Action on AIDS has also been incorporated in the National Strategy on the reduction of poverty. Of the population, 50.6% live below the poverty line and the epidemic only worsens the situation. The impact of the illness is severely felt in all sectors. Children and adolescents who have lost one or both of their parents, as well as women and girls are particularly vulnerable.

Cameroon has mobilized numerous resources to fight the epidemic, in particular through the Global Fund and the World Bank.

Since its establishment in 2006, AMICAALL Cameroon now boasts 230 member municipalities and has clearly enhanced awareness, leadership and ownership in the local HIV/AIDS response through its development programmes.

Municipal HIV Teams (MHTs) have been established in 70 municipalities and through these, 700 community leaders, including 375 women, have been trained. These leaders have reached 26,000 people with awareness raising in the past two years. A total of 14,500 underwent voluntary testing and counseling, of which 7.34% tested positive, as a result of this programme. Municipal profiles and service directories have been prepared in these 70 local authorities.

Other initiatives include preparation and dissemination of toolkits and guidelines on HIV/AIDS information, strategic local responses, gender and economic opportunities. Together with partner organizations, Cameroonian local authorities have provided support to 12,000 orphans and vulnerable children and are working with 130 People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) groups on stigma, leadership and income generation.

In November 2005, an AMICAALL Planning Workshop was held to develop a framework for action. This two-day workshop was a prelude to the official launching of the Cameroon chapter of the Alliance and an AMICAALL Programme in November 2005. The agreed upon framework of action called for expanding multisectoral responses to the epidemic within municipalities and communities to enable a coordinated effort to enhance local government capacity to respond and scale-up decentralised services and programmes. AMICAALL activities that had been already initiated before the launch include: preparation of municipal profiles and HIV service directories in five municipalities. 

With the support of AMICAALL Cameroon and the Mayor, the first Municipal HIV Team (MHT) was established in the Bamendjou municipality during 2006. The MHT was launched at a two-day workshop that included the municipality’s political, traditional and religious leaders, community groups, as well as a representative from UNDP/Cameroon.

A team from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) spent two months in Cameroon during 2006 working with local government authorities, as part of an ongoing public-private partnership with PwC and UN APP. PwC provided technical assistance to enhance local government management capacity to scale up responses to HIV at the local level.