobs and ending the war. What I have been doing to support development is I have been supporting 800 female farmers to improve the quality of coffee and as a result to export exceptional coffee to the world. We need the humanitarian aid – but also development,” Sharhan told Al Jazeera.

“For me development means hope. A country without development is nothing.”

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