Grassroots Development and Empowerment Action Platform (GDEAP) is a voluntary group with strong roots in improving the livelihood of people at the grassroots level in Cameroon. It aims to become the main vehicle that compels people at the grassroots with special interest in youths and women to take part in development programs – both social and economic. In a society where there is very limited scope for people to take part in national and local policies, Grassroots Development and Empowerment Action Platform stands out as a beacon of hope.

Grassroots Development and Empowerment Action Platform serves to make sure that local policies will be implemented in such a way that it affects the lives of those at the bottom in a positive way. It takes the example of the US where after three decades of grassroots movements, a significant impact was seen in the management of public schools. In Cameroon, most people at the grassroots have been left out in many development programs due to the top-bottom model of reaching out to communities with limited resources.

As such, Grassroots Development and Empowerment Action Platform (GDEAP) presents a challenge to the existing status quo by engaging in the building up of alternative structures, and also stepping up the pressure for change in structures that are already in existence. GDEAP’s action plan is geared towards promoting self-help and ideas that can empower those at the grassroots to rise beyond those limits set for them by their local settings.

Grassroots Development and Empowerment Action Platform seeks to be the driving force that will make this change happen. To become the catalyst for a whole new approach to development, GDEAP recognizes that the girl child, youth and women are facing different barriers which are isolating and even marginalizing them. Most of the youth and women at the grassroots level do not understand their rights, many do not also get access to or are also denied proper access to vocational and educational training after completing primary education, even if given access to primary education, the quality and method of delivery leaves many with knowledge vacuum making it hard to successfully complete this educational stage. As a result, the future of decision making processes will see a majority of those at the grassroots excluded.

Grassroots Development and Empowerment Action Platform recognizes that women have distinct identities and cultural traditions. GDEAP recognizes that very close links exist between the education of a girl child and womanhood, youths and aging population, accountability and good governance, degradation of the environment and poverty. The latter causes stress to the environment which is in turn a key factor that leads to deterioration of our world’s environment. Grassroots Development and Empowerment Action Platform also understands that tomorrow’s woman is today’s girl child whose skills and ideas as well as energy are important for complete attainment of important goals such as peace, development and equality.

Grassroots Development and Empowerment Action Platform (GDEAP) is a voluntary group with strong community orientation. It was founded and is headed by Executive Director Penjinah Luke Nchichupa who is a very passionate grassroots youth rights activist with particular interest on active ageing. GDEAP is currently involved in mobilizing all parties involved in various types of development processes. Grassroots Development and Empowerment Action Platform understands and also recognizes that youth organizations are important partners in the development process. It is also mobilizing to promote the rights of women and the elderly to a complete and fair access to all economic resources within the country. GDEAP’s strategic objective is to put in place a “chain supply structure” of ideas and opportunities that will guarantee development and empowerment from the youths to the elderly at the grassroots level in Cameroon.