[The lift and the stairs--the fight against AIDS in Cameroon]

HIV/AIDS infection has spread like wildfire in the countries of sub-saharan Africa. In order to fight that pandemic, Cameroon has organised itself by setting up, with the assistance of bilateral and multilateral partners, a national structure with the aim to reduce the spread of the disease. Two years after the launch of the National Plan for the Fight Against HIV/AIDS, an advocacy campaign targetting social leaders made it possible to assess the difficulties encountered by such an entity in a social and cultural environment as complex as that of Cameroon. The paper presents the initiatives taken by the government and analyses the major specific obstacles which are met on the ground. They include beliefs, social structures, gender issues, the status of women and the social representations of sexuality. If consensus and compromise are the usual ways of solving the problems raised at the national level, the analysis stresses the need for a more courageous political will adapted to the urgency of the prevailing situation.