{"id":405,"date":"2021-04-16T09:44:04","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T06:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/?p=405"},"modified":"2023-12-08T18:40:58","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T16:40:58","slug":"experiences-with-lutheran-world-federation-in-cameroon-matthew-kern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/2021\/04\/16\/experiences-with-lutheran-world-federation-in-cameroon-matthew-kern\/","title":{"rendered":"Experiences with Lutheran World Federation in Cameroon – Matthew Kern"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

16.04.2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew Kern is a Masters student in the Humanitarian Logistics track and in this blog entry he shares his experience as a Logistics and Procurement Intern with LWF<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

News that Europe was suffering from a second wave of the COVID\npandemic came in mid-November, yet it could not have been less relevant to the\nlives of those in the rural town of Meiganga, Cameroon, near the border with\nthe Central African Republic (CAR). Between daily electricity cuts,\noccasionally for multiple days at a time; over 40% of the\npopulation getting malaria every year<\/a>; and children routinely\ngoing to the hospital for food or waterborne illnesses, there were plenty of\nmore imminent health concerns. Despite this, the area was blessed by relative\nstability in comparison to the region. Boko Haram attacks<\/a>, that made international\nnews, were 400-500 km to the west and armed rebel groups, kidnapping and\nstirring violence in CAR\u2019s civil war<\/a>, were 300-400 km to the\neast. Both conflicts are completely separate from Cameroon\u2019s own slow-moving civil war<\/a> in between the English and\nthe French-speaking regions, in the southwest part of the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meiganga\u2019s stability was fostered by the presence of a Rapid\nIntervention Battalion (Bataillon d’Intervention Rapide) based 3 km outside of\ntown. The international NGOs took advantage of the situation for their regional\nbases. If a Toyota Landcruiser was seen on the road, it could have been the UN\nRefugee Agency (UNHCR), World Food Programme (WFP), International Red Cross,\nSolidarity International, Plan International, Norwegian Refugee Council, Danish\nRefugee Council, the UN Children\u2019s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) or the Lutheran\nWorld Federation (LWF), who I had the pleasure to work for.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had the opportunity to get connected with LWF through Hanken\u2019s\nHumanitarian Logistics Department and attended a four-month field internship at\nthe Meiganga headquarters in the fall of 2020. LWF is a global group of\nchurches that has a World Service <\/em>branch “dedicated to challenging and addressing the causes and effects of human\nsuffering and poverty, linking local responses to national and international\nadvocacy” (LWF, 2021<\/a>). Their global operations\nfocus on long-term development in three categories: Livelihood, Quality Services, and\nProtection\/Social cohesion<\/a>. The various offices implement these programs\non an as-needed and as-funded basis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 1: LWF Offices in Cameroon<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

LWF has been active in Cameroon since 2015 when large numbers of\nrefugees began crossing borders in the Extreme North, North, Adamawa, and East\nregion. Currently, LWF is a partner of different State and UN actors for\nvarious projects throughout the country including the UNHCR, US government\n(PRM), Government of Germany (BMZ), WFP, and UNICEF. The Meiganga headquarters\nfocuses on peace and livelihood activities. Livelihood programs are mainly\ncentered around agriculture, providing tools, seeds, and animals for\nproduction, while the peace programs run in tandem to open dialogue between\nlocal villagers and refugees who have settled in the community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Logistics and Procurement Intern, my role in aiding this\nsituation was relatively minor.  However, I was fortunate to work on\nnumerous projects benefiting refugees and I experienced the challenges of\nworking in the field firsthand. The highlight of the internship was working on\nan end-of-the-year procurement project funded by the UNHCR. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In mid-November, the UNHCR discovered unused budget funds for\n2020. This led to the commission of LWF with the procurement and distribution\nof hardwood student desks, packets of underwear for young girls, and bars of\nlaundry soap to 8 school districts in a 5-week time. Three years prior, LWF had\ncompleted a similar project that took 3 months. The request of the UNHCR to\ntake the project was not seen as optional as the organization\u2019s budget solely\ndepended on their partner status with the UN. The term \u201cpas facile\u201d or \u201cnot\neasy\u201d was said with extended breath often in those days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The procurement\nprocess involved publishing bid requests in the newspapers of two major cities,\nYaound\u00e9 and Douala, and a day trip to search for suppliers in the regional\ncapital, Ngaound\u00e9r\u00e9. Once the extensive technical bids, some hundreds of pages\nlong, were received the procurement committee gathered for over 20 hours over 2\ndays to complete a Competitive Bid Analysis (CBA). The request for bids stated\na timeframe of 3 weeks for production and delivery, the CBA was completed the\nlast week of November with the UNHCR expecting the 1,500 hardwood desks, 3,742\npairs of 6-pack underwear, and 4,000 bars of laundry soap, to be procured and\ndelivered by January 1st. Other than being short on time, the challenges to\nthis process were: <\/p>\n\n\n\n