Women from cooperatives involved in the Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (PD_CVA) receive training in ‘Drawing up business plans and banking literacy’.

As part of the implementation of the Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (PD_CVA), 3 training workshops were held for women from cooperatives supervised by the said Project in “Cooperative Management and Women’s Leadership”.

The work of these workshops took place successively in the localities housing the basins of the three PD_CVA sectors, namely:

• Edéa from July 12 to 14, 2023 at the Hostellerie de la Sanaga for the benefit of 33 women from cooperatives in the oil palm sector;
• Bafia from July 18 to 20 at the Center for the Promotion of Women and Families for 32 women from cooperatives in the pineapple sector;
• Nkongsamba from August 2 to 4 at MBIFANO Hotel in favor of 33 women representatives of cooperatives from three sectors (oil palm, pineapple and plantain).

These 03 workshops followed the one already held in Ebolowa under the same theme in December 2022, aimed at 32 women from Cooperatives in the Plantain Banana sector.
The major objective being to train around 250 women in the field of management of cooperative societies and leadership , with a view to equitable access to the advantages and benefits offered by the PDCVA (the various attendance sheets are attached in the appendix).
All sessions took place under the technical coordination of Mrs. ABE Solange , Gender Expert at PDCVA and Mr. ATEBA Emmanuel , Program Officer at UN-Women. The moderation of the workshops is ensured by Mrs. BANGWENI Hélène Solange PDCVA focal point at MINPROFF.
During these meetings, it was a question of strengthening the capacities of the participants, identified in the Cooperatives of the PDCVA sectors by the various Coordinators, through the Development of a range of Modules relating to:

• the notions of Gender and GBV;
• legal instruments for the promotion of women’s rights;
• the notions of Leader and Female Leadership;
• the justifications, assets and obstacles of female leadership;
• the process of creating a Cooperative Society;
• the management of a Cooperative Society;
• Financial Education (entrepreneurial culture, the importance and stages of developing a business plan and financial management).

The working methodology favored participatory approaches through introductory presentations or interactive exchanges allowing participants to answer certain comprehension questions for each module for themselves. Group work, case studies followed by plenary feedback enabled Leaning by Doing .

The workshops took place over 3 days. The agenda provided for standard articulations

I- OF THE OPENING CEREMONY

This phase was furnished by the welcome address of Mrs. BANGWENI Hélène Solange , MINPROFF/PDCVA Focal Point and moderator of the occasion. Followed by the individual presentation of the participants. Then, Mr. ATEBA Emmanuel , Program Officer at UN-WOMEN, made a brief presentation of the Terms of Reference (TOR) of the activity, emphasizing the objectives, expected results and practical arrangements.

The presentation of the PDCVA was made by Mrs. ABE Solange , Gender Expert of the Project. During her various interventions, she made it known that the PDCVA is a MINADER project, financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB). It benefits from technical assistance from ONUFEMMES for the consideration of Gender in its various components, in particular the production, processing and marketing of products from the banana-plantain, pineapple and oil palm sectors. In his remarks, the EG also announced the creation of three processing plants in Ngwei, Sikoum and Njombé which should boost oil palm production, for transformation into quality palm oil and valuable derivatives in Cameroon.
Furthermore, the desired goal of these workshops was to encourage women to occupy positions of responsibility within cooperatives and to become leaders, so that 50% of the cooperatives supported by the PDCVA are managed by women.

II- THE PROGRESS OF THE WORKSHOPS PROPERLY SPECIFIED

A/-From the first days:

The first days were focused on the presentation of four modules:
II.1- Module 1: Gender and Gender-Based Violence (GBV)
presented by Mr. MVOGO MFOMO Jean , Gender Expert serving at MINPROFF. At the start of his presentation, he proceeded to define key terms including:

• Gender defined as a socially constructed character of feminine and masculine identities and the social relationships that result from them. It is intended to highlight the disparities, gaps and inequalities between men and women. It is a development priority in which it is important to safeguard the specific interests of men and women.
• GBV . is defined as violence directed against a person because of their sex and leads to harmful consequences

To better combat economic violence, we must know and understand it. The speaker addressed the typology of GBV, emphasizing economic violence which makes women more vulnerable. They manifest themselves, among other things, in the deprivation of income, work or employment, and unequal salaries. The perpetrators of this violence are mainly men (spouses, employers, community leaders, parents). The victims are mainly women, wives and young girls. As for the places where this violence is practiced, it is much more a question of the family, professional, religious, prison and cooperative environment.

Regarding the causes of this violence, we note among others: the level of education, poverty, sociocultural norms, the difference in perception of love and married life, misinformation and ignorance.

The consequences of economic violence are numerous and harmful

1. on the individual (depression, withdrawal, aggression, emotional instability, sleep problems, suicide attempt);
2. on the family (dysfunction of the family unit, risk of family stigmatization);
3. on society (worsening of the phenomenon of street children, prostitution, begging).

The discussions around this module were an opportunity to talk to participants about methods of denouncing and combating GBV.

II.1- Module 2 relating to discussions on local prevention mechanisms and the mapping of local GBV support structures was briefly presented by Mr. ONDOBO TSALA Yves and by Ms. ONGONO Natacha from MINPROFF.

Thus, the participants were informed on, (i) methods of preventing GBV through awareness campaigns aimed at men, families, community and religious leaders, (ii) sessions to popularize instruments such as such as the National Strategy to Combat GBV, (iii) the Support Guide for Widows, (iv) the new Penal Code and advocacy with decision-makers.

The mechanisms for dealing with GBV and those involved, namely the decentralized services of the MINPROFFF, the security forces (police, gendarmerie), hospital and justice structures, were also highlighted.

II.3- Module 3 entitled Leader and Leadership developed by Mr. ATEBA Emmanuel , provided ample explanations or answers to the following questions:

• What is a leader?
• What is a democratic leader? (Advantages and disadvantages)
• What is a dictator leader? (Advantages and disadvantages)
• What are the functions of a leader? which have been identified namely: plan, organize, direct and control.

The discussions resulting from this module made it possible to clarify the notion of female leadership which is the capacity of a woman to lead, to make decisions, to give her opinion, to be at the head of a company while like man. Also, in a participatory manner we listed the characteristics of a female leader and the obstacles to female leadership at the cooperative level.

II.4- Module 4: Process of creation and management of cooperatives presented by Mr. NGOUYAP Yaya .

He began his presentation with the definition of the following expressions:

• • Cooperative society which is an autonomous group of people voluntarily brought together to satisfy their common economic, social and cultural aspirations and needs. This, through a company whose ownership and management are collective and where power is exercised democratically and according to the cooperative principle.
  • Then, define the agricultural cooperative as being a business created by farmers, which belongs to them collectively and which they govern themselves. An agricultural cooperative collects and processes the products of its farmer-cooperators and contributes to the local economy.

During this presentation we discussed the importance of a cooperative society, its principles and values, the different forms of cooperatives (Simplified Cooperative Society (SCOOPS) and Cooperative Society with Board of Directors (SCOOP/CA) , the stages of creation, all the documents to be provided to design a creation file, the obligations of a cooperative society vis-à-vis the register and the procedure for dissolving a cooperative society.

B/- Second days:

The work of days 2, under the moderation of Mrs. BANGWENI Hélène Solange, was furnished by reading the report of the previous day, reminding us with clarity of all the activities of the said day as well as the various presentations. Then followed the announcement of the agenda for the day itself, before the activities took place.

II.5- Module 5: General discussion on the representation of women in the governing bodies of local cooperatives and outlines of improvement measures
Presented by Mr. ATEBA Emmanuel , with particular emphasis on the different problems that women would encounter within their cooperatives, this phase whose objective was to exchange, understand and learn from each other’s experiences in order to finding solutions was a good time for discussion.
However, some recurring problems have been listed, namely:

• the lack of common action within cooperatives;
• lack of infrastructure;
• insufficient means of transport;
• lack of funding;
• lack of qualified labor;
• the absence or even under-representation of women in the executive bodies of cooperatives;
• the assignment of heavy workloads to women.

After exchanges and discussion, the participants themselves found draft solutions to these different constraints.
II.6 – Module 6: Financial Education
Presented by Ms. MEBOE Jeanne , this module focused on three chapters, namely:

1/- Entrepreneurial culture following the following articulations:

• the concept of a business idea and how to choose the best business idea;
• business typology;
• the qualities of a good entrepreneur;
• the causes of success and failure of an economic activity;

In the end, a connection was made between a good entrepreneur and a good leader through several common points which were highlighted.
2/- Developing a business plan
Ms. MEBOE Jeanne focused on three questions during her presentation:

• • what is a business plan?
  • what is the use of the business plan?
  • what are the characteristics and content of a business plan?

In response to these questions, the trainer focused on the actual content of a business plan, namely: the presentation of the cooperative, the context and justification, the presentation of the project to be carried out, its general objective , its specific objectives, the expected results, the activities to be carried out, the market study, the marketing strategy, the technical study, the economic and financial study, the forecast operating account and a conclusion.
For the best understanding of this module, group work (05) was entrusted to the participants on the development of a business plan for a project idea, the restitution of which was made the next day.
3/- Financial management

C/- Third days:

The work of the third day also began with the reading of the Report of the second day. Then followed the restitution of the group work from the exercise given to the participants the previous day. This phase allowed the participants to better understand the different stages of developing a business plan.

II.7- Module 7: Legal instruments for promoting women’s rights

Mr ONDOBO TSALA Yves and by Ms ONGONO Natacha from MINPROFF.

This presentation always began with the definition of as Law being the set of legal rules and norms governing the relationships between individuals in society and which define their prerogatives and privileges, as well as what is obligatory, authorized or prohibited.

Nowadays, the terminology “ human rights ” is undergoing changes which are gradually giving way to that of “ human rights ”. Thus, women’s rights constitute human rights covering all aspects of women’s lives, particularly in terms of health, education, training, work or employment, empowerment and economic well-being. , political participation, occupation of positions of responsibility and/or decision-making.

The participants were then interviewed on various subjects providing extensive explanations on:

• the typology of human rights (civil rights, economic rights, political rights, social rights and cultural rights);
• all legal instruments for the promotion of women’s rights at the international, regional and national levels. At the international level: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). At the regional level: the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Uniform Act for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA). At the national level: the Constitution, laws and regulations, the Civil Code and the Penal Code.
• The implementation of policies to promote women’s rights in Cameroon . This concerns actions carried out by the government in favor of the recognition of women’s rights in Cameroon. The government is supported in this movement by parapublic institutions, development partners and civil society organizations (CSOs). In concrete terms, the implementation of policies to promote women’s rights is done through, among other things, : the enactment of legislative standards, awareness campaigns and educational talks for the popularization of legal instruments for the promotion of women’s rights, the organization of legal clinics for widows and all socially vulnerable women, training and capacity building sessions for various actors involved in the promotion of women’s rights, production of documents and advocacy.
• Factors limiting respect for women’s rights, namely: persistent socio-cultural norms that devalue women (stereotypes; traditions, rites, widowhood, levirate, sororate, excision), lack of awareness by women of their rights and existing remedies , the non-existence of a specific law on parity, illiteracy, poverty and the low representation of women in decision-making spheres.
• As perspectives for achieving better results in terms of promoting women’s rights , the State must:
• to ensure access to education for all girls;
• to intensify the organization of legal clinics for the benefit of women as well as the fight against harmful socio-cultural practices;
• to eradicate poverty;
• to pass and promulgate a specific law on parity in order to improve the representation of women in decision-making spheres.

III- CLOSING CEREMONIES

The closing ceremonies were punctuated by the formulation of recommendations and the closing remarks delivered by the moderator who expressed at each stage her satisfaction with the participants for the commitment they demonstrated throughout the work .

She urged them to appropriate the knowledge acquired and of course to organize feedback sessions, in order to stimulate change in the “ modus operandi ” within their different groups.

It was with these words of hope that the sessions were declared closed.