Abstract

The study was aimed at evaluating how Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) works towards the welfare of communities through its developmental projects. NGOs contribute and plays a role in the development of the community by improving on the welfare of communities with some of the project which they carry out and which has greatly improved on the welfare of the community.

This study examines the extent to which NGOs satisfy the community with the services and the projects which they carry out to improve the people’s welfare. The reaction of people toward the services offered by NGOs to the community is of interest to administrators because it the opinion of the people that makes NGOs to see if they have achieved their aim or have satisfied the population with their services. After the overall view of the study it was seen that and the finding shows that UAC has greatly lead to the development of the molyko periphery.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The concept of development can be traced after 1945, when Harry Truman made a global call to improve the lot of more than half of the world’s population living in destitute and poverty in ‘primitive societies’.

To salvage the poor and improve their living conditions, Truman proposed what he called ‘democratic fair dealing’. By this Truman meant a society where nations would respect the rights of men1; where all men have a right to freedom of thought and expression and opportunity to share and participate in the common good.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Before the 1980s the society was highly characterized by a high level of centralization. During this period, the state of the government was in charge of everything in the society making individuals and other organizational bodies be left with no ability to make decisions regarding their own society.

Cameroon is a lower-middle income country with a population of close to 24million people and located along the Atlantic Ocean is highly endowed with natural resources such as coffee, cocoa, maize and cassava. Due to the highly centralized system of Cameroon at this time, all these resources were left to be controlled by the government.

However, Cameroon which suffers from a weak government hinders the country’s development and investing rates. The lack of development and investment is mainly due to mismanagement of the country’s resources. The absence of development involves the absence of good roads, hospitals, schools, good market, good pipe born water etc.

Looking at the situation of Cameroon, Buea which is a town found in Cameroon is also characterized by low level of development. The absence of amenities mentioned above has led to low standards of loving of the people if Buea. The poverty reduction rate of the city rate of the Buea is lagging behind its population growth rate making conditions of living to be very poor.    During the 1980s and the 1990s, decentralization started in Latin America which later spread to the whole world not excluding Africa and precisely Cameroon. It was argued that decentralization will bring the citizens closer to the government enabling them to know what the authority are doing and hold them accountable for their actions.

By the 1980s, both international donors and the government seek for other institutions to carry out development. These institutions were to involve local people in planning, decision making and also in carrying out development projects. Due to the pressure from the World Bank, Cameroon undertook some political, administrative and economic reforms. These reforms were aimed at spreading power to other institutions which will carry out development.

The decentralization process of Cameroon entails that organizations like Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) shall uphold the responsibility for socio-economic development of the society. In order to accomplish this mission NGOs found in Cameroon are expected to collaborate with the government and other individuals for them to get a better development plan.

The existence of an NGO cannot be regarded as isolation from the political and other institutions. Some NGOs will also seek to shape and influence the environment in which it’s operating on. The creation and the existence of NGO entail the provision of infrastructural facilities to the people of Cameroon. In this research, I will be focusing on a town Buea found in Cameroon. The total number of NGOs found in Buea amounts to about 11 or more. Their main aim is the provision of social amenities to the population of Buea. NGOs are non-governmental, non-profit making and self-governing set out to ameliorate the plight of the people in dare need of life sustaining facilities in the society

A number of these NGOs are in various aspects of community development such as community mobilization, environment, health and sanitation awareness, promotion of child’s law and fight against child labor and human trafficking. Some of these NGOs are self-financed while others rely on donors. In general, NGOs are positive approach to community development. The existence of these NGOs in Buea will lead to high and good living standards of the population of Buea. This research examines some of the strategies for community development in Cameroon with a precision on the role of NGOs in Buea.

1.2 Problem statement

Looking at the contemporal trend of sharing the role of the state, the governments of most developing countries have divided power into many institutions with the aim of enhancing development. The division of power is most cases are however not efficient. In most cases they are lagging in their ability to foster development. The inefficiency maybe due to the fact that local people are not the owners of resources and are not involved in the planning and the carrying out of development projects.

Adding them to the development process will result to a positive effect on development. This study attempts to investigate the role United Action for Children an NGOs, as a public and private institution can play in the process of providing better standards of living of the people of Buea and Molyko in particular.

Through community development, NGOs are involved in the construction of roads to ease the movement of individuals and goods, creation of bridges to link one area to another, environmental protection, creation of health centers, provision of schools and taking care of the less privileged

1.3 Research questions:

General research questions: the general or the main research question is; what is the socio-economic influence of UAC as an NGOs in Molyko.

 Specific research question

1. What are the activities carried out by United Action for Children (UAC) in promoting community development?
2. What are the challenges faced by the community in benefiting from UAC?
3. What are the solutions to the problems faced by the community from benefiting from UAC?

Read: Sociology and Anthropology Project Topics with Materials