UNHCR Cameroon moves to foster self-reliance, economic empowerment of IDPs.

The ambitious plan was disclosed in Yaounde on Tuesday March 10. It was during a ceremony to disseminate the results of the socio-economic profiling of IDPs and host communities in five pilot municipalities of the West Region.

The results were presented following a project dubbed: Promoting the Economic and Social Participation of Internally Displaced Persons and Host Communities, PESoP.

It was implemented by the German Cooperation, GIZ, and UNHCR with funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, BMZ, and under the supervision of the Ministry of Decentralization and Local Development, MINDDEVEL.  

The ceremony was attended by public administrations, the United Nations system, international financial institutions, technical and development partners, and local authorities.

The project, we gathered, targeted IDPs and vulnerable host populations in Bafoussam I, Dschang, Foumban, Kouptamo and Mbouda. 

UNHCR said it was based on four key components notably economic and social participation, socio-economic profiling, and prevention of Gender-Based Violence, GBV. 

According to the UNHCR Cameroon, the large-scale data collection was carried out between November and December 2024. The campaign registered 32,696 IDPs, identified their priority needs, and surveyed 2,800 displaced and non-displaced households.

Speaking during the event, the representative of the UNHCR in Cameroon, Yvette Muhimpundu, explained that the study was focused only in the West Region because it is host to many IDPs coming from the North West and South West Regions but also from the Far North.

Muhimpundu added that it was important to understand the needs of the IDPs, their challenges and the importance of collective efforts to address their problems.

“It [the study] demonstrates that IDPs are contributing to the local economy in the host area through agriculture, trade and informal activities. But we also found out that there are some challenges like lack of civil documentation,” Muhimpundu said.

Muhimpundu expressed the hope that the study “will help to inform policymakers and also to ensure that there are coherence and strategic intervention between humanitarian and development actors”.

Pledges support to gov’t, appeals to int’l community

The UNHCR Cameroon used the meeting to recommit its support to government priorities and initiatives.

Muhimpundu also appealed to other international communities to support a similar study in the other regions in order to have comprehensive data of IDPs in the country.

She said with said data collected from the project will intervene in order to address the issues linked to economic empowerment.

“We need to have the IDPs to be independent and not to rely on assistance. The study will help those Internally Displaced Persons to have clear priority activities that will address this independence and make sure that people are self-reliant,” Muhimpundu said.

Officials laud study

Speaking earlier, the Deputy Head of Cooperation at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Katrin Friedrichs-Peusmann, lauded the results of the study.

“The results are showing us today that the project was running very well and we have reliable data on Internally Displaced Persons and the host communities in the West Region of Cameroon,” Friedrichs-Peusmann said.

Friedrichs-Peusmann pointed out that “reliable data is essential for good policy making”. 

According to the official, it helps partners better understand needs on the ground and design interventions that effectively support both displaced populations and host communities.

On her part, the former Mayor of Foumban, Hermine Tomaino Ndam Njoya expressed satisfaction that the project produced positive results.

Tomaino, who is the President of the Cameroon Democratic Union, CDU party, revealed that IDPs were supported with micro-projects adapted to their various cultures.

“It is really hard to find projects that exceed the level of workshops, conferences, seminars and for us councils, this project helped us to better organize because in Foumban for instance, we prioritized displaced populations in obtaining water,” she said. 

The politician also mentioned that: “We have put at their disposal hundreds of communal water tanks and I can say that the displaced population have benefitted from this like the local population of Foumban”. 

The article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3729 of Thursday March 12, 2026