Akwi Memorial Foundation (AMF) is a Non-Governmental, not-for-profit organization epitomizing 40 years of experience, commitment, engagement and dedication of its President and Founder to the cause of poverty reduction in his continuing search of why poor people remain poor.
AMF's commitment to fight poverty in a sustainable way is based on E.F. Schumakers (1973) thesis that Small is Beautiful. Re-visited by Ajaga Nji in the Diamond Paradigm for Rural Development in West Africa (Nji, 1981), AMF believes in helping small groups of individuals develop micro projects that create employment, generate incomes and contribute to sustainable development. For a long time to come, agriculture will remain the backbone of the development models is the key to the achievement of this goal.
The Foundation recognizes the rich and diverse potential of young people, the opportunities that science and technology offer today for the improvement of livelihoods and the well-being of humanity. Furthermore, AMF Founder and President is convinced by the evidence of his experience around the world that Africa lags behind other regions because of the absence of appropriate (or the existence of weak) institutions, an un-enabling policy environment and the absence of political will and commitment to eliminate or reduce poverty in a sustainable way.
Cognizant of this evidence, coupled with the fact that 60% of the Cameroon population is below 25 years old, appropriate institutions, policies and strategies must be created to provide an environment for young people, men and women, particularly those who are socially excluded and insulated from opportunity to acquire the training and education they need to move themselves out of poverty.
The founding of AMF has also been driven by the recognition of an obvious persistence of weak democratic institutions, a diluted stream of human values, a mismatched ordering of development priorities in many Sub Saharan African countries, not excepting Cameroon. Coupled with the paucity of mechanisms to identify, recognize, reward and promote critical thinking, objectivity, good citizenship and talent in the Cameroon society, genuine efforts to reduce poverty, attain the Millennium Development Goals and achieve sustainable development at the individual, community and national levels are being greatly jeopardized.
