Summary

The strong urbanization in Cameroon over the past thirty years has been characterized by a very small investment in housing and basic services, development of spontaneous and anarchic housing, widespread poverty and environmental degradation urban. To reverse this trend, following the economic recovery of 2006, the Government joined the initiative of UN-Habitat on the Participatory Slum Upgrading Program (PPAB), through Nkolbikok area in Yaounde.

Background and Objective

Located in central Yaounde, slum Nkolbikok home to 25 000 people of which 53% women and 37% of young people under 15 years. Covering an area of 72 hectares, it is characterized by insecure tenure leaving the specter of forced evictions, poor sanitation, poor urban mobility or lack of sanitation service.

Actions and Implementation

The main problems encountered by the initiative have features (i) adaptation of the methodology of UN-HABITAT to the Cameroonian context, (ii) building a synergy of actions between the central government, communities local, business dealers of water services and electricity, as well as locals, (iii) the identification of a land security strategy with regard to the Cameroonian law and field constraints. To address the first problem, it was done using action research to adapt methodological tools. The second problem was solved by integrating categories of actors listed in the exception, however, dealers who have not yet integrated the issue into their development strategy. To solve the third problem, To enable the different actors involved in decision-making, two mechanisms have been put in place: (i) the constitution of an extended-Country Team and, (ii) workshops for exchange and validation. The enlarged Country Team, which is the steering body of the initiative consists of the ministerial departments responsible for Housing, Spatial Planning, Social Affairs, Land Affairs, National Association Mayors (UCCC), the bank of local authorities (FEICOM), local authorities concerned (Yaounde City Council and the District Municipality of Yaoundé 6) and those where the initiative is in the process of reproduction (and KRIBI BAMENDA) and the residents Committee. Workshops were organized in November 2011 and a second, in February 2012 bringing together responsible for high levels (Ministers, CEOs, mayors, community leaders and associations ...) to share the goals of the initiative, validate the slum restructuring strategy of nkolbikok. Stakeholders at these meetings were: beneficiary populations (youth, women, neighborhood leaders, notables, traders, managers of associations), the local authorities concerned, the Ministry of Housing and other sector ministries, companies dealers of water services, electricity, housing estates. A selection and monitoring committee was set up with the cooperation of all stakeholders: (1) define the selection criteria for community projects, (2) define the procedure for selection of beneficiaries, (3) clear monitoring how these projects on the ground. Several advocacy tools has been developed by ERA - Cameroon. Negotiating sessions have been initiated under the supervision of ERA - Cameroon between the owners of the headlines and the occupants in order to achieve the grinds. A communication strategy has been put in place A website "PPAB Nkolbikok.org) was created. He regularly publishes the results of the project The residents committee regularly produces publications

Outcomes and Impacts

Financial •Realtors interested in cohabitation approach land titles are willing to finance real estate projects in the district. Households pay the pre-collection of waste disposal service initiated by an NGO in the area. Social and economic •The existence of a Residents Committee is a guarantee of social and economic sustainability. the local associations capacities were built in assembling and managing projects, enabling them extend their intervention for living environment improvement project of the inhabitants beyond the funding period provided by the UN - Habitat. The paid pre-collection organized by TAM TAM Mobile through PPAB Community funds continues through direct payment of the service rendered by households. It's about 600 households continue to benefit from this service to our days (one year after the end of support) thanks to the contributions made by households (1000 FCFA / household per month). Cultural •The rehabilitation of the community center allows associations to have a secure space. Environment •The lamps 68 installed using ampoules base consumption. Similarly, pre-garbage collection and cleaning of drains reduced the populations of rivers and groundwater Institutional: •The Committee of residents is a legally recognized association still exists despite the cessation of financial support from donors. The relay was taken by the District Municipality of Yaoundé 6 that endows financial resources neighborhood associations each year. Urban Community of Yaoundé adopted the approach PPAB increasingly carrying out forced evictions as was the case in previous years, so much so that this community has contributed 47 000 USD for the construction of infrastructure nkolbikok the district.

Gender and Social Inclusivity

•The transfer was made at the initiative of the central government to cities and Kribi Bamenda. •The purpose of the transfer was to test the robustness of the methodology and involve all countries of the socio-cultural areas. This was done in the form of study tours, the residents' committee in Yaoundé who attended one of Kribi in the drafting of these founding documents. The Country Team and the three committees of residents of the inhabitants of the three cities took part in this important international meeting to exchange experiences with six countries in Yaoundé in 2015 •Transfer costs were borne by all stakeholders •The main adaptation focused on the introduction of residents' committees from the start of the project: this allowed to spend 12 months for this initiative to 6 months for the second initiative and 04 months for the third initiative. •Public participation in the choice of priorities was better organized and broken down by gender in a greater transparency. •For the generalization of the approach, the Government signed in 2015 a partnership agreement with an amount of USD 1.6 millions. with MAETUR, institutional developer of state for the treatment of precarious neighborhoods, following the principles of PPAB in three cities (Douala, Bafoussam and Garoua) on a total area of 700 hectares and a population estimated at 275,000 inhabitants. FEICOM (Bank of Commons) also sought to MAETUR the development of the restructuring plan of the area including its future headquarters building. The PPAB principles are also reflected in other projects such as the Project Development of Inclusive Cities (PDVI) of the World Bank.

Innovative Initiative

For Cameroon, several important lessons emerge from this initiative: Participation and governance of the initiative through this initiative, all stakeholders, including in particular state, are unanimous on the need for a participatory approach to interventions of restructuring and urban renewal. The initiative confirmed the choice of Cameroon now integrate all stakeholders in this type of project. But he said mostly identified stakeholders and define / codify their respective roles in the process. The project also clearly identify the elements of a resource mobilization strategy for such projects. Through capacity building of different actors (state, local authorities, residents' committee, CSOs), better choices of action plans were formulated and, in particular, the residents have shown that with a little training, they were able to propose and implement solutions for the improvement of their living conditions and The inclusion of the gender approach has to address the specific problems of social groups and thus to ensure greater coherence of the intervention and greater ownership of the initiative In addition, it was noted a need for funding of over 24 million for the full and immediate processing of study under slum, which corresponds to about 43 USD / sqm of land: such an increase in land values would result immediately gentrification. Consequently, it was adopted to reduce service levels in slum improvement operations at a reasonable threshold of about 10 USD / m² to keep the inhabitants in place after surgery. From the outset, we must organize the people in residents' committee. In Yaounde (72ha), the project took a year to run, because without having started the implementation of the said committee, consultations with communities proved laborious, until a resident Committee was on foot. In the cities of Kribi (62ha) and Bamenda (104ha) where the project has been replicated, studies have respectively 06 and 04 months. The resident committee created at the project launch has promoted and accelerated consultations among stakeholders. The main challenge for the Community Fund component has been writing monthly reports and the provision of supporting documents by project carriers associations, in accordance with predefined procedures which caused a delay in their development. This is a consequence of a lack of experience in the implementation of projects by project carriers associations. These organizations find the process too rigid and too demanding and do not always perceive the particular merits of all this in terms of the financial report (compliance of parts supporting the elements of the financial report, etc.). Other difficulties were: the lack of managerial skills which faces most projects of carrier associations; misunderstanding of the procedures and the lack of communication. In terms of the consideration in the development of policies and strategies, the approach is being integrated into the national urban policy being developed.

Resources devoted to delivery

No. Title Source Author Publication Title Volume Number Date Page Number 1 Urban Impact UN-Habitat UN-Habitat Communities Manage Project Funds in Partipatory Slum Upgrading Programm in Cameroun Issue 6 Decembre 2016

Conclusion

The law governing town planning in Cameroon gives guidelines for land development in general and urban restructuring in particular. This initiative is similar to urban restructuring and was subject to the relevant provisions of that law. These provisions require that all occupants are included in a restructuring operation, they have legal deeds to the land or not. It also prescribes the organization of landowners Groupement Foncier Urbain association, but this provision had never yet been the subject of experimentation. The initiative was an opportunity to experience this provision of the law. If participation is recommended by law, no provision on the organization of such participation of the different stakeholders are proposed. The initiative has helped to codify the participatory process. The capitalization of this initiative will be taken into account when the announced revision of the law.