The Contributions of Local Development Agencies towards Poverty Reduction: Case of the South West Development Authority, Cameroon

Since the establishment of the Millennium Development Goals, the global focus on poverty reduction has been enormous. However, poverty still remains a major challenge especially in sub-Saharan Africa where the proportion of people below the poverty line is on the rise. Efforts towards poverty reduction in this region have included among other things the creation of local development agencies. This paper uses both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection to examine the contributions of local development agencies towards poverty reduction in the South West Region of Cameroon. The paper concludes that though local development agencies are a major partner in the fight against poverty, their successes are usually short-lived. No real transformation takes place as five years down the road, the number of poor does not reduce, nor the poor transformed into non-poor.