The conference was written into the agreement that ended Ali Abdullah Saleh's decades-long rule. Saleh had governed Yemen for 33 years, first of North Yemen and then of the unified Republic, and in 2011 a popular uprising drove him to accept a deal brokered by the UN and the Gulf Cooperation Council. He handed power to his Vice President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi in November 2011. Hadi was sworn in for a two-year term in February 2012 after an election in which he stood unopposed. The GCC Initiative required a National Dialogue Conference as part of the transition. UN Security Council Resolution 2051 laid out the structure. On March 18, 2013, delegates from across the Yemeni political spectrum gathered and the conference opened. It was supposed to resolve the grievances that had been accumulating for decades - the southern resentment at northern domination since 1990, the Houthi struggles in Sa'ada, the demands for a fair constitutional order.

The conference was divided into working groups, each tackling one of the country's core problems. The Southern Issue Working Group tried to address the grievances of former South Yemen. The Sa'ada Issue Working Group took on the Houthis and the conflicts in the north. There were groups for National Reconciliation and Transitional Justice, for State-Building, for Good Governance, for the role of the Armed and Security Forces, for Rights and Freedoms, for Development, for Special Social and Environmental Issues, for constitutional drafting, and for ensuring successful implementation. A nine-member presidency led the whole effort: Hadi as chairman, Abdul-Kareem Al-Eryani representing the General People's Congress, Yassen Saeed No'man for the Yemeni Socialist Party, Sultan Al-Atwani for the Nasserite Unionists, Yassin Makkawi for the Peaceful Southern Movement, Saleh bin Habra for the Houthis, Abdul-Wahab Al-Ansi for the Islah Party, along with the journalist Nadia Al-Sakkaf and Abdullah Lamlas.

The conference concluded on January 24, 2014 with the signing of the NDC Document. Hadi's presidency was extended for another year to complete reforms. Parliament and the Shura Council would be restructured to be 50 percent northerners and 50 percent southerners. On the Sa'ada Issue, after intense negotiation, the document guaranteed freedom of religion, required nonsectarian governance, outlawed foreign financial and arms support for militias, called for the return of stolen government weapons, prohibited medium to heavy arms in private hands, and called for addressing the feuds that had fed the conflict. These commitments were to be enshrined in the new constitution. The Southern Issue Working Group met thirty times and failed to produce a plan for a new political system that would fairly represent the south - a failure that would matter.

The NDC's biggest structural decision was to transform Yemen into a six-region federation. The regions would be Azal, Saba, Janad, and Tihama in the north, and Aden and Hadramawt in the south. Sanaa would have special status and not belong to any region. Aden, the former southern capital, would also have special status. The map looked logical on paper. In practice, it was rejected almost immediately. Houthi leader Mohammad al-Bakhti said the federation divided Yemen into poor and wealthy regions. Southern separatists said it did not give the south real autonomy. Mohammad Ali Ahmed, a southern representative, resigned from the NDC in November 2013 and called the six-region plan a coup against what had been agreed. Al-Hirak member Nasser al-Nawba said the south would continue its peaceful struggle for independence. The final NDC session was boycotted by Houthi leaders after the assassination of a Houthi representative to the conference.

The reactions internationally were warm. The European Union Foreign Affairs Council said the NDC set an example for the region. The GCC secretary general Abdul Latif al-Zayani called it a positive development. Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird congratulated Hadi. The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs endorsed the constitution-drafting process. US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf spoke of the debates as evidence of the will of the Yemeni people. But the people the document was supposed to include had been largely excluded. Hadi's extension of his presidency past his two-year mandate, coupled with the unpopularity of the transitional government and general distrust of Hadi - who had profited from corruption during his three decades as Saleh's vice president - left the agreement without real legitimacy. The Houthis, rejecting the federal plan, moved on Sanaa. By September 2014 they held the capital. The Yemeni civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands and created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises grew out of the failure of the moment the National Dialogue Conference was supposed to prevent. The Movenpick Hotel conference rooms where the delegates negotiated are quiet now. The country is still fighting.