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BENGO

BENGO

CEFAID - Center pour l’Education,
la Formation et l’Appui aux Initiatives de Développement.

CEFAID

As an NGO based in Yokadouma, Cameroon, CEFAID’s mission is the promotion and protection of human, traditional and procedural rights of the most disadvantaged populations in the Lobéké Protected Area. Its aims are to improve their social and economic living conditions through technical support and encouraging dynamic responsible management of natural resources.CEFAID is pushing for a society in which local and Indigenous communities fully understand their rights and thrive. CEFAID works for the promotion and protection of the human, customary and procedural rights of the most disadvantaged populations, and seeks to improve the social and economic living conditions of them through providing technical support for their self-governance, through a dynamic of responsible management of natural resources.

CEFAID’s objectives are based on providing access to basic social services: citizenship, education, justice and employment to Indigenous Peoples and local communities, as well as access to natural resources: forest resources, wildlife resources, land and mineral resources. Furthermore, CEFAID offers support for Indigenous communities for the development of their organizational, technical, financial and institutional capacities.

In the Congo Basin, CEFAID is aiming to assist Indigenous Peoples in influencing political decision-makers with a view to better considering the rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples in conservation projects. As well as this, CEFAID hopes to strengthen the capacities of Indigenous Peoples and local communities for a better efficiency of the complaints mechanism.

Past initiatives and projects of CEFAID include:

  1. Innovative Strategic Approach for the education of BAKA children (2014-2018).
  2. Mapping of the territories of the Indigenous Peoples of the Forests with a view to advocating for their official recognition.
  3. Cameroon LTC Civil society Rights and Environment.
  4. Support for BAKA communities in the process of managing Community Forests through Payment for Environmental Services (PES).
  5. Development of the methodology for consulting Indigenous Peoples within the framework of the REDD+ process.

CEFAID has been active in south-eastern Cameroon since 2001. CEFAID covers two areas in its interventions: responsible management of natural resources and access to basic social services. The area linked to the management of natural resources covers forest, wildlife, mines and land (property). In the case of basic social services, education, justice, citizenship, health and employment are distinguished. A third axis deals with cross-cutting issues including governance and income-generating activities.

Since 2016, CEFAID has been setting up and running a grievance mechanism for indigenous Baka peoples living in and around TNS and TRIDOM, where human rights violations were reported. For improved accessibility by the target population, CEFAID has set up an office and hosts a human rights center in Mambele (Lobéké National Park) since 2019.