Housing in Northwest Southwest Cameroon

The crisis in the Northwest and Southwest of Cameroon is entering its 7th year. What originally began as a strike by teachers and lawyers has escalated into a full blown civil war between splintered factions of Non-State Armed Groups and Cameroonian Defense Forces. 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 mostly for adverse reasons despite the fear of insecurity. Upon their return, less than half have found that their homes were either damaged or destroyed while they were in displacement. In villages impacted by intentionally burnt Shelter, the Shelter Cluster has estimated with OCHA that approximately 112,000 vulnerable people are living in damaged shelters that either were intentially burnt or accidentally damaged during the course of conflict in the Northwest and Southwest Regions. In addition to the needs created by the intentional damage and burning of homes, the majority of IDPs are either hosted or renting. Overcrowding contributes to poor sleeping conditions, illness, dysfunctional latrines, stress, and the risks of gender-based violence. In the bush, IDPs are living in makeshift shelters including inadequate agricultural infrastructure.

According to an assessment conducted by Dedi-Cahipda in the West region of 24% of IDPs who indicated that they want to return to their area of origin, 72% cited that one of their main motivations was because their shelter conditions were better in the area of displacement. Only 18% of these IDPs intended to stay in in the West, while 48% were undecided. The security situation in these communities was a primary motivator for not having returned (41% of those who wanted to return and 94% of those who wanted to stay in the place of displacement). Those IDPs able to move to the West Region have a higher median income (21,000 XAF) than those who are in the Northwest and Southwest Regions (15,000 XAF for IDPs, Non-Displaced, and Returnees).

The Northwest and Southwest regions are locations where regular security incidents such as armed conflict, abduction, destruction of property, and other criminality exacerbate the shelter and protection needs. The map below shows the major security incidents that ACLED recorded in 2022:

In January 2022, Plan International with funding from UNHCR carried out the first household assessment that covered the differentiated needs for internally displaced, returnee, and non-displaced communities in the Northwest and Southwest. The results of this assessment are covered in an interactive dashboard published by the Shelter Cluster:

Throughout various assessments including the August 2022 OCHA Multisector Needs Assessment, the  Shelter Cluster has mapped out the various shelter types . The maps below illustrate the number of villages where these shelter types are most commonly used by internally displaced, returnees, host communities, and those left behind in damaged shelters:

Now that we have a roof over our heads, we can move forward to think about our basic needs more easily. _IDP in the Southwest Region who moved into semi-permanent shelter.

When those impacted by crisis are asked about their priority needs, Shelter and NFI are usually mentioned after water, food, health, and education. This is also because of the way that the affected population has found and searched for housing. The OCHA Multisector Needs Assessment estimates that 57% of people are hosted and 27% of people are renting their accommodation. Analysis by the Shelter Cluster has found that 34% of those renting and 18% of those hosting have extreme inadequacies in their shelter: diplapidating infrastructure, non-functioning sanitation services, lack of bedding and mosquito nets, and facing the risk of eviction. 15% of those renting and 19% of those hosted have severe inadequacies in their shelters. Shelter Cluster estimates further establish that 16% of households don't have any type of agreement to stay in their accommodation. UNHCR and Caritas conducted an assessment in October that revealed that 46% of rental arrangements are informal in Bamenda Town. The same assessment which also covered urban areas of Buea, Limbe, and West Coast showed that 70% of IDPs have less than 3.5m2 per person available in their accommodation. Often times just having a roof isn't enough to guarantee good shelter conditions. The Protection Cluster and the Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility have established that overcrowding is a key risk of gender-based violence. The Housing, Land, and Property Area of Responsibility has also established that poor shelter and WASH conditions in the home are a key driver of eviction risks.

This was further supported when asking beneficiaries about their satisfaction levels with their shelter in a Post Distribution Monitoring of beneficiaries who had received multipurpose cash grants for protection from UNHCR:

Living Space: Various reasons were given for saying they were satisfied: having no choice, the shelter was all they could afford, the comfort of having a roof over one's head, and that the house was in good condition with sufficient space.Those who were not satisfied or indifferent stated that the house was too small for the number of people living in it, in poor condition (leaking, lack of functioning WASH infrastructure, dilapidated), and old.  

Privacy: Dissatisfaction with privacy had to do with the fact that children didn't have their own private sleeping space, overcrowded conditions, and poor wall and roof conditions;  while satisfaction had to do with having enough dedicated rooms for each of the family members to sleep.

Ventilation: Those who were dissatisfied stated that windows and doors were in poor condition, damaged, or didn't open and the number of people staying in a small space, while those who were satisfied had enough windows and doors to enable proper ventilation.

Overall Shelter: When asked on their overall satisfaction with the shelter those who were dissatisfied cited that there were too many people living in such a small accommodation testifying to the high rate of overcrowding in many shelters. Lack of having better alternatives and the financial means to move to a better accommodation contributed to a sense of indifference among those who responded. Poor functioning sanitation and also the security environment contributed to dissatisfaction and a sense of indifference to where they stayed as long as there was some kind of roof on their heads. Those who were very dissatisfied cited the lack of space and also infestation of the accommoation. Those who were satisfied or very satisfied cited that it was the house they could afford, having enough space, liking the people who they were sharing the accommodation with, ownership of the accommodation and not having to pay rents and also having enough space.

Beyond the urban and semi-urban areas, IDPs are often forced to flee to the bush to seek shelter in makeshift types of shelter. Throughout the Northwest and Southwest Regions, the OCHA Multisector Needs Assessment has identified 68 bush settlements.

2022 was a transitional year for the Shelter Cluster in the Northwest and Southwest. Since the Shelter Cluster activation in 2018, the response has primarily focused on emergency shelter assistance and distributions. In 2022, the Shelter Cluster strategy was updated to also advocate for interventions that would go beyond immediate distribution of non-food items and emergency shelter kits. The Shelter Cluster continues to envision emergency shelter kits for situations where a population may be recently displaced to the bush or as partitions in collective centres or in hosting situations to increase privacy or when a shelter is newly damaged. Beyond the emergency for IDPs in protracted situations, returnees who find their house damaged or destroyed or for vulnerable populations who are left behind in damaged shelters, the Shelter Cluster is advocating to provide more sustainable materials and tools that will help IDPs, returnees, and non-displaced meet their shelter needs. In assessments conducted by Shelter Cluster partners, potential beneficiaries requested CGI roofing sheets more often than any other item to support their shelter solutions. In terms of modality of assistance especially when it comes to Shelter Repairs, beneficiaries have requested a combination of cash and in-kind assistance, while non-food items assistance they would typically prefer cash support.

The achievements thus far in 2022 for the Shelter Cluster are the following:

• 9502 households reached with  non-food items assistance 
• 5517 houseohlds reached with  emergency shelter kits 
• 446 households assisted with shelter support going beyond emergency shelter
• 140 households assisted with  rental assistance 
• 52 households assisted with  repaired house or apartment 
• 17 households supported with purchasing fuel for cooking
• 11 households supported with paying utilities

For more details on the Shelter Cluster response in 2022, see below the Shelter Cluster's dashboard:

Despite these achievements there is a huge gap between the number of people reached and the number of people that were found to be in need of shelter assistance:

For 2023, the Shelter Cluster is requesting for over $15 million USD in order to target 294,460 individuals in the Northwest, Southwest, West, and Littoral Regions. The targets include 137,380 IDPs, 71,540 returnees, and 85,540 non-displaced and host families.

The map on the right shows the number of people targeted per division. The targeted activities and households are the following:

• # of households assisted with core and essential Non-Food Items: 47,860
• of households reached with with core and essential Non-Food Items that meet environmental criteria: 7,960
• # of households assisted with distributed/installed emergency shelter materials/kits: 45,90
• # of households assisted with distributed/installed emergency shelter materials/kits that meet environmental criteria: 19,600
• # of households assisted with rental assistance: 1,112
• # of households assisted with shelter: 18,500
• # of households assisted with shelter that meet environmental criteria: 1000
• # of households assisted by constructed/repaired/rehabilitated community/public infrastructure and facilities: 250
• # of people (IDPs, returnees, non-displaced) trained in better building practices: 100

Shelter assistance is critical to mitigating the protection risks created by the crisis and providing a sense of safety to those impacted by the crisis in Cameroon's Northwest and Southwest Regions. Shelter is also a critical jumping off point to livelihoods, reduced stress, and recovery. NFIs and bedding materials have also improved the living conditions of those who partners have reached this year. For more information on the Shelter Cluster activities, response, and lessons learned, visit:  https://sheltercluster.org/hub/north-west-south-west