UN Women Cameroon and FEICOM renew their memorandum of understanding to institutionalize the gender dimension in FEICOM programmes

On 26 July 2024, personalities from various backgrounds gathered at the FEICOM Multipurpose Hall to attend the renewal of the memorandum of understanding between ONUF and FEICOM and for thematic exchanges on the second Gender Coffee. 

Mr. Philippe Camille AKOA, Managing Director of FEICOM Ambassador He for She, and Ms. Marie Pierre Raky CHAUPIN, Resident Representative of UN Women Cameroon, were in the company of representatives of the Ministries in charge of decentralization and local development (MINDEVVEL, MINPROFF), local elected representatives, technical and financial partners of FEICOM and civil society.

The aim of this Memorandum of Understanding is for FEICOM and UNWomen to pool resources and expertise, share knowledge and innovative ideas to formulate and implement joint initiatives and projects that strengthen the promotion of gender equality, to maximize the impact on the organization's missions and decentralized local authorities. “This protocol considers national and international assessments marked by new standards for achieving gender equality, the national development strategy for 2030, and the gender policy document. Ultimately, it is a question of contributing to the effective application of these standards and ensuring that the women and girls of our decentralized local authorities benefit from them” said Mr Philippe AKOA in his welcome address.

For Ms. Marie Pierre Raky Chaupin, “this protocol is in line with UN Women's mandate to ‘strengthen the empowerment of women, the prevention and eradication of violence against women and girls, the integration of women in all aspects and processes of peace, and the promotion of gender equality, which are at the heart of planning and budgeting processes at both national and local levels”.  They then signed the official protocol documents.

The second “Gender Coffee” was another important part of the ceremony. Under the theme “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by tackling poverty at the local level”, it provided an opportunity to identify mechanisms for collaboration to take greater account of women and girls in development plans to reduce poverty in communities.