CAMEROON LOW INCOME HOUSING

Since legislative and financial structures already exist in Gabon, the project will focus on reorganizing GOG"s National Housing Office to provide needed staff, financial autonomy, and low-income programs. In Cameroon, the project will set up a semi-autonomous specialized sites and services unit within the Department of Housing and Town Planning of the Ministry of Equipment, Housing, and Lands. It will be sufficiently staffed to develop programs in Yaounde and Douala and have the potential to expand operations to other urban centers. In Cameroon, the project will yield about 4,000 lots to provide maximum shelter capacity for 40-48,000 persons. In Gabon, the plan is for 1,000 lots for 8,000 persons providing shelter in urban areas such as Libreville and Port Gentil. In both countries, procedures will be set up for site occupancy, program management, loan recuperation, self-help home construction control, small construction loan facilities, etc. Also in both countries, project will establish autonomous accounting and financial management systems for housing units and offer on-the-job training for sites and services staff. In Cameroon, this will involve a nucleus of four or five trained cadres and 14-28 professionals and para-professionals; a basic staff of five professionals exists in Gabon. For Cameroon only, the project will establish a tax-supported national fund for constructing urban infrastructure. GOG/GOC"s sites and services units and the USAID technical assistance teams will jointly implement the project. Project team will evaluate interministerial and interdepartmental collaboration; the decisionmaking process and constraints on it; and the quantity and quality of training, financing, community organization, and homes built. Beneficiaries will be low-income urban residents.