A call for expression of interest made it possible to select the operators. They are as follows: Active youth for the fight against poverty, HIV/AIDS and its sufferings (NGO JAPSSO), Operational Centre for Economic and Social Promotion and Regeneration- Africa sector (COPRESSA), Synergy for Local Development (SYDEL), Union of Baptist Churches of Cameroon (UEBC-SAARE TABITHA) and Cameroonian Association for Local Development (ACDC). The process of identifying and distributing productive assets began with awareness-raising campaigns. They took place in the divisions of the Far North region.

Councils have now taken over the preparation of the dissemination of productive assets. It goes through the setting-up of councils committees. They are the ones who are targeting villages that shall benefit from small ruminant gifts, that is, 10 sheep and goats. There two types of beneficiaries. First, there are poverty-stricken and conflict-affected households. The goal is to give them animals. It is with a view to restoring their herds of yesteryear, long before their destruction by armed conflicts. Next are women and their associations.

They must be counted as second beneficiaries. They need to see the hardness of their work reduced through the provision of equipment for small livestock farming. In addition to the productive assets, they are entitled to communication training for behavioural change. Segou Gouyouk, represented one of the selected operators, especially Synergy for Local Development. He explains the ins and outs of his activity: «We are working to improve the resilience of poverty-stricken and conflict-affected households. Households, women and their groups expect productive assets.

The diagnosis reveals that women need endowments in kind and training in the development of small livestock and trade. Households expect allocations of 10 small ruminants. These sheep and goats will enable them to reconstruct the herd lost in the on-going conflict in the far North region. A selection committee is about to be set up. It will select vulnerable villages. Each of them will host a local committee. It will be in charge of poverty-stricken and conflict-affected households. We, the operators, intend to cross-check all these pieces of information. It is only by then that the distribution phase of the productive assets shall start”.

By Télesphore Mba Bizo