Yaoundé, Cameroon, February 29, 2008 — Observed on February 11 each year, Youth Day 2008, a national youth holiday, provided an opportunity for a series of week-long activities and exchanges focused on young people.
One such exchange, hosted by the World Bank’s Cameroon office on Feb. 4, brought together a group of aspiring economists at La Retraite College in Yaoundé, who gathered to discuss the future of their country.
For nearly two hours, young people held general discussions with officials from the Bank and from the Youth, Development, and Peace (YDP) network on a variety of subjects including poverty, unemployment, the Bank’s financing mechanisms and instruments, and even the country’s macroeconomic outlook.
“Today’s discussion with the World Bank’s representatives taught us a lot about how Cameroon can develop in the future,” said Maurice Edjoa, a member of the Young Economists Club at La Retraite College. “However, we are still wondering about youth’s future.”
This preoccupation about how young people will fare later in life, a concern shared by many of Maurice’s classmates, comes from the current situation faced by young Cameroonians.
Youth Unemployment
In recent decades, the number of young people ages 15 to 35 has increased significantly in Cameroon. According to the second Cameroon Household Survey [Enquête camerounaise auprès des ménages ECAM II], this age group accounts for 30.3 percent of the total population of 15.5 million people. A large number – over 36 percent -- of these young people are hard hit by poverty. The situation has a severe effect on development, particularly in the areas of education, health, and professional training.
In urban areas, youth unemployment stands at over 20 percent, compared to just over five percent in rural areas. This unemployment rate, particularly in cities, is a result of the rural exodus and the decline in the number of jobs available in the modern sector.
The soaring population and therefore soaring labor force has also left fewer jobs available. In addition, inadequacies exist in the current socioeconomic integration system for youth, which does not have appropriate and comprehensive mechanisms for promoting self-employment among this population group.
The World Bank and Young People
Over the past two years, the World Bank has stepped up its work targeting young people in both developed and developing countries. The Bank’s work is reflected in the vibrant YDP network, a group of youth associations that recently surveyed young people and presented a report to Cameroon’s Ministry of Youth.
The network’s goal is to identify organizations that are actively working with young people in Cameroon’s ten provinces. The group’s database provides information on the leaders of these associations (young people or bilateral and multilateral partners and agencies and United Nations programs), what they are doing (the areas in which they are working and their actual achievements), and makes it possible to assess their capacities, strengths, and needs.
A knowledge exchange and capacity-building program targeting young people was carried out by the World Bank in collaboration with Unesco and the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie in September 2007, with a similar objective in mind. As a result of multiple exchanges, several organizations joined forces with the aim of actively representing the interests of society’s young people vis-à-vis the public authorities.
In addition, development partners, civil society associations and organizations, as well as faith-based groups are assisting the government of Cameroon with efforts to address the daunting issue of the future of young people. The different social actors, among them the World Bank, are now seeking to have young people play a greater role in solving their own problems.
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