Eldickson Agbortogo
5 May 2008
Mfoundi (Yaounde) — A two-day national youths symposium to review the recommendations and findings of the Cameroon Report Card on the prevention of HIV among young girls and young women ended last Saturday in Yaounde.
The symposium which brought together over thirty youths from the ten provinces was an initiative of Cameroon National Association for Family Welfare (CAMNAFAW), in collaboration with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), under the umbrella of the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, and with the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Young Positives.
The Report Card which pre-occupied the youths on Saturday and Friday on, is an advocacy tool aimed at increasing and improving the programmatic, policy and funding actions taken on HIV prevention for young girls and young women in Cameroon. Its key audiences are national, regional and international policy and decision-makers, and service providers. The eight-page report card prepared in 2006, summarises the current situation of HIV prevention strategies and services for young girls and young women ages 15-24 in Cameroon.
According to the Mr. Kudi Boja Jude, Centre Provincial Coordinator for CAMNAFAW, the report card is the basis of extensive research carried out by IPPF. It contains analysis of five key components that influence HIV prevention. These key components such as; the legal provision which entails ensuring that the laws on rape and legal age marriage are fully respected and enforced; policy provision by developing programmes and initiatives that increase girls and women's economic independence so that they are less likely to engage in high risk activities that place them in a vulnerable position; provision of free and universal voluntary counselling and testing services to all; accessibility of services by ensuring that both male and female condoms are widely available and at affordable price and commit to tackling corruption within government provided services for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care support, as well as efforts to foster better relations between charitable, private and government providers, have been properly revised and recommendations forwarded to stakeholders working with young people in the area of HIV/AIDS.
It is on the bases of the various comments and recommendations made by the youths that the stakeholders (drawn from the Government and Civil society) will be meeting from the 8-9th of May to validate and draw-up a list of actions to be carried out within six months with the aim of redressing a number of specific recommendations of the Report Cards.
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