Activation Policies for the Poor in OIC Member States
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projections and setting up a daily accounts book. In this way the beneficiary became gradually
autonomous.
A brother and sister (Jonathan and Sonya Robinson) who had benefitted from the scheme were
interviewed as part of the study. They joined the scheme in 2009 because they wished to finance
their educational studies through self employment. Jonathan and Sonya successfully completed the
scheme and now have a small farm raising chickens and goats. However, their business has not been
able to grow as much as their business plan had predicted due to difficulties in obtaining credit and
the competition posed by large scale producers. Despite this, Jonathan and Sonya have completed
their secondary school education after attending evening classes. Jonathan also qualified as a trainer
to deliver the scheme to future SAILD beneficiaries. However, the donor organisation for the project
has withdrawn, meaning that the project has closed and training is no longer delivered.
Despite the lack of funding, training can continue to be delivered in an agricultural setting by sharing
best practice between agricultural workers. In Cameroon, agricultural workers are encouraged to
work together to increase their productivity. In the past, this has taken the form of less formal
common initiative groups (GIC), such as the GIC Nkom Damba. The GIC previously benefited from
training from SAILD to diversify their produce. Production began collectively, with the GIC initially
sharing ownership of the animals they reared. As productivity has increased, however, workers have
acquired individual ownership of animals and produce. Over time, the training provided by SAILD
has also changed. The NGO was able to advise them on other sources of support, for example, such as
the European Union (EU). The EU financed the provision of machinery so that the workers could
produce animal feed within the village instead of having to travel and incur the cost of transforming
their produce. Training is also continuing in the form of knowledge sharing with other GICs. At Nkom
Damba, a small lake is being dredged to allow a barn to house chickens to be built above the water
level. This will allow chicken manure to drop into the lake and feed the fish being farmed. The
project to construct the barn commenced after a neighbouring GIC showed the GIC at Nkom Damba a
similar project they had completed.
In both these projects, the beneficiaries have used the training delivered to increase their incomes.
However, challenges were reported which reduce the impact training can have on increasing
income. The challenge most widely reported was the difficulty young people and agricultural
workers face in gaining access to credit. This challenge means that even when a worker has been
given the skills needed to set up a business or increase their income, it is difficult for them to
implement the lessons learnt due to not having the necessary credit.
The Cameroonian government and donor organisations are making an effort to deliver training at
the macro level as well as to workers. The aim of this is to address capacity gaps in government. The
ILO, for example, is delivering the Project for the Support of Employment Promotion and Poverty
Reduction (APERP) in order to support the government’s commitment to promoting employment.
The project is funded by the French government. The primary objective of APERP is to improve
living conditions through the creation and promotion of decent work and specifically targets young
people and women. The second phase of the APERP is currently being delivered; its three
components include:
1 Promotion of employment, training and investment policies in national development
frameworks
2 Targeting employment creation at the vulnerable, particularly young people, women and
migrants, complimented by social protection policies
3 Strengthening capacities among stakeholders such as social partners
At a national level, delivery is coordinated by a National Programme Coordinator. In terms of the
first area of focus within APERP II, the ILO delivers training to the National Observatory for
Employment & Vocational Training in order to improve the development of labour market statistics.
Support to the National Observatory has included the provision of computer systems, training on the
production of annual reports and training on the appropriate tools and methodology to gather data.