The Director of West and Central Africa Division of the International Fund for Agricultural Development begins a five-day working visit to Cameroon today, January 21, 2016.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, a specialised agency of the United Nations, begins evaluating rural development programmes and projects in Cameroon under its portfolio. The Director of West and Central Africa Division of the structure that invests in rural people, Idess Dewilbaos arrived in Yaounde yesterday January 20, 2016, for a five-day working visit that ends on January 26, 2016.

The working visit begins today January 21, 2016, at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with the august guest paying a courtesy call on Minister Henri Eyebe Ayissi and the Minister of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industry, Dr Taïga. The delegation will proceed to a fish firm in Yaounde and later to Binguela Agricultural School where they are expected to appraise an incubation structure of the PEA Jeune programme.

The team will on Friday visit another incubator in Balamba and Nebolen and will as well inaugurate rice warehouses in the Centre and West Regions. The delegation will leave Bafoussam to Bamenda in the North West on Saturday where it is expected to visit Tingoh ad Obang to inaugurate another rice warehouse before handing over kits to cooperatives.

The official launching of activities of the programme for the Promotion of Agropastoral Entrepreneurship in Youth, PEA Jeunes remains the highpoint of the visit. The programme is placed under the tetullage of the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development and that of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industry.

IFAD has since 1981 financed over 10 rural development programmes and projects in Cameroon with the latest being the Rural Microfinance Development Support Project, PADMIR, the Commodity Value Chain Development Support Project, PADFA and PEA Jeune. IFAD’s intervention strategy in Cameroon supports the achievement of the objectives of the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper. It focuses on building the skills and bargaining power of poor rural people and their organisations. IFAD also seeks to improve prospects for income-generating on-farm and off-farm activities of poor rural people, particularly women and young people.