The Minister of Women Empowerment and the Family, Marie-Therese Abena Ondoa, says the ultimate aim of the Gender, Climate Change and Agriculture Support Programme, GCCASP, is to reduce the adverse effects of climate change on women and youth.

She made the statement while opening a GCCASP meeting and launch of the Cameroon National Platform workshop in Yaounde recently.

Abena Ondoa, who is also the head of the executing agency of the GCCASP project in Cameroon, said the programme, which focuses on women, small-scale farmers, youth and other vulnerable groups, seeks to strengthen women farmers since they constitute the majority of small holder farmers in Africa and are responsible for up to 80 percent of food production.

The Minister remarked that, in spite of some notable economic achievements and progress made in empowering women in Cameroon, like many African countries, the agricultural sector remains highly sensitive.

She said Cameroon has struggled considerably over the years with vulnerability to climate changes as women and youth are still vulnerable and are most likely to be disproportionately impacted by the adverse effects of climate change.

Citing some climate change effects in Cameroon such as desertification in the northern Regions which reduce crop yield and affect subsistence farmers, particularly women, Abena said climate change is still a major challenge in Africa.

To her, it was this observation that caused the Government of Cameroon to support the GCCASP project and others like the ‘Operation one woman, one tree.’

The Minister said, if properly executed, the GCCASP project will greatly reduce gender inequalities and climate change effects on women in Cameroon.

The project, she said, is a relief to women and small holder farmers since it is expected to strengthen and align the institutional and policy environment that will address climate-related challenges impacting them, improve their access to land, inputs, credit and technologies, and enhance women’s participation in local, national economic, social and decision-making processes.

Explaining the reason for the workshop, the Director of Economic Empowerment in the Ministry of Women Empowerment and the Family, Dr. Margaret Niger Thomas, said the meeting was a pre-implementation workshop aimed at resource mobilisation and the putting in place of the Cameroon partnership platform.

“GCCASP organised two workshops in 2012 and 2014. The first in 2012 was aimed at understanding the problems of women, small-holder farmers, while the second in 2014 sought to identify priority areas that needed to be put in place.

These past workshops and consultative meetings have enabled GCCASP stakeholders to identify low access to extension services, information and communication tools as some of the indicators which limit women’s access to markets. This workshop shows that we are at the pre-implementation phase where resource mobilisation and partnership is needed,” she said.

The Director said even though the Norwegian Agency, NORAD, has taken the lead to fund the project in Cameroon, Rwanda, Niger, Malawi and Ethiopia, the magnitude of the project needs the support of all sectoral units and NGOs working on women empowerment and climate change initiatives.

“GCCASP has so far, been developed with funds and technical support from NORAD. However, it is compulsory for Cameroonians to raise funds for the programme’s implementation because; the responsibility of fundraising activities also rests on all the participating countries.”

She urged Cameroon development partners to support the programme in order to ensure the effective implementation of the project in the country so as to help women and youths to better cope with the impacts of climate variability.