A joint government-United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) sponsored programme to alleviate poverty at the grassroots level in Cameroon has come under evaluation at the programme’s fourth steering committee meeting in Yaounde.

Besides evaluating the path the programme has covered, stakeholders also sought ways of optimally using the FCFA one billion allocated to phase two of the programme. This was during the programme’s extra-ordinary session in Yaounde on Wednesday July 16.

Chairing the session, the Secretary General in the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Gilbert Didier Edoa, said the programme assists short and long-term projects drafted by cooperatives or federations.

The July 16 session also reviewed the budget for 2014 so as to lay more emphasis on investments to change lives. It was also to ensure that the financing made available for the programme is inclusive to take into account the largest target areas and sectors as possible.

The programme, the Secretary-General said, has been put in place to alleviate poverty by creating jobs and generating wealth. “This is because poverty is lack of jobs, resources and activities,” he said.

Mr Edoa underlined that the programme is executed in three areas notably the promotion and creation of jobs at council levels, reinforcing potentially growth-induced sectors and facilitating access to funding by local promoters of initiatives.

Beneficiaries like, Mama Abakar, Mayor of Lagdo, Far North, Mbabid Pauline, president of Kokum Women Farming Group in the North West and Ndouochembou Maruo, delegate of GIC Apadymc in the West Regions said the programme has changed a lot in their localities.