The challenge of the next half century is whether we have the wisdom to use that wealth to enrich and elevate our national life, and to advance the quality of our … civilization. Your imagination, your initiative, and your indignation will determine whether we build a society where progress is the servant of our needs, or a society where old values and new visions are buried under unbridled growth. For in your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society.
This exhortation of Lyndon B.Johnson to youths of his time is as important to this generation as it was to those youths. We are the future and can make a difference.
Welcome to this blog in which Kwa Gaston reflects on how his dream world-A world in which though scarce resources are equitably distributed to its inhabitants each according to his/her needs and merits and in which the long ignored potentials of youths as key development actors is acknowledged and tapped for the achievement of a world that is just through more people-centered and more youth inclusive policy formulation and implementation processes-could more than a dream become a reality.
The naming by Times Magazine of “The protester” as person of the year last week, prompted this post in which we have seen the dominating perceptions of change by people around the globe. In this part of the post, I give my take on what true change is.
Personally,I believe in change that is transformation. The change we need in Cameroon, Africa and the world is not change that only consists of transfers,dismissals or replacements of people and things.
While transfers, dismissals or replacements of people and things are necessary, they are not a sufficient condition for change to happen. A change in people rather than a change of people therefore appears to be the preferable and probably the most sustainable means to achieving change with long lasting impact and widespread effects.
A change in people is change that not makes different but transforms. This change consists of one putting his/her self in question and making amendments. A change in people is the change of mentality, which determines the level of change in society. True development must begin from within.
Conscious of the fact that the brain is the central processing unit of the human body, it is evident that a change of people has little , if at all any effect on the internal being of humans. For it can be fairly compared to an epidermis change and as we all know, a snake may change its epidermis a thousand times, its Vernon Vernon remains poisonous.
I am convinced that if we must achieve our common aspirations(universal access to education, end malnutrition,empower youths and women, include people with disabilities in development processes) real change is an outward(external) sign of inward transformation. I desire change with my entire mind as you surely do, “nothing is as constant as change” and nobody can do away with it. Change more than words, should become actions. Let’s take the challenge, let’s transform our perception of change, let’s transform change.
The “change we need” slogan has indisputably become one of the most popular, if not the most reknowned, in recent world history. More than a slogan, ”change we need” has become a credo to billion of souls across the globe. The enthusiasm,optimism and hopes raised and/or re-enkindled in this people by this slogan is legendary and is a clear illustration of how “powerful” the word “change” can be.
Times Magazine last week honoured the youths of the world by naming “the protester” person of the year 2011. This due to the numerous protests that wwere registered during this year.The word on every lip during these manifestations was change.
The year 2011 will be remembered in Cameroon,Africa, and the world as that year in which the desire for change was at its optimum. Social uprisings in in many parts of Africa, the Arab spring, the occupy wall street movement are among countless others the most popular modes through which people have expressed their desire to see”change”. But the word change means diverse things to different people and one will not thus to be surprised to see people having a mutually exclusive definition of what they think change is at the same protest or even voting the same candidate in an election.
Surveys I carried out in November 2008, while the “change we need” slogan was at the peak of its popularity and another I conducted during the October 2011 presidential elections in Cameroon, revealed that two main schools of thought existed when it comes to giving a meaning to the word “change”.
The first school of thought holds that change is synonymous to dismissal, displacement, and replacement. In fact to those in this school of thought, change is essentially physical and unless made to manifest in this way , they don’t consider it as change. “Change must be visible they say”.
The second school of thought on its part sees change as going beyond a physical manifestation and argues that, the most important evidence of change is that which is within a person and not without her. This is because, they say, “a snake may change its skin but its Vernon remain poisonous”.
Before taking sides, it is necessary for us to know what according to Barack Obama, the “change we need” slogan author, change really is. The 44th president of the United States of America(USA) in his inaugural speech made the following declaration: “This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the evidence for us to make that change and that cannot happen without you”.
Very explicit isn’t it?This declaration was no doubt an to people who believe change in its major part is physical and in support of those who hold a contrary view.
Why not listen to the "wind f change" while I bring you my take on the "real change to believe in" in the second part of this post.
Today is international Human Rights day. Given that in my last blog I talked of an inclusion of human rights in the MDGs to be inevitable if MDGs are to be achieved,no body better than Amnesty which is actively advocating for this can really explain what it really mean. I have posted this article from Amnesty International not only to acknowledge their efforts for human dignity to be respected but also to continue my advocacy for this to be done as soon as possible by the powers that be.
Governments risk failing some of the world's most impoverished and vulnerable groups unless human rights are put at the centre of efforts to eradicate poverty, Amnesty International warned on Wednesday.
In a new report looking at how to strengthen the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs], the organization highlights how key targets fall short of existing international human rights standards.
The report, From Promises to Delivery, outlines crucial steps governments can take to deliver meaningful progress on the MDGs over the next five years.
"The MDGs promised some of the worlds most impoverished and excluded a fairer future but it is now painfully obvious that unless urgent action is taken governments will fail the most vulnerable communities," said Claudio Cordone, interim Secretary General of Amnesty International.
"The message for world leaders when they come together in September to review progress on the MDGs is clear: they must act now to put human rights at the centre of efforts to improve the lives of those living in poverty."
The report calls on governments to ensure all MDG initiatives are consistent with human rights; address discrimination experienced by women; set national targets for delivery; fulfill the right of participation and strengthen mechanisms for accountability.
It was launched on Wednesday in New York, where representatives from governments, civil society and the UN are gathering at an Amnesty International and Realizing Rights conference to discuss the importance of human rights in achieving the MDGs.
Three main issues – gender equality, maternal health and slums – are highlighted in the report to illustrate the gulf between the current MDGs framework and international human rights standards.
On gender equality the report shows how the MDGs fail to ensure that governments address women's human rights across all targets despite it being an essential element in tackling poverty. Where gender equality is listed in the MDGs it is limited to a single target to eliminate disparities in education.
It is estimated that 70 per cent of those living in poverty are women. The report documents how women and girls continue to suffer from gender discrimination, violence and further human rights violations in all societies.
Improving maternal health is an area that has seen far too little progress according to the report. The MDGs fail to take into account a variety of underlying factors that contribute to maternal deaths and injuries.
Human rights issues such as early or forced marriage, violence against women and girls prevents women from making decisions about their own lives.
The MDGs also do not pay sufficient attention to sexual and reproductive rights. From Peru to Sierra Leone, the report illustrates the barriers women in poverty face when trying to access maternal healthcare.
The MDG target to improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers is described as "grossly inadequate and weak" given that an estimated 1.4 billion people will live in slums by 2020. The target also falls short of existing obligations on states under international human rights law.
Amnesty International has documented forced evictions of communities living in slums in all regions of the world. The effects of these forced evictions is catastrophic for people who were already living in poverty. The MDGs ignore the crucial obligations of states to prevent and protect people from these violations.
From Burkina Faso to the favelas in Brazil, the report shows how an accountability deficit exists which makes it hard for people living in poverty to access justice. Mechanisms to ensure accountability do not exist or are inaccessible to people living in poverty.
"Human rights are central to making the MDGs effective," said Claudio Cordone. "Governments must be held to account to ensure their efforts to achieve the MDGs are consistent with human rights."
This work is part of Amnesty International's Demand Dignity campaign which aims to end the human rights violations that drive and deepen global poverty. The campaign will mobilise people all over the world to demand that governments, corporations and others who have power listen to the voices of those living in poverty and recognise and protect their rights. For more information visit thewww.amnesty.org
Fighting HIV/AIDS and other diseases like malaria is one the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) voted by the United Nation’s in the year 2000. Given that this fight seems to be slowing down and that more than 5% of Cameroonians are living with HIV/AIDS-60% of which are women and 40% falling in the youths category-there is a cause for concern on the strategy to be used for the achievement of MDGs.
Conscious that handicapped persons are also celebrated in December and given that living with HIV/AIDS is more and more considered a handicapped. This article is going to dwell on the inclusion of the handicapped in the achievement of MDGs.
Concerning the non-achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by most countries of the global south, much has been said and so much more left unsaid. But if there is one thing that has so often been ignored by policy makers, politicians and all those in charge of implementing policies that will lead to a timelyachievement of MDGs, it the absence of human rights in these goals. The non-inclusion of human rights in the MDGs means the exclusion of handicapped persons, indigenous people, and other minority groups in their achievement.
Given that handicapped persons constitute 10% of Cameroon’s population and are among the poorest people in the country, it is evident that talking of poverty, the fight against hunger, improvement of maternal health care and reduction of infant mortality child is pretentious if nothing is done to the more than 85% of these handicapped persons aged14-64 years who are jobless and the other 15% of them who are confined to shoe mending, shoe shinning and other informal sector activities.
Also, talking about achieving universal access to education without paying particular attention to the fact that less than 5% of handicapped children in Cameroon can afford to
go to school with only 2% of these handicapped children completing secondary school, is wishful thinking. What about theever increasing number of albino children who because of their sight defect and the inability of their parents to buy them glasses drop out daily from school?
The government of Cameroon recruited 25000 certificate holders in 2011 under a special recruitment scheme. But none of them was an handicapped person and as if this was not enough, a good number of handicapped persons were sent away from public schools because they could not afford to pay the required fees.This despite the fact that they are officially exempt from the payment of school fees in public schools in Cameroon. To protest against the above acts, the handicapped organized a protest march in front of the prime minister’s office in October 2011 but were violently dispersed by the police and military forces.
Can we say of a country whose government carries out such horrible acts against its own very population, even if it achieves all the MDGs, that it is developed? Can MDGs be achieved if the strategy to achieve them is not inclusive? Can the achievement of MDGs, as they are now, lead to sustainable development?
My answer to the above questions is ‘NO’. Because I am intimately convinced that, unless inclusive and people-centered, no development plan can produce any sustainable results. It is high time for our government and civil society to listen to and amplify the voices of the handicapped so that they are heard and acted upon by policy making and implementing structures because like all poor people, “they long to belong to, and participate in their communities on equal footing with others. Most of all, they do not want charity. They want opportunity”, as former world bank President James Wolfehnson once put it.Anything short of this will make the achievement of MDGs in Cameroon, even by 2035, a far-fetched dream.
How can one expect a country like Cameroon to achieve the MDGs related to literacy, health, and economic empowerment when it does not take the handicapped into consideration when designing and constructing public buildings and other infrastructure like roads, hospitals, universities, and schools?
How can one expect Cameroon to be democratic,united,and emerging by 2025,as exposed in its vision 2035,when more 10% of its population(handicapped persons) are disenfranchised due to their non-consideration when designing and producing electoral material(especially ballots) and situating polling stations(Most being inaccessible to the handicapped)?
Realizing that the above is impossible without respect for human rights, we, at the Education 4Development Foundation (E4DF) have made human rights the 9th MDG and therefore one of the elements of our advocacy and awareness creation campaign on a participative,timely, and inclusive achievement of MDGs in our community. Through our MDGs participative achievement programme, we reached out to more than 1000 pupils and students in 2011 and look forward to reaching out to a greater number in 2012.
“We can be free only together, we can progress only together”, once said Desmond Tutu. Living in harmony and peace with his neighbours and self has and always will be one of the most pressing needs of man. In a bid to achieve this desire, so many attempts have been made; a considerable proportion of which have proven futile and another not less important portion successful. One of these attempts by men to live together over the years, has been the formation of blocks, groupings, or better still organizations at: neighbourhood, village, town, regional, national, continental, and even inter continental level. It this quest for collective, inclusive, and participative freedom and progress that led to the creation of the Mmen Unit of Students and Teachers(M.U.S.T).
In fact, individual quest for freedom by youths from Bafmeng, had led to a glaring reality, that: individual dreams, aspirations, needs, and efforts when combined produce more beautiful, more inclusive, and more sustainable results.
Education is the most powerful tool for the empowerment of man. It is therefore without hesitation that, it is education that was chosen by the Mmen Unit of Students and Teachers to empower the Bafmeng people and spur them to strive for glory that is unfading and gives meaning to their lifes.
Where I come from, a child who doesn’t cry as he leaves the mother’s womb for the world is forced to do so. This could be by pinching or slapping the child. In Bafmeng, just like in most African societies, the cry of a child, and therefore the voice of a Man is what give his/her life a meaning. Therefore to be recognized as a human being, every single soul in my community has to make his/her voice heard. Expressing one’s feelings and thoughts is facilitated by the acquisition of knowledge and skills to do so-Through education. Education thus plays a primordial role in Man’s expression and exercise of his humanness, the recognition of this humanness, and the right to it by every individual in this world-Our fundamental right as humans.
Bafmeng is one of the most enclaved villages in Cameroon. Youths constitute a majority of its population, and farming the main occupying activity of its population. The poverty that reigns in this part of Cameroon coupled with some traditions and cultures has over the years greatly hindered the school attendance rate of its people. The journey of the Bafmeng people with education on the path to development has been one full of: obstacles, dilemmas, and successes. So too has the journey of the Mmen Unit Student and Teachers (M.U.S.T) being overtime. As time went by, education took its roots among the Bafmeng people-occupying a special place in their hearts, and leading to the spread of the Mmen Unit of Students and Teachers (M.U.S.T). The M.U.S.T has spread to regions, villages, and towns all over Cameroon. One of these being Buea, the heart of Anglo-Saxon education in Cameroon, and also my branch.
To seek and wholeheartedly fight for any thing, a person must be convinced about the necessity of such a thing. Communication is a vital tool in creating awareness in a people about a particular issue and in transforming them. Reason why, to let people know why it was, and will always be important to be educated so as to move ahead, become a better, healthier, and happier people, we prioritized communication and sensitization. In a bid to let the people know what education, development, and emancipation meant, we organize educative talks, sensitization campaigns, and initiated a yearly magazine called, “The SECRET”. These tools, all meant to let the Bafmeng man and woman know that, education, and education alone will lift our beloved village from its knees and make it as great as we all want to see it-A poverty, injustice, and disease free village.
Sustainability determines the impact and usefulness of any human undertaking on those subject to such a decision or move. The sensitization campaigns and other tools used to get the message on the importance of education and participation in community development efforts across to the Mmen people in and around Buea has not only changed but greatly transformed the way people in my community view development and democracy. Democracy more than words, has become for my people a way of life-Concrete actions rather than mere sweet talk-A personal decision and collective effort rather than “The Government’s or politician’s thing”.
A geometric increase in the number of Bafmeng children attending primary and secondary school in and out of the village, a steady growth in the number of those going beyond secondary school, an increase the number of schools in Bafmeng, and the immense number of women, youths, and children empowered to take their destinies into their hands are just a visible tip of the iceberg of the quiet but firm, and slow but sure revolution that education has brought to this village- The greatest legacy of this collective effort by the Bafmeng people, is a change of mentalities.-The most invisible things, being the most essential of all.
To the 21st Century Bafmeng native, its schools neither belong to the state, nor the denominational institutions, and individuals who set them up, but rather belong to the village and constitute its most precious assets. These schools for the most part are being taught by teachers hired by their Parents’ Teachers’ Association (P.T.A), support for the improvement of infrastructure in schools has also increased, as well as has the concern of the people for the community’s welfare.These shows that, the Bafmeng Man has surely understood with Oliver Wendell Holmes that, “What lies behind and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us’’. This assertion has never been so true in the life of the Bafmeng Man, who has now decided not to cry over spilt milk, rejected procrastination, refused to be afraid nor doubt the power of education, and decided instead to forge ahead without ever being discouraged or barking down. For to be as Developed as those nations which they today admire, cherish and dream of living in, the Mmen people have decided to embrace education wholeheartedly, never to let it go (like a lover)-An educated people are a developed people-a people with a purpose-a happy and enlightened people.
We, at the Mmen Unit of Students and Teachers, believe the greatest change, is a change in, and not a change of persons, we believe that any meaningful change, is one which is sustainable and inclusive and so, consider no action as small or useless to bring about change. Change, being a journey which we every day undertake, members and supporters of the M.U.S.T have on this journey for change from illiteracy to literacy, consciously or unconsciously become modern day freedom fighters and like athletes, agree with the Olympic creed that,“The most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well”. At M.U.S.T, we are conscious of the fact that much still needs to be done for a greater and better Bafmeng. However, we are proud of doing our part for Bafmeng’s development and for having brought to light the fact that, there can be no development without freedom-The greatest freedom, for us, is freedom from illiteracy, and education, the greatest liberating tool. Given that, development moves hands in glove with education, our people have embraced it and with it are building a Bafmeng in which every is not only counted, but above all counts-An emancipated Bafmeng man-An educationally democratic Bafmeng.
Its just being proclaimed by Cmaeroon's Supreme Court.77.9 Percent is the percentage with which Paul Biya, a 78 years old man who has ruled Cameroon for 30 years , has won the just ended October 9 presidential elections in Cameroon. Shocking in this 21st century as this sweeping victory and this man’s longevity in power may be, more shocking is the limiting of democracy to just elections by a majority of Cameroonians. In this blog, I share my vision and that of a group of youths with whom I worked some years back of Democracy.
« Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves could free our minds…. ». These are the words of Robert Nesta Marley in his “Redemption Song”. In his own way, this Reggae legend was giving men and women of his generation, ours, and those to come the secret of a happy life-An emancipated life. Living a happy life now and/or in the future is what every human being longs for, but how happy one’s life is very subjective, as a happy life means different things to different people.
I no doubt cannot say with exactitude what a happy life is, what I however can say without doubt, is that there exist universal yardsticks with which a happy life can be measured; among these are: emancipation. The quest for emancipation by man is innate and has from the dawn of humanity being its driving force-Man’s unending quest for new and ever innovative ways of living happily.
To some, it is just a word and to others a mere concept. The word “Democracy” is possibly one of the most misused, most feared, and most misunderstood of words. But to me, democracy, more than just a word or concept is the very epitome of emancipation and all that goes with it.
An emancipated person is one who has a need, knows the need, and does everything in his/her might to get that need satisfied. An emancipated person is in many aspects similar to an unemancipated person, except that, the latter does nothing to quicken or facilitate the satisfaction of his/her need. The ability or inability to act, therefore, distinguishes an emancipated from an unemancipated person. The propensity to act, no doubt varies from one human being to the other. But far from being a state, I consider this to be a difference-A difference whose gap can be reduced to its barest minimum, if and only if the persons concerned are aware of the necessity to act-A necessity to act, which education only can inculcate in people.
“An underdeveloped nation”, once said Jean Faurastie, “is an undereducated nation’’. This intellectual’s assertion on the interrelatedness of education and development shows the fundamental role played by education in the emancipation and transformation of the lives of people of every nation. This is indisputably true, given that all the nations we today admire, hail as ‘’a people of valor’’, and even dream of living in, have for decades, and even centuries had education as a watchword- which they not only upheld, but promoted, and embraced for its indispensable nature.
The inadequacy of education causes a people to act not in the interest of the community, but against the common good. Given that, the fate of any individual in a community is interwoven with that of other community members, education provides mankind with adequate development tools which if well utilized, will lead to the improvement of individual and community well being. Going by this observation, and Conscious of the fact that, a nation is only a nation because of its people, it is undeniable that an underdeveloped nation is an unemancipated people-An uneducated people.
There is no iota of dignity for a person who has a need, is conscious of the necessity for this need to be satisfied, but does nothing to quicken or facilitate the satisfaction of this need, because such a person is frustrated and automatically becomes a perpetual complainer, a burden and even a nuisance to society. It is conscious of this reality and also conscious of the fact that, those who choose not to act in this battle field called life, will soon be strangled to death by their unfulfilled needs that, youths of my community decided to make action an imperative and by this means, play their role in the emancipation and democratization process of my village, Bafmeng.
In fact, after having experienced the abominable effects of inaction in our community both by the electors and the elected and deciding to see democracy contrary to popular opinion in Cameroon, not as a battle between parties and individuals but rather as a perpetual battle for freedom- Freedom from the chains of illiteracy-freedom from the shackles of extreme poverty, we set out to seek this freedom. Because, Education emancipates Man and makes him a proactive rather than a reactive participant in the development and progress of the community, or nation from which he hails or in which he lives.
In the second part of this article, we are going to see how greater access to education is viewed by people from Bafmeng, as the best expression and most explicit manisfestation of democracy.
In the first part of our reflection we saw why we need to save ruaral areas from collapse.In this second part, we look at how save rural areas.
THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
Most young graduates and even not so educated youths migrate to towns because agriculture is portrayed by the Cameroonian educational system as being “Demeaning”.When the people who are presented to young pupils and students as successful are only those who own 50 Hummers, 20 Mansions, 10 wifes, 15 girl friends, and 20 bank accounts somewhere in Europe, and are above all civil servants, it is but normal that these youths especially those who think they are far off from being like the models presented by society to want to be civil servants, embezzle, and live like their models.The educational system must be restructured to present more favourable image of the agro industry to young students and pupils ENCOURAGE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH Cameroonians from the Cameroon Development Corporation(CDC) in the 1960s were sent to Malaysia to teach Malaysians how to plant oil palms, today Malaysia is the first producer of palm oil in the world while Cameroon’s production of palm oil has even declined. An agricultural research policy especially as concerns the intergration of ICTs in farming will do much good to Cameroonian youths. MAKE RURAL AREAS A PRIORITY
Rural areas are the most poverty stricken, have a high illiteracy and HIV/AIDS prevalent rate, are the most inhabited, and posses the great untapped development potentials. This is all based on my conviction that, for a successful and timely achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), many more rural area dwellers in Cameroon, Africa and the world need to be educated on the fundamental role they can play for a participative achievement of these goals.
Creating awareness on MDGs and advocacy for greater youth involvement in community development is the aim of one of the programs that the Education for Development Foundation of Cameroon is implementing. Knowledge of international trade mechanisms, financial (fiscal and monetary) tools, and development issues is vital if this project and others is to have a far-reaching and long lasting impact .
The famous PDDAA of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development(NEPAD) SIGNED BY Cameroon alongside other African countires in Maputo in 2003 requires that atleast 10 percent of the budget of counties be allocated to the Agricultural sector. This in a way mean that particular attention is to be given to areas in whch agriculture is the main activity. But in Cameroon less than 3 percent of its budget is allocated to agriculture. If this trend continuous, it is but eveident that the nose-dive of agricultural production will continue and rural areas will die. MAKE YOUTHS THE BACKBONE OF DEVELOPMENT The desire for a ore comfortable and decnt live are amongst the highest push factors for rural exodus. If this problem which has led to the abandonment of rural areas by youths to their ageing and dieing parents and weak tender ones and thus aggravating the the production of agricultural products is to be solved , electricity must be extended all rural areas to enable youths enjoy the facilities that requires the availability of electricity such as computers, phones(Chargiing of batteries), and facilitate the transformation of food crops other value adding activities tar raods, Precipitate the coming of and vulgarize the use of ICT tools like computers, phones etc which will help young farmers to better plan and manage their their agricultural cycle, their harvests as concerns planting, harvesting, transformation , and distribution of its output extend network coverage of these areas.This will facilitate training and acquisition of knowledge on: -Mnagaement of produce -Planting(efficient) techniques -New inventions in the agricultural domain -Collaboration among farmers, youths in rural areas with those in towns or even those outside the country -The marketing of produce -The organization of farmers,youths etc into networks to acheve a common goal.This facilitated by modern communication channels
A desolate and long abandoned place with a health unit lacking even the most basic of of all drugs and equipment, a market square with the number of shades in use on a typical market day far outnumbering the number in use with many in ruins –abandoned by youths for greener pastures in town and a population living in conditions that violate their basic human rights. This is the picture I have since returning from a trip to my village after more than 10 decades of absence 2 years ago. with little or no hope of ever knowing the grandeur it had known before and slowly but surely dieing dieing
Bafmeng( my village) might be one of the most economically backward and socially challenged villages in Cameroon, it is far from being the worst-there are communities in a worst shape compared to this village.
But things in my village have not always been so.When I visited Bafmeng during my summer holidays in 1998, the picture of desolation, abandonment, and seeming hopelessness described above, was far-fetched because economic activities-mostly carried out by youths –were booming and all shades in the market occupied. Community clean-up campaigns and other socio-cultural activities were the order of the day.But that was then!
The effects of the economic crisis which hit Cameroon in the early 90s were surely still to be felt in Bafmeng up to the year 2000 when the village felt a pinch of the crisis. this is after Cameroon had implemented its austerity measures and the Structural Adjustment Plans imposed by the world bank and and the International Monetary fund.The neglect of rural areas led to the impoverishment of rural areas and their inhabitants.This is were it all began.
The neglect of rural areas and a lack of strategies to develop and open up these areas which are of strategic importance to a country like Cameroon which still has about half its population living in these areas greatly contributed to the declining food production,unregulated and uncontrolled urbanization, high crime wave in cities, pollution, prostitution,early marriages, unregulated births, increasing number of school drop outs, and child child trafficking which is so rampant in Cameroon. Our rural areas are in prolonged comma from which they must be rescued so as not to die.They are agonising and slowly dieing without anybody raising even the smallest finger and need the care attention and treatment required to bring them back to their flamboyant and vibrant youthfulness of the pre-independence era.
But how can this be done?, one may ask. Saving rural areas from their agony requires more than just good intentions on the part of policy and citizens.It requires well thought and carefully designed policies which not only aims at improving the life of rural area dwellers but making these areas attractive. This could be done only if the greatest cause of rural area decline is tackled-rural exodus. 51.3 percent of Cameroonian live town while 49.7 percent of which 43.5 percent are of ages below 15 and 51 percent of rural area dwellers are women. This is the trend in most developing countries especially since independence where youths young men and women with dreams of living more decent and satisfying lives than their parents, and aspirations of living in free and modern world are pushed to the move to the cities where they think all their dreams and aspirations will be met. But when this dreams are shattered by the lack of opportunities in town they resort to drug abuse, alcohoolism,crime and prostitution.
Rural exodus, rather than cosmetic changes made by Cameroon’s government by creating more schools and universities in town to cater for the influx of people from rural areas is thus the problem to be solved if rural areas are to be revamped and agricultural production increased to meet the current shortage which in February 2008 led to riots and unrest in the country by youths. The solution to rural exodus is simply turning its push factors into pull factors for rural areas so that we can get an urban-exodus. These factors will be examined in the second part of this reflection.
Poverty is no doubt one of those concepts for which a description is easier to give than a definition.This is because poverty mean a whole lot of things to people around the world;what is poverty to a European could be opulence in other parts of the world for instance.
It is a truism that a unique and universal definition of poverty will be very difficult to get.But that is not my concern in this article. I am more than convinced that if each and everyone of us makes it his/her point of duty to fight against what he/she perceives to be poverty, we will end up having a world with poverty at its barest minimum. In this article I present my perception of poverty and how I think this could be best tackled.
A world bank report of 2006 has noted that for any development to be sustainable, accent has to be placed primarily on ensuring that every mouth is sufficiently fed.This report advocates that nutrition has to be central to all development initiatives. The views in this report had earlier been expressed by Fawzi-Al Sultan, one time president of the International Fund for gricultural Development(IFAD) in the following words:
A proper attack on hunger requires a real partnership to deal with obstacles the hungry face, principally as producers, for the poor are rarely simply poor, they are poor farmers, poor fishermen, poor herders.
When I read the above words from the proceedings of the International Conference on overcoming Global Hunger. I jumped from the my chair and said to my self, “Atlast, I have found an approach to tackling poverty that is most suitable for my country Cameroon and all other developing countries”
In Cameroon, One is not said to be poor until when he/she cannot eat to their fill-the size a person’s dish is the main indicator of status in the rural part of Cameroon from which I hail. Hunger in my part of the world is highly viewed as the starting point of a vicious cycle that ultimately leads to death because a person who cannot eat to his/her fill will without any doubts not have the means to pay for health bills when they are sick, and will not even have the strength to think about how to send his/her children to school, talkless of having any financial means to sponsor their education.
A person struggling to survive a famine or whose sole concern is what he will feed himself and his family with will rarely have even a passing thought on the effects his actions could have on the environment for present and future generations as all that matters to him is to find a means to survive. Where I come from such persons are those considered to be poor and earmarked for death as it is not just hunger but also poverty that leads to the death of a person.This is because a person who has no contribution to make to society is considered dead.
Concerning the right path to the eradication of poverty, Much has been said and so much more left unsaid; so many finger have been pointed, some in the right direction and others in the wrong direction.But this does not mean we should give up the search for a more inclusive, more sustainable, and more-people oriented approach to this fight. Going by my people’s perception of poverty, it is no doubt that the adoption of a more-agricultural and rural areas oriented approach to tackling poverty by governments and other stakeholders of developing countries like Cameroon whose rural areas plays host to more than half of its population and whose agricultural sector despite its abandonment and neglect still accounts for a very significant portion of its GDP and absorbs a great number of its working force.
In the next few weeks, I am going to outline the importance of the agricultural sector and rural areas in the fight gainst poverty in my country Cameroon and end up with concrete proposals on how this could be done.
Malaria is the first cause of death in Cameroon and many other African countries. Reason why Combating Malaria is such a priority to governments in Africa and the rest of the international community. The international community’s concern for the fight against malaria was more explicitly made manifest at the UN millennium General Assembly during which world leaders included the fight against malaria and other diseases in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
So many initiatives have been carried out by Cameroon’s government with the support of international donors like the world fund for the fight against Malaria in the past decade. The K.O Malaria campaign launched on the 20th of August 2011 by Cameroon’s Prime Minister and head of government in the presence of a host of national and international dignitaries and celebrities is one of such initiatives. This campaign aims to distribute 8.5 million treated mosquito nets to Cameroon’s more than 20 million inhabitants and raise the user-rate of treated mosquito nets from 15 to 80%.
The current 15% treated mosquito net user-rate compared to efforts by the government and its partners kick malaria out of Cameroon is very disappointing and makes the effectiveness and efficiency of mosquito nets distribution campaigns questionable. The already low treated mosquito net user-rate could be even lower if the effective use of these nets is measured instead. This is because in Cameroon, the need to survive has caused a good proportion of people who have received mosquito nets to use them more for other things than protecting themselves of mosquito bites. This is the case with people living in marshy areas who, pushed to the wall by poverty and the necessity to survive, have turned their treated mosquito bed nets into fishing nets. Part of the catch serves as food and the rest is sold to provide for other basic necessities of these people.
The impact of this important and laudable initiative is thus not felt with the desired the intensity and the fight against malaria is slowed down by practices like the above. But is it wrong for a person who does not have food and lack the means of paying his/her health bills to use a treated mosquito bed net to catch fish which can partly provide for his needs? How do we fight against extreme poverty, reduce hunger, eradicate illiteracy, reduce infant mortality, improve maternal health care, achieve gender equality, fight against diseases, ensure environmental sustainability in an integrated and coordinated way? This question raises the problem of the poverty alleviation strategies and other development policies.
The fight against extreme poverty and hunger, the eradication illiteracy, reducing infant mortality, improving maternal health care, achieving gender equality, fighting against diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and establishing a partnership for development constitute what is commonly referred to as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which are contained in the UN’s Millennium Declaration of September 2000. This document has since its adoption by the Un General Assembly become the framework and reference document of many developing countries like Cameroon. Cameroon’s Vision 2035 and Nigeria’s Vision 202020 just to name these are examples of visions which are a contextualisation of the MDGs to local and national realities.
The 8 MDGs are intimately related and there is no doubt that the achievement of one depends on the achievement of the other. The inter relatedness of MDGs though an advantage, makes it difficult for policy makers to map out clear and sustainable strategies to effectively tackle the challenges our world faces. The interdependent nature of MDGs makes imperative the use of an integrated approach to fight extreme poverty, reduce hunger, eradicate illiteracy, reduce infant mortality, improve maternal health care, achieve gender equality, fight against diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, and achieve a partnership for development at community, national, and international level. But how can this be done?
The answer to this question is attempted in next article.
