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Cameroon: Social Problems - How Gov't Is Bracing Up
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Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)
5 March 2008
Posted to the web 5 March 2008
Nkendem Forbinake
CT begins series on government projects and initiatives underway to address high cost of living and youth unemployment.
Four days after the dark days the nation went through last week, it is difficult to come to terms with the real motivations of numerous savageous acts, given the scope of the wanton destruction carried out on public buildings, business premises and public utility installations.
Political vultures are not visibly around to hunt around the debris of destruction in Douala, Yaounde, Bamenda, Bafoussam, Kumba and other localities; but it is quite clear- and the government said so last week - that such a unleashing of anger and bestiality could only have been teleguided. And for political motives of course.
The commanders of these acts chose very easily targets: the youth, many of whom are unable to quickly find a job because of the difficult economic environment and ordinary consumers who are the first victims of an every-increasing cost of living marked by escalating prices of essential commodities.
In this kind of background a genuine transporters' strike, which had found a denouement, could easily be transformed into a mass movement of discontent.
The government, plunged into the adversity of an ever-degrading economic situation - courtesy of our programme with the Bretton Woods institutions and the vicissitudes of globalization - has been able to put up special programmes to fight youth unemployment. The best illustration is to be found in the political will to address youth issues more specifically manifested through the creation of a Ministry of Youth Affairs in December 2004.
For youths, the situation is not so somber. It only requires hard work and fitting into one of the numerous projects in the Ministries of Youth Affairs; Employment and Vocational Training; Agriculture; Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicrafts as well as Higher Education.
In the Ministry of Employment, for example, the Integrated Project for Support to Actors of the Informal Sector,(PIAASI) is a HIPC-funded project decided upon in 2002, by the Head of State. Its aim is to provide decent, durable and productive jobs with the overall aim of making it possible for beneficiaries to feed, clothe, heal and lodge themselves. Between 2005 and 2008, the project was expected to have created some 8,000 small business units; but the 2007 report says about 10,500 units had already been created. Here then is one area where our employed youth can find relief.
In the Ministry of Youth Affairs, the Support Programme for Urban and Rural Youth (PAJER-U) is coming out of the drawing boards. Its target is youth between the ages of 15-30. When it effectively takes off next May, it will seek to initiate some 5,000 youths by development individual competences so that these youths can become veritable economic actors. Some projects could fetch funding for up to CFA 25,000,000. To reduce red tape, the project will run antennae in all ten provinces and all 58 divisions.
Cost of living
In 2006, a presidential ordinance was signed reducing taxes on some essential consumption items such as rice, sugar and meat. Follow-up has been difficult, leaving consumers not to really fell the effects of the measure. The Ministry of Trade has lately been in an upbeat posture in the fight against escalating prices of basic items. It has started negotiations with economic actors and the hope is that sacrifices will continue to be made by both traders and government.
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All these measures taken to ease life for our embattled youth and consumers will be the subject of a series which Cameroon Tribune will start running from tomorrow.
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