Attachments
In 2022, the Shelter Cluster continued to respond to the dynamics of the crisis between non-state armed groups and the Cameroonian Defense Forces that has heavily impacted the Northwest and Southwest regions while also causing displacement to the West and Littoral Regions. Approximately 530,000 people are internally displaced in the four regions of the Northwest, Southwest, West, and Littoral. Since the beginning of the crisis 420,000 returnees have returned to their homes in the Northwest and Southwest regions mostly for adverse reasons despite the fear of insecurity. In villages impacted by intentionally burnt houses, the Shelter Cluster has Inter- estimated with OCHA that approximately 112,000 vulnerable people are living in damaged shelters that either were intentionally burnt or accidentally damaged during the course of conflict in the Northwest and Southwest Regions.
Cameroon continues to be the third most neglected humanitarian crisis in the world. In its fourth year since its activation in October 2018 in the Northwest and Southwest regions, Shelter Cluster partners continued to struggle in getting access to adequate funding. In 2022, the Shelter Cluster focused on moving away from a pure distribution of emergency materials mindset to focus on leveraging improved shelter and household conditions for the population that was assisting. While emergency distributions remains the bulk of its response, the Shelter Cluster also spelled out alternative ways of assistance to improve the quality of its response. This required the Shelter Cluster to have several workshops which focused on putting in place tools to support improved technical assistance while implementing the response. Shelter Cluster partners innovated activities in voucher and cash programming and improved the way they implemented programming to make it more accountable to the specific shelter needs of the affected population. What follows is a review of what was accomplished in 2022 and partners review of these activities, and recommendations for the Cluster to continue to improve its work in 2023.
The Shelter Cluster conducted its Cluster Coordination Performance Monitoring by using two methodologies. An online survey was launched by the Shelter Cluster on the 29th of December, giving partners one month until the end of January 2023 to provide their feedback. The survey was designed to be context specific reflecting on the specific activities and tools from the Shelter Cluster’s work in 2022. The survey provided an opportunity to compile a quantitative score on the cluster’s performance in line with global guidance.
Given that only 18 individuals out of a mailing list of 150 individuals participated, it was necessary to also get feedback qualitatively. The Shelter Cluster Co-Chair therefore conducted individual feedback sessions with agencies throughout the months of January and February, and a discussion was held with partners to discuss jointly the feedback during the cluster meeting on the 3rd of February.