:: Cameroon Gatsby Foundation ::

CGF THE WAY FOWARD

THE FUTURE OF THE CAMEROON GATSBY FOUNDATION

LIES IN ENSURING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF ITS PROGRAMMES

Chairman Of the Board of Trustees

The gatsby charitable Foundation began supporting development efforts in cameroon since 1985 with the funding of research on the development of improved varieties of root crops. New varieties were later distributed to local farmers accompanied by training on the techniques of rapid multiplication of planting materials. Cameroon's economy is mainly agriculture based, with women playing a vital role both in food production and transformation. The conribution made by women entrepreneurs in the cameroonian economy and in proverty allieviation prompted the foundation in its second phase to take as mission the promotion of women's micro enterprises through financial and business development services.

In the past 16 years, cameroon gatsby Foundation has reached 54.000 beneficiaries through 1922 groups with a globalloan volume of 7.21 billion FCFA. Funding is accompanied by non financial services such as trainings, organisation of existing self help groups into associations, and the promotion of marketing of clients' products.

The success of the cameroon Gatsby Foundation is the result of eam work of devoted trustees who share similar visions for sustainable development strategies. Over the years they have guides and encouraged management in the execution of their programmes through advice and timely interventions. The Future of CGF lies in ensuring the sustainability of its programmes. This is achieved by:

The empowerment of the Associations as Gatsby women's Groups;

Tthe identification of appropriate programmes for emerging SMEs;

source funding for community development projects identified by associations;

Networking with similar programs through collaboration with other actors in development.

As CGF enters the 17th year of the Women's Group Loan Programme, more emphasis will be laid on source funding in order to ensure sustainability and also to comply with the National micro finance policy. We challenge the beneficiaries to be more assertive in their constant fight against poverty. We assure them of the continuous commitment of the trustees and relentless efforts from the management and staff so that together we will fulfil CGF's mission. On behalf of the entire CGF Family, we wish to express our most sincere appreciation to the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts UK for their generous financial support towards CGF activities during all these years. We further count on their constant and valuable support for the realisation of the strategic plan 2009-2011.

CGF ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE