Bamenda Hosts Key Workshop to Reshape Humanitarian Coordination in Northwest and Southwest Regions

By Wirngo Peter Tardzenyuy

Senior United Nations officials, regional authorities, humanitarian partners, and civil society actors have gathered in Bamenda for a crucial two-day workshop aimed at redefining how humanitarian assistance is coordinated and delivered in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions.

The Area-Based Coordination (ABC) Transition Workshop, taking place from June 17–18, 2026, marks a significant step in ongoing efforts to localize humanitarian response mechanisms. The initiative is part of a broader transition process launched in 2025, which seeks to gradually phase out the internationally led humanitarian cluster system and replace it with a nationally driven coordination framework by 2027.

The opening ceremony brought together representatives from UN agencies, international and national NGOs, humanitarian coordination structures, technical sector leads, and government officials from the Northwest, Southwest, and Yaoundé.

The workshop was officially opened by Saidou Ali, Secretary General at the Northwest Governor’s Office, who represented the Governor of the Northwest Region, Adolphe Lele L’Afrique.

Speaking on behalf of the regional administration, Saidou Ali paid tribute to humanitarian workers who continue to provide life-saving support in health, education, nutrition, protection, and other critical sectors despite challenging conditions on the ground.

He described the transition as a necessary step toward building stronger local ownership of humanitarian action and ensuring that response systems become more sustainable over the long term.

“This transition does not signal the end of humanitarian solidarity,” he said. “Rather, it offers an opportunity to strengthen resilience and create stronger links between humanitarian assistance, recovery, and long-term stability.”

A major focus of the workshop is the shift from sector-based coordination where health, nutrition, shelter, food security, and other sectors operate through separate clusters to an integrated Area-Based Coordination model.

Under the new approach, humanitarian actors will coordinate their interventions based on specific geographic areas rather than working through isolated sectoral structures. Organizers say the model is intended to improve efficiency, encourage collaboration, and provide more comprehensive responses to the needs of affected communities.

The transition comes at a time when humanitarian funding is declining globally, leading many international organizations to reduce their operational footprint in Cameroon. Participants acknowledged that adapting coordination mechanisms to this new reality is essential to maintaining effective support for vulnerable populations.

Throughout the workshop, stakeholders are reviewing lessons learned since the transition process began in July 2025 and identifying practical measures to strengthen collaboration between humanitarian actors and local, divisional, and regional authorities.

By the end of the meeting, participants are expected to adopt a six-month operational roadmap that will guide the final phase of the transition through the end of 2026. The roadmap will also outline key actions required before the full deactivation of the traditional cluster system and the establishment of nationally anchored coordination structures in 2027.

The workshop concludes on June 18 with technical working sessions focused on capacity building, defining localized coordination zones, and reinforcing national leadership mechanisms to ensure that affected communities remain at the center of humanitarian action.

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