A three-day workshop organised by the Ministry of Housing ended last Friday in Yaounde.

Some 200 participants from different ministries and councils in the country have been schooled on the Labour Intensive Approach which is a special method that can be used to create skilled and unskilled employment in the country. While opening the workshop last Wednesday February 13, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Jean Claude Mbwentchou called on participants to carefully examine the approach which will address the issue of creating employment and alleviating poverty.

Organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development with the technical and financial support from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the workshop trained mayors and personnel from different ministries as well as city dwellers on how to create jobs using the Labour Intensive Approach in which more local human and materials resources can be used in the implementation of a project. The Employment Intense Investment Specialist at ILO Yaounde, Thomas Da Vera Cruz said with the employment rate of the country being high, they seek to promote the approach, in order to maximise employment opportunities in an investment infrastructural project.

The ILO expert said it is an effective tool for job creation and poverty reduction. As such, the project cannot be implemented in a haphazard manner but planned. That is why participants gathered to design a strategy in which unemployed youths, both skilled and unskilled, can be used in carrying out infrastructural projects in the country. "If infrastructure is used to create jobs, it means the government will be missing the potentials of most of its citizens to be employed," Thomas Da Vera Cruz noted. Participants lauded the strategy which is pro-active to create jobs especially as the biggest share of investment in the country goes to infrastructure.