A private funder enabled an organization in northwest Cameroon to provide seed capital to business trainees whose promised payments were delayed by the U.S. funding freeze. Although the support was smaller than originally planned, it allowed displaced participants who had completed training to begin launching their businesses.
Date: 6/26
Region: Africa
Country: Cameroon
Topic: Economy & Livelihoods, Peacebuilding & Stabilization
Policy Lens: Economic & Trade Interests
Entry Type: Secondary Effect
Additional Context: This information was collected as part of The Aid Report’s original reporting, “In Cameroon, aid cuts deepen hardship as armed groups seek new recruits.” The story documents how the termination of a USAID-funded emergency response program left displaced families without food assistance, disrupted livelihood support, reduced income for small businesses, and contributed to worsening economic conditions in communities already strained by a decade of conflict.
The Anglophone Crisis Emergency Response program, or ACER, was a $10 million USAID-funded initiative that provided food assistance and livelihood support to people displaced by Cameroon’s decade-long separatist conflict. The program was terminated in March 2025 as the Trump administration moved to dismantle USAID and cancel thousands of foreign assistance programs. The program's business trainees were only weeks away from receiving the startup capital they had been promised when the program closed.
Catholic Relief Services, the organization implementing ACER, secured private funding to provide former participants with a one-time payment to help them launch the businesses they had spent months preparing for. Former beneficiaries received 100,000 CFA francs, approximately $165 at the time of disbursement — far less than originally expected.
Source: Devex