Driven by the significant economic, religious, political, and historical differences between the northern and southern parts as well as the southern and eastern regions of the country, federalization has been a common and controversial proposal to resolve regionalist tensions since the unification of the country in 1990, It may also extend to the union of the South Arabia with Hadhramaut in 1967.

While an agreement was eventually reached to decentralize the country, it was largely abandoned following the outbreak of a civil war in 1994.

[3] The 2013–2014 National Dialogue Conference concluded that Yemen would adopt federalism in an attempt to resolve the political crisis that began with the Yemeni Revolution in 2011.

[5] A committee organized by Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi determined that Yemen would be split into six federal regions: Azal, Saba, Tihama, Aden, Janad, and Hadhramaut.

The referendum on the new federal constitution was indefinitely delayed by the intensification of the Yemeni Civil War in 2015.