MINADER, VSO CAMEROON TO PROMOTE RURAL DEVELOPMENT

The accord was signed by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Director of VSO Cameroon

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Cameroon recently signed a partnership agreement with an international non governmental organisation, VSO-Cameroon, geared towards promoting rural development. The document was signed for Cameroon by the Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER), Jean Nkuete, and for the Voluntary Services Oversees by the country director,
Danny Pelletier.

According to the terms of this framework agreement, VSO-Cameroon and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will support centres for education and action, CEACs through capacity building on poverty alleviation. The two partners will equally draw up a national strategy for community development and look for finances nationally and internationally to finance
activities identified. They also resolved to establish a national data base on rural development
and set up a documentation centre on rural development. It should be noted here that VSO-Cameroon provided an international consultant who worked with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for six weeks to assess the state of rural development in Cameroon and proposed a methodology for the drawing up of a new community development strategy in Cameroon. The recommendations of the said consultant which were presented in a solemn ceremony last December, 12, 2007, are expected to be implemented as from this January and will contribute immensely in the fight against poverty in the rural areas.

The present accord to last ten years is fruit of negotiations that have been going between MINADER and VSO-Cameroon since two years. VSO-Cameroon currently has 45 volunteers in Cameroon working in three domains; HIV/AIDS, basic education in the North province and the promotion of good governance and decentralization. According to the national director for VSO-Cameroon the NGO is motivated by the fact that development is not money but people and people have to work to foster development. Danny Pelletier said the voluntary Service Overseas was no longer a British organization but a multi national one comprising people of different nationalities. He said the partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is the beginning and not the end of a long and fruitful relationship.

Courtesy - Harry Ndienla Yemti