Activation Policies for the Poor in OIC Member States
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Some programmes are already in place to formalise informal sector workers. Experience from these
programmes should be shared so that future efforts to regularise informal occupations are as
effective as possible. For example, through the PIASSI programme, informal traders in the city of
Kribi are physically moved to places where they can trade legally. As legalised entities, the traders
pay taxes, thereby contributing to the economy, and are not in danger of having their stock
requisitioned by the police (informal sector workers who trade in locations such as pavements are at
risk of this).
The status of the PES can be raised.
There is little incentive in place for employers and jobseekers to utilise the PES. This means that
many employers do not advertise their vacancies through the organisation and many jobseekers do
not register for job search support services.
All employers should be encouraged (or mandated) to advertise through the PES. This would raise
the PES’s status with employers, elevate the PES as the first rather than last port of call for
jobseekers, free up employment adviser time to work with jobseekers and outreach to the furthest
from formal employment. An ‘enhanced registration’ for employers could be a chargeable service
which would go some way to financing the employment of additional advisers.
Individual programme design & performance
The setting up of new businesses along new road infrastructure should be encouraged.
The encouragement of small entrepreneurial businesses along the new roads to the interior would
support the needs of travellers (in terms of the provision of food, drink, accommodation, phone
boxes etc.). The creation of sub contractor businesses on the infrastructure projects could also be
encouraged. Furthermore, the lead government bodies working on infrastructure development
could work with micro financing institutions to provide encouragement and facilitate new
businesses to be set up.
Caseloads of PES employment advisers can be addressed.
Caseloads in the PES are of around 3,000 jobseekers per adviser. The caseload is unsustainable and
consideration may be given to reducing it if the service delivery is to have impact.
A support programme to increase capacity would be needed to address caseloads. Employment
advisers could work with several jobseekers at the same time if Job Clubs were created that
encouraged peer support between jobseekers, thus releasing the adviser to work with those most in
need of support.
Vocational training should reflect the current and future needs of the Cameroonian economy to
respond effectively to the Growth Plan.
It is important for students to be given the skills required by employers to ensure strategies to
improve access to vocational training are effective in the long-term. Training could be designed
through one government lead department working hand in hand with the economic sectors, key
businesses and employers.
The criteria for grants could be tightened and minimum rate loans rather than grants can be
allocated to beneficiaries where appropriate.
The study found that beneficiaries placed a greater value on a loan and worked harder to achieve
their objectives when given a loan rather than when awarded a grant. Providing funding in the form
of a loan can also extend the life of a project because loan re-payments can be used to provide loans
to other beneficiaries.
A combination of loans and small grants can be appropriate. For example, to avoid a beneficiary of
skill training forgetting the skills they have learnt, small grants could be given to bridge the gap
between the end of training and the payment of a loan. Grants are appropriate as ‘seed corn’ funding