Broederlijk Delen moves out of Cameroon

Broederlijk Delen has been working in Cameroon for over 47 years and established its permanent presence in Yaoundé in 1999 only. During these five decades thousands of farmers and poor have been helped in securing and improving their livelihoods. Together with dozens of local organisations we contributed to the socio-economic and environmental improvement of many people and farmer groups. Now BD has decided it is time to leave Cameroon. This information came as a shock to the remaining 16 organisations BD is working with.

Broederlijk Delen is presently working in 20 countries in Asia, Africa and America. For political and strategic reasons a reduction in the country base is necessary. This resulted in the decision to withdraw from some countries and Cameroon is one of them. The decision to stop our activities in Cameroon is based on a number of reasons such as the improved socio-economic situation here in Cameroon but also the desire of BD for more regional concerted action. Whilst this decision is a hard pill to swollow for our partners and development workers here, it is a decision that will be implemented over the next 2-3 years only. This leaves enough time for partners to get themselves prepared for this step. Nevertheless the shock sits deep.

During the coming weeks a detailed exit strategy for all of our partners here will be prepared. It is our aim to support them in the best possible way in their challenge to find other financial sources and partners.

For us this development has also direct impacts as it means we will have to find other work after February 2011. Before that there is however still a lot of work to be done. In terms of actual work however the dynamics are different: the approach to develop and build up a partner base in a country is quite different from scaling down and finally switching off the lights. I expect also that some partners might change their approach towards BD as they have nothing to loose any more. We will see how this maps out.
For our family this step is sad as we have so well integrated here in Yaoundé and thought we would stay here for up to six years. Now the situation is different and we have to adapt our plans. So it remains interesting and challenging! We will see how things develop and will keep you updated!