Developmental challenges faced by Youths in Cameroon

In Cameroon, three critical areas have been identified which act as barriers to youth development. These are unemployment, non-involvement in decision making processes, and Climate change.

According to the World Bank report of 2009, Cameroon has an unemployment rate of 30% with 48% of the total population living below poverty line. Interesting to note is the fact that youths below the age of 30 constitute a greater percentage of these groups majority of who are University degree and diploma holders of higher education. Others find it difficult to get jobs because they lack the relevant education. As such they have become vulnerable to juvenile behavior such as cyber crime and prostitutions in order to survive.

In addition, youths are left out of decision making process and policy formulation .Young people are scarcely represented in the areas or arms of government which are responsible for the creation of policies which affect them directly. As such, their needs, concerns and experiences are rarely taken into consideration while drafting these policies thus making the impact felt very minimal. There is need for the involvement of youths in decision making processes both at national and international levels, not just as observers but also as active participants.

Climate change is a pertinent problem faced by the Cameroonian youths. Global warming and the unpredictability of seasons posse serious problems to the youths, especially those involved in cash and food production as they are unable to depict when the seasons start or end. Similarly, the increase in temperatures has led to food crises, hunger increase of the population exposed to vector borne diseases such as malaria, the loss of social identity.

In response to the above challenges, the government of Cameroon has developed certain strategies or programmes aimed at tackling these problems which are faced by the Cameroonian youths.

In order to solve the problem of youth unemployment, the government has put in place the National Employment Fund which assists youths to gain employment by giving them the relevant training and also liaising them with prospective employers. The Cameroonian government through the Ministry of Youth Affairs has also established the PAJER-U programme which is a micro-finance scheme aimed at giving youths start off capital with low interest rates to start a business of their own. Vocational training centers have also been put in place through out the national territory aimed at equipping youths with relevant skills which will enable them to be self employed. Of recent twenty five thousand (25.000) youths were recruited into the public service in order to combat the problem of unemployment and poverty amongst youths.

With regards to the problem of non-involvement of youths in decision making processes, very little action has been taken by the government to resolve this problem. The creation of the National Youth Council in the year 2007 and subsequently the drafting of the national youth policy were remarkable efforts made by the government to provide youths with a body through which their needs and concerns could be voiced out.

In the case of climate change and environmental sustainability, several outreach programmes have been initiated in collaboration with the civil society, championed by youths aimed at sensitizing their peers on mitigation and adaptation processes, the importance of protecting the environment and the importance of reforestation and recycling. Although, much still has to be done by the government in this area so as to fulfill the conditionality’s of ratified treaties and also to protect the environment for our generation and other generations to come.