Activation Policies for the Poor in OIC Member States
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Capacity building remains a challenge for the National Observatory because it only has a team of four
with workers transferred from the Ministry of Labour; their experience is therefore in the
improvement of working conditions rather than statistics.
With regards to employment creation, APERP continues to promote entrepreneurship through two
schemes called ‘Start Your Business’ and ‘Improve Your Business’. Under these schemes, the ILO
delivers training to trainers and provides delivery partners with ILO tools and methods to be used in
training staff. The ILO is also encouraging the government to pilot a curriculum change which would
lead to schools encouraging entrepreneurship among students.
Job creation
Job creation is a significant concern for Cameroon because the country has a young population.
42.96% of the population is under the age of 15 and the population is growing at an annual rate of
2.55%.98 It is projected that the total population will increase from 19.5 million in 2009 to 26.5
million in 2020.99 Job creation must therefore keep pace with population growth.
As well as the favouring of labour based technologies to create temporary employment
opportunities, as previously mentioned, the government is also encouraging entrepreneurship. For
example, the Ministry of Youth Affairs has implemented the Rural and Urban Youth Support Program
(PAJER-U) with the aim of achieving socio-economic integration of 15-35 year olds who have
received no schooling or who are school drop outs. Specific objectives to be achieved include:
1 Mobilising young people through the creation of individual or group enterprises
2 Monitoring of beneficiaries in job placement and self-employment
3 Proposal of a financial mechanism that will support the young employed and youth
entrepreneurs
4 Mobilisation of lines of credit and creation of financial structures throughout all 10 regions to
support junior enterprises
5 Developing a pilot unit to monitor the programme and propose support strategies (laws,
regulations, rules etc)
6 Constituting the National Youth Integration Fund to ensure perpetuation of the project
PAJER-U seeks to achieve these objectives by providing training to project beneficiaries with a focus
on technical, entrepreneurial and managerial capacity building. The project also assists beneficiaries
in setting up their own enterprise, assisting with access to finance and providing mentoring support.
Follow up support is also provided in the form of ongoing vocational training and assistance in
company formation, such as technical support setting up legal, taxation and financial procedures in
the new business. The project is funded by the IMF Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Fund (HIPC)
and Ministry of Youth Affairs Budget. So far, 7,000 young people nationally have been involved in the
programme and 2,282 micro business projects have been created.
Follow up support for new businesses is required because of the high failure rate for new
businesses. Sustained support is also required to increase productivity. High productivity is linked to
higher income and to ensure businesses can grow, continuous learning is required. The government
is putting efforts into supporting new businesses. However, services tend to be concentrated in the
regions of Yaoundé and Douala.
Projects to support entrepreneurship are particularly required in Cameroon for two reasons. Firstly,
there is not yet much encouragement in the education system for individuals to pursue
entrepreneurial activities. There is therefore a need to encourage individuals to create employment
for themselves and, potentially, for others, through establishing their own businesses. Secondly,
would be entrepreneurs face considerable difficulties in setting up their own enterprise due to
difficulties accessing micro finance.
98 SESRIC
99 Growth and employment strategy paper