Cameroon

Location: Bambouti, Cameroon 
Date: August 2012
Project partners: Cameroon Catalyst and Mosame Trust
Activities: Learning and Capacity Building, Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation
ASF Team: C.Dewast, A. Rowett, + E.Spruce

Cameroon Catalyst and Mosame Trust have collaborated with the village of Bambouti, a small village near the border with the Central African Republic, to construct a community centre, school and mechanics’ workshop. These were designed in the UK and constructed by the villagers, then checked annually by student volunteers in partnership with Southampton University. ASF-UK was tasked with conducting an evaluation to provide recommendations. This evaluation was run as a workshop, through the process of Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PM&E), actively engaging stakeholders throughout. The agreed outputs were a report and educating the organisations, community and participants more about the process of, and reasons for, PM&E. 

ASF-UK sought to encourage those involved to share their experiences and knowledge through PM&E. The outcomes included a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis, Portfolio of Options and a list of recommendations, which were collated in the final report. To gather this information, ASF-UK worked at government, community and individual levels. Methods of participatory research were used over two days. Through trial and error, participants were encouraged to learn what does or doesn’t work from the tools that were introduced to them. Reflective diaries and group brainstorming sessions to reflect on the information gathered. Following two days of analysis, feedback was provided to the Bambouti villagers through a board game.

The suggestions going forward included increasing community participation and building local capacity within the community. In addition, some recommendations were made around organisational development, such as strengthening organisational structures and management. This workshop helped Cameroon Catalyst and Mosame Trust understand the impact of their projects in the area and develop a clear, community led action plan. 

Impact:

One standalone 12 day workshop. 14 volunteers and participants. This project ran for most of 2012, including preparations for the workshop and time after developing the report. 3 associates volunteered 20 hours a month each, totalling over 700 volunteer hours.

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