TOUR OF THE HABITAT WORLD SEEN BY CIVIL SOCIETY

Cameroon

#Mots-clés : Eviction Dernière mise à jour le 7 June 2019

Country file made by Mister Jules Dumas – Contact from civil society : Jules Dumas from ASSOAL – e-mail : assoalcam@yahoo.fr – Website : ASSOAL

This page has been translated with Google Translation

ELEMENTS OF CONTEXTcameroon

Covering an area of 475,442 km2 19.4 million inhabitants, Cameroon is located in the western part of central Africa bordering the Atlantic Ocean at the Gulf of Guinea. It is bounded on the north by Chad, on the east by the Central African Republic to the south by Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and to the west by Nigeria. The climate is humid tropical in south, tropical dry north, the average temperature ranges between 25 ° C and 32 ° C South to North. Vegetation in Cameroon is dominated by savannah in the north and northwest on a large volcanic chain that extends from Mount Cameroon Mountains Rhumer up through the mountains languid; higher pastures in the highlands of central and West; rainforest and swamps in the south and east. Cameroon has 10 regions and 58 departments.

After ratification by Cameroon of the ICESCR in 1984, his eligibility in 2000 at the HIPC Initiative, debt relief in 2006, and all measures of internal adjustments to address the various crises, the country still can not meet the basic needs of the population (39.9% poor) (1). The orientation of public policies and the alignment of its development strategy on the MDGs is slow to cause the expected changes, despite the promotion of a democratic political system that adapts with difficulty to societal projects anchored on the production results focused on the development of citizens’ rights in general.

(1) Strategy Paper for Growth and Employment (DSCE), Framework of government action for the period 2010-2020, p.11.

MACROECONOMIC FIGURES

After a sustained expansion of its economy is based primarily on exports of agricultural products, Cameroon suffered in the 1980 major shocks due to the collapse in international prices of raw materials, from the fiscal year of 1985-1986, have plunged the economy into a serious recession and hampered the implementation of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Cameroon.

According to the DSCE, the average annual growth rate of GDP between 3% and 3.4%, or the average annual growth rate of per capita GDP between 0.5% and 0.7% per year, are still too low to have a positive impact on the evolution of the living conditions of households. In fact, out of a population estimated at about 15.5 million people in 2001, 6.2 million were classified as poor.

CAMEROON THE FACE TO USE THE LABOUR AND SOCIAL SECURITY

In Cameroon in 2005, according to the report of the National Institute of Statistics (INS), unemployment is around 17% of the workforce. Young alone represent 14% of the unemployed on 17%. 90% of Cameroonian workers engaged in the informal sector with 69.3% earn less than the legal minimum wage, which itself is 28,216 CFA francs.

The average length of employment is 9.1 years. The employee rate is 18%. The average monthly income at the national level is 32 800 FCFA. The situation of social security in Cameroon is worrisome. Only 10% of workers are guaranteed throughout the territory.

COVERAGE IN ELECTRICITY

Electricity supply, hitherto provided by SONEL was privatized in recent years in favor of a U.S. company under the new name AES Sonel. 58 of 58 departments are electrified, 188 chief towns of district 360. The rate of access to electricity in rural areas is 5%. The rate of access to electricity in cities between 45 and 50%. The coverage in terms of electrification is 36%.

COVER WATER

The water supply in Cameroon was provided by the National Water Company of Cameroon (SNEC), which itself has been privatized to make way for a private trader (Cam Water). 46% of the national population has no access to safe drinking water in urban centers. The coverage is still very low, between 30% and 55% in urban and suburban areas. In rural areas, about 30% of the population is supplied with drinking water. Video testimony by the association ASSEJA

> PLACE OF PUBLIC WORKS AND BUILDINGS IN THE ECONOMY CAMEROON

The challenge of urban development and planning, as expressed by the long-term vision of Cameroon in the Document Growth Strategy for Employment (DSCE), is to create integrated national economic space. This is not only to control the development of cities and make them centers of production and consumption necessary to the growth of industry, but also to promote the emergence of urban peripheral development towns or secondary structure capable of economic activities in urban areas and contribute to the development of the surrounding rural areas.

To this end, the Government intends to achieve mastery of urban development and the improvement of living conditions and urban populations that remain imperative to allow cities to fulfill their role as the engine of economic growth. For this, the authorities set the following specific objectives:

  1. Slow the rate of increase in the urbanization rate (reaching a rate of 57.3% in 2020);
  2. Construct 100 km of paved roads and 200 000 social housing units, develop 50,000 plots;
  3. Reduce by half the proportion of the urban population has no sustainable access to safe drinking water, electricity and ICT;
  4. Strengthening the industry, the private sector, governance and human resources of the urban sub-sector (DSCE, 2010).

DEMOGRAPHY AND POPULATION

The urban population quadrupled between 1930 – when there were already 12 cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants – and 1950. The annual growth rate of urban population began to decline in 1950, although still high, around 2% between 1990 and 2000. The current urban growth which is explained mainly by the increase in global population. This obviously does not mean that the urban population decreases the contrary, between 2010 and 2020, more than 5 million additional Cameroon should live in a city, old or emerging. In 2010, two major cities of Cameroon, Douala and Yaoundé, are still less than 2 million people each. Furthermore, they are backed by major regional cities whose growth has been very rapid. Thus, six of them are between 250 000 and 500 000: Garoua, Bamenda, Maroua, Bafoussam, and N’gaoundéré Bertoua.

Source: e-Geopolis

Urban dynamics seem to be increasingly associated with regional settlement systems. Conditions of urban growth are very different from one region to another, if indeed that Cameroon has on its soil of a wide variety of natural habitats, from the Sahel to the rainforest, the flat lowlands and the highlands.

HABITAT

The habitat in Cameroon

History of Cities – Heritage

CREATION OF CITIES

The main factor in urban development in Cameroon was the creation of administrative positions whose number has increased and become more diverse in the years following independence and reunification.

Different typologies of urban centers can be outlined according to whether we consider their size and growth rate, or the main function (the administrative role predominating). But there are also different distributions taking into account regional groupings (plateaus and coastal zone, region and English speaking region) or the provision of the urban structure (linear, fan, circular or diffuse). However, the growth of cities such as Douala, Limbe and Garoua was influenced by the marketing function.

Source: Genesis and classification of cities in Cameroon

SOME DATA ON HOUSING AND CAMEROON A YAOUNDE

Yaoundé views

Three tissue types of habitat: modern, rural and dense spontaneous representing 60% of the area of the cities.

In Yaoundé, the squatter is the largest urban fabric. Covering almost 72% of the space for housing, it housed approximately 80% of the urban population (Minville 2002). According to the national strategy of urban development and housing over the past decade, the population of the cities of Douala and Yaoundé has doubled and investments (provision of services) in urban areas have decreased. Consequently, the number of informal settlements grew, swelling the urban social and economic problems. Nearly 70% of the urban population lives in informal settlements with more than 50% below the poverty line. In the county boroughs, there is a strong tendency to mass disruption of neighborhoods and the eviction uncontrolled populations.

Different aspects of spontaneous tissue in Metropolis Cameroon.

  • Central spontaneous neighborhoods
  • Informal settlements pericentral:
  • Informal settlements of urban front:
  • Neighborhoods being integrated (semi rural habitat)

The absence of management plans has led to a spontaneous and anarchic development of neighborhoods in which quality and living conditions are poor.

RURAL HOUSING OR TRADITIONAL

Housing construction in rural areas depends on prevailing climatic conditions and the availability of local materials in each region. Climatic diversity of the Cameroonian territory favors the emergence of an architecture as varied in shapes and styles of construction. It may be noted:

  • Accommodation clay grouped or linear, collective or individual
  • The mud brick dwellings in single or grouped linear group or individual
  • Housing brick terracotta clustered, linear, collective or individual
  • The housing plank grouped, linear, collective or individual
  • Traditional huts built of vines, straw, leaves and tree trunks
  • Dwellings in semi-hard
  • Housing hard

Source: Habitat Cameroon, presentation of the main habitat types, test adaptation to current problems.

At international level, Cameroon has ratified in 1984, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). However, it has not yet ratified the Additional Protocol to the ICESCR, adopted in 2008, allowing individuals, authorized associations and communities to make submissions and enforceability in the event of violation of the rights enshrined including the right to housing.

At the regional level, the State of Cameroon has ratified the Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights June 20, 1989 and a few other instruments. It has also ratified by decree the Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Women, adopted on 11 July 2003. It has ratified September 5, 1997 the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. He also signed the Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights on 25 July 2006, but has not yet ratified it.

At the national level, the revised Constitution of 18 January 1996 in its preamble guarantee the property rights to all citizens by law. Specific laws and regulations complement the legal national protection and promotion of the right to housing. However, there is a lack of legal framework of the right to housing or the right to equality between men and women in housing.

EXPULSION OF HOUSING OR EVICTIONS

Houses partially destroyed the road to enlarge Buildings on which indicates that destruction is sought in 24H

In Cameroon, the actions of eviction of people rely on the following texts:

  • Ordinance No. 74/1 of 06 July 1974 laying tenure and lands, Article 13: ”… it is not due any compensation for destruction of obsolete buildings or threatening to ruin or those made in violation of the rules of urbanization.”
  • 22 Law No. 80 of 14 July 1980 on the suppression of property damage, Article 2 “shall be punished by sentence, a fine and imprisonment … who, without authorization of the qualified person, operate or maintain a field which they are not owners … ”

Having found that the legal framework was insufficient protection for non-holders of land titles, the Government, by Decree No. 2008 / 0738/PM of 23 April 2008 on the organization of procedures and methods of land management has taken corrective measures whose implementation is gradual. This decree stipulates in its Article 6 that “in the case of a restructuring plan or urban renewal from the State, a decree of MINDUH states: the implementing rules, sources of financing, the terms of recognition … and compensation to owners with or without land title, how to create the resettlement area and allocation of plots in that area, how cost recovery ”

In Article 11, “the Restructuring Plan and Urban Renewal must emphasize: the diagnosis of existing arrangements … project concerned in strict compliance with the approved plan of measures relating to: land regulation, the resettlement (relocation) of displaced populations, the monetary compensation in kind landowners. ”

The text requires the publication of a decree of the Minister of Urban Development and the habitat in which he details the work to be done in the city and the sites concerned. It then discusses the census of affected people and their property; identifying a point of resettlement, evictions and who have been preceded by compensation.

Practices observed in the field and an analysis of the regulations, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the legal regime of the eviction is tough and in turn is no gift to targeted populations. It is demonstrated by Article 13 of Ordinance No. 74/1 fixing the tenure which states: ”… it is not due any compensation for destruction of obsolete buildings or threatening to ruin or those made in violation rules of urbanization. ”

In fact, according to Cameroonian law (before the decree signed by the Prime Minister on 23 April 2008 and whose implementation is still awaited), the person déguerpie (expelled) is left to itself.

It is true that it is easier to oppose this statement that the law forbids anyone to occupy a space in the private domain or area at risk. But it should not be forgotten that in the preamble to the Constitution of 18 January 1996, it is stated that “the property is (…) guaranteed to everyone by law. No one can be deprived except for a public purpose and under the condition of compensation under conditions determined by law. ”

EXPULSION OF DISTRICTS PRECARIOUS

Generally, people are expropriated land or their homes so arbitrary without notice, without accompanying measures, without knowing why they are deported, without knowing how value will be the site where they are deported without tracks possible recourse and without having been consulted. In Yaoundé neighborhoods Ntaba, Etetak, Ntougou, Briqueterie East and West, Douala, Kribi, Bafoussam, Maroua, people have been forced to leave their places of residence strength. Hundreds of houses have been demolished. Without alternative housing.

Brief summary for some areas:

Neighborhood Period Number of victims
ETETAK 2007 620 houses destroyed. More than 1200 households driven off hills.
Ntaba July 29, 2008 250 houses. Nearly 5000 people evicted.
Brick Thursday 21 and Friday, August 22, 2008 Nearly 1,000 people evicted.

Thousands of families that have been on the street!

LAND RIGHTS

LAND GRABBING

INTERESTING FEATURES

  • Example advocacy for the development of the law on co-ownership buildings in CameroonResults: A law governing condominium buildings in Cameroon was adopted and promulgated, and its implementing decree. The main stages of the advocacy process by the National Network of People of Cameroon:
    • A workshop to set up a multi-stakeholder platform (OSC-State Private companies)
    • Establishment of working groups on the subject of social housing and housing cooperatives;
    • Conducting studies on social housing and housing cooperatives;
    • Return the results of studies on social housing and housing cooperatives;
    • Creation of a special working group on the elaboration of a draft bill and the decree on the condominium buildings in Cameroon;
    • Creation of a special working group on the elaboration of a draft bill on the creation of social housing cooperatives;
    • Organization of multi-stakeholder workshops to validate bills and decrees on housing cooperatives and condominium buildings in Cameroon;
    • Organization of a parliamentary dinner (with local mayors, MPs)
    • Transmission of draft bills and decrees to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (MINHDU);
    • Participation spaces for exchange and dialogue (lobbying)

Social and economic aspects

Advertising on participatory budgeting and social housing Largest market in Yaounde Communal wells neighborhood

MARKET HOUSING AND SOCIAL HOUSING

Currently, there has been in the country a strong demand for housing, both in large cities than in small towns. Meet this demand, the supply of social housing is clearly insufficient. In addition, there is the predominance of informal settlements resulting in the uncontrolled development of neighborhoods, and a very low supply of land by the specialized state structures. The offer state is currently estimated at about ten thousand (10,000) units for the next ten years.

The analysis shows that the current housing tenure is very diverse. Indeed, the mode of tenure in Cameroon used to classify households into three groups:

  • Owner households (58.9%),
  • Renter households (28.9%),
  • Households stay free (11.3%).

Poor households are mostly owners (83%) of the housing (Report study on the demand and supply of social housing in Cameroon RNHC, 2009).

1) HOUSING SERVICES…

…products by parastatals in 50 years

In 50 years of independence, only 12,000 housing units were built by the specialized agencies set up by the government, or an average of 240 dwellings per year on an estimated demand of 80,000 units per year only for cities of Yaounde and Douala. Or should build one million housing over the next ten years to fill the gap. During the past decade, governments have been able to build a few hundred homes when they have destroyed thousands. Since 1977, only 9000 and 4000 batches bounded plots were constructed by MAETUR (Mission Planning of Urban and Rural Land).

Source: Alternative Report on ESCR in Cameroon.

LAND CLASSIC LAND OFFICE CLASSIC CLASSIC PROPERTY BUYER LAND SAVING HOUSING LAND IMPROVEMENT OF HOUSING LAND SOLIDARITY PROMO LAND RENTAL PROPERTY
SUBJECT Purchase land, construction, finishing works, construction of the main residence or retirement. Purchase land, construction, finishing works, construction of the main residence or retirement. Land purchase or acquisition of a house from a third party or as part of a development program. Purchase of land, construction, finishing works, construction of the main residence, retirement or a building for rental. Work of home improvement, purchase of construction materials. Facilitate access to the real estate world economic actors informal. Housing construction and land improvements. Open access to credit for landowners.
Maximum DURATION 20 years 20 years 20 years 20 years 25-60 month 20 years 36 month 20 years
INTEREST RATE Annual tax 6% 5% 6% 5,5% 10% 5% 7% 7%
Maximum DIFFERENT DEPRECIATION 12 month 12 month 12 month 12 month 1 month 12 month 18 month 18 month
Minimum SUPPLY PERSONNEL 20% of project cost 20% of project cost 10% of project cost Savings prior Savings prior 10% 30%
MAXIMUM AMOUNT 150.000.000 FCFA 30.000.000 FCFA 150.000.000 FCFA 150.000.000 FCFA 3.000.000 FCFA 6.000.000 FCFA 150.000.000 FCFA 500.000.000 FCFA 250.000.000 FCFA
DEBT CAPACITY 33% of wages presented 33% of wages presented 33% of wages presented 33% of wages presented 33% of wages presented In connection with the ability to save 70% of project 75% of rent
WARRANTIES First mortgage, life insurance and fire insurance. First mortgage, life insurance and fire insurance. First mortgage, life insurance and fire insurance. First mortgage, life insurance and fire insurance. Promise mortgage loan for more than 36 months. First mortgage, life insurance and fire insurance. First mortgage, life insurance and fire insurance. First mortgage insurance and fire.

Source: Crédit Foncier of Cameroon, “our new interest rates.”

Approved loans UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL LOANS CITES READY TO SOCIAL
Purchase land, construction, finishing works, construction of the main residence or retirement. Mini cities Facilitate access to home ownership for low-income households.
20 years 20 years 36 month
3,75 à 5% 5% 1 à 4%
12 month 18 month 12 month
Negotiable 10 Negotiable
/ 250.000.000 FCFA 250.000.000 FCFA
Negotiable 75% of rent 70% of project
First mortgage, life insurance and fire insurance. First mortgage insurance and fire. First Mortgage, Life Insurance and Fire Insurance.

Source: Crédit Foncier of Cameroon, “our new interest rates.”

2) PROBLEMS OF BUSINESS REAL ESTATE AGENT

The Real Estate market in Cameroon is very complex given the multitude of stakeholders. It is true that the activity of real estate agent is governed by the law (Law No. 2001/020 of 16 December 2001) and there is an association of real estate agents recognized by the state, but we live everyday like nothing other than anarchy. All you need is a picture and hang it on the side of the road to become a real estate agent. The mere fact that holds information (who sells or leases a property) transforms the individual real estate agent!

3) MUTUAL COOPERATIVE & HABITAT…

… Obstacles in the production of social housing

The housing policy and housing facing the weaknesses of the institutional characterized by the absence of a national Office of Housing, a national housing fund, banks housing, to a grant of building materials and a fund for the establishment of land reserves. Housing cooperatives trying to supply the deficiency in social housing do not receive any support, institutional, regulatory and financial.

Source: Report on eligibility criteria Aided products.

4) ALTERNATIVE CONTRIBUTION OF THE INFORMAL SECTOR…

…In the production of the housing

The difficulty of having a decent urban housing has pushed most city dwellers who do not have significant financial resources to address the informal sector, it is the only one able to propose mechanisms for the production of suitable habitat their purchasing power and expertise: for example, the informal sector, often criticized as poorly known, would – according to the report of the economic and Social Council (1985) – almost 87% of the urban population Cameroon’s housing.

Source: The impact of the informal sector in the production of habitat in Cameroon.

Video testimony of a meeting in 2010 between actors of civil society in Peru, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon to exchange good practices on the development of local materials in the construction and housing.

QUALITY OF HOUSING

INFORMAL HOUSING / SLUM / HOMELESS

ROLE OF PUBLIC AUTHORITIES

Governments face the social housing market in Cameroon are three main roles. These roles are characterized by different actions in the context of the implementation of sectoral policies of habitat and housing. Thus, it is necessary to clarify the roles of:

1) REG: Development of legislation and enforcement decree governing the housing sector and social housing, control the quality of services provided to citizens seeking bilateral and multilateral partners on construction projects of social housing , arbitration of disputes, Policy Development sub-sector.

2) PROMOTER: Creation para public institutions in charge of social housing issues. It was created in Cameroon specialized agencies in the areas of finance, planning, housing construction, production of local materials. These institutions are:

  • Crédit Foncier of Cameroon (CFCs), whose mission is to finance construction projects through the granting of loans.
  • The Real Estate Company of Cameroon (SIC) sale proceeds or rentals of housing built with the assistance of the public;
  • Mission Planning Spaces and Urban and Rural Land (MAETUR), whose main objective is the development of plots for housing construction;
  • Mission Local Materials Production (MIPROMALO) whose main task is the production of local materials for housing construction operations.

3) disruptor: deregulation in this context is understood as the set of limits of regulation: lack of a legal incentive (absence of a law on cooperatives and mutuals social housing to facilitate the opening of the market for the benefit of socially disadvantaged or very low income.

TAKING ACCOUNT of vulnerable

1) The priority targets of public policies on housing in Cameroon

Targets included in the policies habitat in Cameroon depend projects in the framework of the construction of social housing. It is in the priorities of seniors who meet certain conditions in terms of political, economic and social. Thus, public policy underway in Cameroon housing thus main targets:

Moderate income persons: it is active people working in the public or private sector formal with a monthly salary of at least 150,000 FCFA and hold a bank account in one of the authorized banks in Cameroon. This category may have access to rental apartments built and managed by the CIS and other services provided by semi-public institutions such as Crédit Foncier of Cameroon, MAETUR and MIPROMALO.

Senior executives of the public: they are also a prime target for construction operations of housing for sale through the Real Estate Company of Cameroon (SIC).

Businessmen: businessmen (Business Owners, Managers, etc …) constituting the bourgeois class is the most eligible target operations in construction of social housing promoted by public institutions para responsible for production services such as (housing, land, local materials etc …).

2) The mixed target of public policies on housing in Cameroon

The informal sector: it is those working in the informal sector or not justifying comfortable and stable income to finance their project to build housing. They are generally excluded from formal financial channels provided by commercial banks. Disability: This vulnerable and disadvantaged social group is not taken into account in public policy accommodation.

Youth: youth homelessness in the mechanisms and building operations and redistribution of social housing is supported by their low purchasing power and the lack of bank guarantees and the lack of an accompanying this stratum vulnerable.

Women: women experience difficulties in integrating acquisitions in social housing built with government support because of their precarious status Cameroonian positive law.

Cultural aspects – Religious – Symbolic

In Cameroon, the shape of the habitat is largely influenced by several factors such as ease, religion and other customs.

In the region of the WEST Bamileke population lives under the leadership, which implies a political and religious organization very accurate. The market and the grove delimit the space of social life. Stakes of bamboo, mud brick, wood and thatch are the main materials used. The big box is the headquarters and the center point of the chiefdom. It serves as a courthouse, a meeting place, and hosts various ceremonies.

The Far North, part dominated by Muslim culture, habitat takes an even more organized as characterized by clusters of cells in the fence under the authority of the family head. These fences are usually built of straw or mud bricks.

South-Central East regions dominated by the Christian religion, the houses come in many forms. The houses are built on free space without end.

Source: Habitat Cameroon, presentation of the main habitat types, test adaptation to current issues.

Environmental aspects

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT

The Cameroonian government has implemented a general framework for environmental management with the creation of several institutions to develop and implement the national policy in this area. These are the following institutions:

  • The Department of Environment and Conservation.
  • The National Advisory Commission on Environment and Development.
  • The Permanent Secretariat to the environment.
  • The Sustainable Development Fund.

As for the housing sector, Cameroon is experiencing a surge of policy environmental protection. Procedures for obtaining subdivision plans for the construction of housing require landowners sampling areas for the establishment of parks and easements. This political will accompany the systematization of this policy in any transaction subdivision at the Land Registry. Operations garbage collection is provided by the Company to Hygiene and Sanitation in Cameroon (HYSACAM) in the major urban centers.

Source: National Profile of Cameroon-Environment

EXTRA ATTENTION TO THE POOR?

Several organizations people are created in the neighborhoods to support or supplement the operations of collecting and preserving the environment. Among these organizations there different forms such as associations (TAM-TAM MOBILE (Yaoundé)), the GIC (GIC JEVOLEC) and many others.

Regarding the energy gap for the poorest, the actions of people, however, remain limited by the non-mastery of the techniques of production of renewable energy.

Bibliography & Sitography

MAJOR PROBLEMS BY CIVIL SOCIETY

BY ASSOAL:

The current housing situation in Cameroon is mainly characterized by the following problems:

  • Quantitative and qualitative deficit estimated at one million units, including 800,000 for the only cities of Douala and Yaoundé,
  • Proliferation of informal settlements and their anarchic lots of health problems, security, social and environmental.

These initial findings are the result of failures at many levels involving the responsibility of various institutions:

  • Insufficient funding system with excess liquidity of certain public finance institutions;
  • Low capacity of economic and social field of social housing to create housing, the emergence of cooperative and mutual housing is very recent,
  • Inefficiency and cons-productive decisions: actions massive evictions of households and people on low incomes without accompanying measures, which causes the opening of new areas of squatter settlements;
  • Difficult access to finance for low-income households because of the level of guarantees required by financial institutions (land title or stable income);
  • Insufficient valorisation of local materials;
  • Superposition of legal instruments scattered among several ministries, which leads to a duplication of roles and responsibilities of public institutions.

CLAIMS MAJOR CIVIL SOCIETY

BY ASSOAL:

All the actors of civil society mobilizes around strategic proposals that contribute to making the right to housing for all citizens. These include:

  • Implementation of housing policies developed and adopted by the authorities;
  • Housing cooperatives assist in the process of improving the habitat (land reserves, servicing technical assistance);
  • Help expand housing production to meet the growing process especially in urban areas;
  • Strengthen the home improvement and building infrastructure community relations;
  • Help open channels of bank loans to the poorest populations by the intervention of a revolving fund;
  • Rationalize the self-construction, often performed without supervision, monitoring and technical assistance, coaching and organization of self builders and jobbers;
  • Contribute to the popularization of improved methods and techniques of construction and promotion of local materials and locally manufactured products;

Source: General Report on National Workshop mutual and cooperative social housing in Cameroon.

CIVIL SOCIETY ACTORS

  • ASSOAL: ASSOAL is a Cameroonian NGO that conducts advocacy for policy reform in terms of housing and social housing. In this sense it has initiated a dialogue with the Ministry of Housing and Development. Website ASSOAL
  • NATIONAL NETWORK OF PEOPLE OF CAMEROON – RNHC: 2000 through its member organizations, the network advocates for residents’ access to decent housing. It goes in this direction to the inhabitants of cooperative projects and mutual habitat. Website RNHC
  • HABITAT FOR HUMANITY: Habitat for Humanity International is a Christian non-profit organization operating in the field of promotion of social housing. In Cameroon, its objective is to provide support and technical assistance and financial support to vulnerable social groups in the acquisition of social housing decent. It operates equity construction and rehabilitation of housing for the beneficiaries. It builds the housing at the location indicated by the beneficiary of the housing. Video testimonyWebsite
  • ASSEJA: The NGO, through its safety activities for the improvement of the urban environment, is also involved in research through the process of advocacy for social housing, a process initiated by the civil society in Cameroon since 2008. Explanation and link to website
  • GIC MUPROF: it holds the approval of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development in property development and opted for the production of housing in local materials for lower-income strata. website
  • COOPHYLOS (cooperative habitat): the cooperative and mutual societies emphasize the social aspect of the basis for action and are thus a new dynamic in Cameroon. Although generally they are in the experimental stage, their development will support the many challenges of social housing including the restructuring of informal settlements and the resolution of the issue of land. Website Platform mutuals and housing cooperatives in Cameroon
  • CONGEH Kabissa: Coalition of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in Cameroon Working in the Field of Human Settlements (CONGEH). This is a non-profit organization created in 1995 within the framework of the Second International Conference on the United Nations Habitat (Habitat II) held in Istanbul (Turkey) in 1996. This group has developed a tool to promote decent housing. The land in clinic aims to reduce inequalities in land and inheritance rights for women vulnerable, ie infected or affected by HIV / AIDS. Their website