International humanitarian day celebration, Plan Cameroon UNOCHA battle with GZ challenges

International humanitarian day celebration, Plan Cameroon UNOCHA battle with GZ challenges 

By Ngekwi Eunice

Commemorating the International Humanitarian Day in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon last Saturday August 17 2019, specialized United Nations Agencies and their partners ranging from local civil society organizations to international Non Governmental Organizations converged at the multipurpose hall of the Mankon metropolitan Cathedral to celebrate women humanitarians as this year’s theme indicates.

Celebrated at a time when the English speaking regions of the country are currently going through a humanitarian crisis that has been termed the fastest growing humanitarian crisis in Africa by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance UNOCHA  in 2018, Civil society organizations working in humanitarian concerns came out to showcase to the public and the United Nations what they have been doing.

The United Nations which is presently operating in the North West region for the first time took the floor to introduce the various specialized UN agencies working on Humanitarian response actions in Cameroon and made it known to the public and civil society organizations where and how they can be reached and for what reasons.

One of the UN partners in the provision of humanitarian assistance in the current socio political unrest in the North West and South West Regions of the Country is Plan Cameroon, the leading international organization on child protection issues founded in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War by British journalist John Langdon-Davies. It operates in 74 countries of the world with 26 of the countries being in Africa.  Operating in Cameroon for over two decades now, they have run child sponsorship programs in nine out of the ten regions in the country. 

With regards to the social unrest in the English speaking regions of Cameroon, Plan Cameroon has so far been involved in the creation of safe spaces for children displaced by the crisis in the South West and North West regions. They have provided Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH kits) to over 30,420 people in 18 WASH clusters in the two regions. According to Plan Cameroon, about 78% of persons in these regions are in need.

 

Tah Hedly (R) Communication and press officer for Plan Cameroon Bamenda Programme Unit, flanked by WFP representative

 

Plan Cameroon sponsored participants at the World Humanitarian Day celebration

With main aim the protection of children especially girls due to their vulnerability, Plan Cameroon is also providing psycho social support to some Internally Displaced children in the North West by engaging them in Lively hood activity training. Some of such children after going through counseling have been put into training workshops where they are acquiring some skills in beads making. According to Plan Cameroon officials, at the Bamenda Program Unit, “this is to make sure that after bringing aid to children or a family, they don’t continue to depend on that aid which may not come again due to the ever increasing need for aid in other areas. This is an aspect of sustainability which we are bringing in to see that we can make these young girls acquire some skills that can eventually put food on their tables”.

It is however worthy of note that they have challenges which are the continues displacement of persons on a daily basis, the continues blocking of roads leading to the most hit areas of the region needing emergency humanitarian aid like Bui, Boyo, Batibo, Menchum among others. Plan Cameroon and other humanitarian actors have complained that these factors have greatly limited access to communities. The World Food Program on their part complain of the storage of food which often gets bad due to lack of storage facilities.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs whose aim is to coordinate the distribution of humanitarian aid by various UN agencies and their partners during a humanitarian crisis also revealed during the celebration that they now have a permanent office in the North West region.  It is worthy of note that UNOCHA has been operating in the South West since May 2018 and carried out activities both in the South West and North West until June 2019 that the North West station was created. They have so far seen that the various actors involved can carry out distribution of humanitarian aid in a coordinated manner.  Speaking with Tanda Theophilus, representative for UNOCHA North West, he said “We have so far been doing well with the various actors and we are making sure that we identify and advocate for the inclusion of persons with disabilities as well as identify where there is humanitarian need and to advice the actors working on such needs to intervene. We also have joint evaluation conferences with the various actors to follow up the effective distribution of aid”

Tanda Theophelus, UNOCHA representative talking on UNOCHA activities in the region

 

Other UN agencies present at the celebration were; UNFPA, UNDP, Unicef, and INTERSOS, as well as partners like Norwegian Refugee Council, Doctors Without Borders, Medicins du Monde Suisse, COMINSUD, LUKMEF, and CARITAS.