Women In COBALAM Project : 1,200 Women Receive Indirect Assistance

What is the Women in COBALAM project about?
Women in Community-led Landscape Management, COBALAM, is a project jointly funded by the European Union and the Global Environment Facility, GEF of the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP. It seeks to assure biodiversity conservation on the Bamboutos Mountain Range that covers parts of the West, South West and North West Regions. The project is funded at the cost of 660,512 Euros (about 433,267,470 FCFA) or 74 per cent by the European Union. While the other 26 per cent of the funding or 232,072 Euros (about 152,229,250 FCFA) is from COBALAM. 

What informed the coming into place of the project?
We realized that women carry out most of the activities on the Bamboutos mountain range. One of our implementing partners, SAPED, identified women’s groups carrying out activities on the mountain. In order for the Bamboutos mountain range to be sustainably managed, the contributions of women must be taken into account because they carry out more activities there. 
Women in COBALAM is a gender-sensitive project which does not only take into account women, but also the minority Mbororos and young people who live on the mountain. Young people are important because they will take over when the old become tired. Women in COBALAM came in to support the gender aspect of COBALAM. It comprises two aspects. 
The first is the putting in place of governance structures to manage the Bamboutos mountain range at the council and overall landscape levels. The project handles the gender aspect of COBALAM governance structures where 30 per cent of women are represented in decision-making or executive positions.  
The second component is strengthening the socio-economic empowerment of women living on the landscape by supporting little enterprises run in majority by women or where women are in at least 50 per cent of leadership positions. Assistance to the groups varies from one community to another, depending on the activity carried out. 

The project ends in June 2023. What do you have to show for all these three years? 
Women in COBALAM has made great results. Like the participation of women in decision-making in council and landscape management committees. Six council areas are involved in the project – Mbouda, Nkong-Zem, Fongo-Tongo, Babadjou in the West Region and Santa in the North West Region. Members of very little income-generating outfits managed by women were trained in various domains. Such as agribusiness, food processing, gender mainstreaming for civil society organizations working in the landscape… While minority Mbororo women received training in Irish potato cultivation on a sustainable basis.

What are some of the challenges the project faced?
The challenges we fa...