Data collection has been identified as a vital and necessary tool in combating the high prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS and Gender Based Violence, GBV in Cameroon.

This is contained in the resolutions taken during a two-day capacity building workshop that held recently in Mbalmayo in the Center Region.

Held under the theme, “The use of Global indicators on HIV and Strengthening the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and Data Collection around HIV and GBV." Resource persons from the Government, private and the civil society hold that a careful collection, monitoring and evaluation will greatly stamp out the HIV and GBV from the society.

According to the General Representative of the African Development Inter-change Network (ADIN), Martin Tsounkeu; “The way you collect data determines the way you take your decisions. Data collection is the very first step on which you start shaping your decision, so, the way you collect data on HIV and GBV and process them helps understand how to tackle them,” he stated.

Spiced by heated roundtable discussions and presentations, stakeholders identified that, to effectively strengthen the monitoring and evaluation of data collected, language barrier, poor transportation and stigmatisation from victims and seropositive patients, amongst others, need to be handled with care.

The workshop, organised by the Cameroon Youths and Students’ Forum for Peace, CAMYOSFOP in collaboration with UN Women country office, brought in participants from the Ministry of the Family and Women Empowerment, National Institutes of Statistics, the National AIDS control Committee and the civil society.

Given that the epidemic reached a feminised sex ratio of 6.8 percent for women to 4.1 for men in 2014, experts called for a centralised data unit to be harmonised as well as the creation of a baseline study to determine if key decisions are improving.

To Eugene Ngalim, the Executive Director of CAMYOSFOP, the workshop is part of the collaboration with UN Women aimed at eradicating gender-based violence and HIV. “The workshop is aimed at reinforcing the capacities of Government institutions that work on these issues.”

The Post learnt that the Centre Region records a high prevalence rate of HIV and GBV with the Far North Region experiencing a downward trend.

Participants unanimously agreed to work together in ensuring an HIV and GBV-free Cameroon as well as in Africa and the world as a whole.

CAMYOSFOP is an NGO founded on non-partisan and non-profit making and aimed at promoting moral and traditional values in youths in Cameroon and elsewhere. Its ideology is the fear of the Lord, friendship, harmony and amicable resolution of conflicts in flora.