AIDS 2012: Going Beyond Figures;Facing the Scaring Reality

On Sunday ,July 23rd, as the 19th International AIDS conference opened in  Washington DC, I got very curious and wanted to know how news on this very important event was been reported by local and international media houses. Undertaking this task, little did I know the discovery that my curiosity will lead me to. Talking of discoveries, they were all very bitter; in the first place in the local media it was business as usual with very little or no allusion being made of this year’s international conference on AIDS and then there was this paper on the conference by French news channel ITele which in my opinion was much more centered on the statistics and the fact that this conference was being held in the USA than on the plight of persons living with HIV/AIDS(PLWHA) and the ever growing number of children which AIDS daily render orphans in this part of the world.

35 Million Deaths and 35 million infected persons most of whom live in Africa with a majority of them being women. The above among others are the plethora of figures given by ITele’s reporter in the above cited paper. Since its discovery in the early 90s using statistics as the key elements to describing the effect AIDS on people around the world has gained grounds to the extent that the only thing most people can remember about AIDS is the number of people it is killing. I remember that my while at secondary school when asked to describe what AIDS was, my class mates and I will almost ever start with something like this: AIDS is a very dangerous disease that kills millions of people around the world.

At the time I described AIDS as above, I had of course never met a person living with HIV/AIDS, growing up and knowing persons living with HIV/AIDS and the precarious conditions in which these people live in Cameroon has led to a glaring reality that what really matters in talking about HIV/AIDS is not the statistics but how those living with the AIDS virus are treated in their families, communities, and countries.

AIDS is still considered in some parts of Cameroon as being a punishment for one’s sins and those suffering from the disease are considered as outcasts and excluded from mainstream society. This stigma against PLWA has not only heightened people’s fear for the disease but also increased the rates of infections as most people in Cameroon have not done and are not willing to do an HIV/AIDS screening test. A few who go for the test and are tested positive really ever inform their family members of their status neither do they seek medical advice and so die in silence. This fact has been pointed out by the numerous health surveys conducted in Cameroon with statistics from the 2011 health survey showing that the Northern regions of Cameroon (densely populated with high illiteracy and early marriage rates) having the highest number of PLWHA in Cameroon.

While it is true that to face facts, we need to face the figures, when the figures overshadow the facts, full understanding of the gravity of a problem is at risk. While I understand the excitement of media persons at this year’s international conference on AIDS being held in the USA, something which was impossible before 2009 when the ban imposed on zero positive persons in the early 90s was lifted, I am deeply convinced that beyond statistics there is a scaring reality which we must face: AIDS is committing more atrocities than the so many we pretend we know.

Having closely followed Cameroon’s strategy to fight against HIV/AIDS over the years, I can comfortably say that: it doesn’t suffice to make antiretroviral free, how those living on these anti retroviral drugs are perceived and treated also matters. Let’s face reality, if we continue to consider the fight against AIDS to be the scientists sacred cow, we are going to woefully fail, because the fight against AIDS requires much more than pure science, it requires a fundamental change in the way PLWA are being currently perceived. Stigma kills more than the HIV virus itself and needs to be tackled with equal measure as the search for a cure to AIDS.

It is time we face and denounce the scaring reality of stigmatization, guilt, persecution, pain, and death that is lived daily by millions of people around the world because they are infected by HIV/AIDS. Being infected with the HIV virus in most cases in this part of the world mean forfeiting one’s right to education, health, and shelter. Therefore, I am convinced that while it is true that AIDS kills zero positive persons around the world, stigma, guilt, and persecution, and ignorance fastens these deaths. This year’s international AIDS conference will live to be remembered if and only if its participants go beyond figures and face this scaring reality.

Poverty Begins When We Fail to Act!

Poverty begins when even one child is denied his or her fundamental right to education. What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life, all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations.

As the world celebrated its 7th Million baby on the 1st of November 2011, the above words of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan kept ringing in my head and I could not help but ask myself why the so much celebration at the birth of a child who like majority of the world’s children born in the global south have no guarantee of having 3 meals a day , talk less of ever seeing the four walls of a classroom before they die.

Sad as the facts above may be, more sad is even the fact that while humanity is busy celebrating technological advancement and an ever growing number of billionaires, a part of humanity is perishing in silence. In its 2011 State of the World’ s Children Report, UNICEF the world’s premier Children’s organization reported that 7.6 million children died before they were 5 years old in 2010. The fact that these children died from preventable diseases and effects of poverty even makes me more ashamed of being part of a world in which a minority, which though having the means to help out, are so indifferent to the suffering and pains of others.

Who can believe that in a world with majority of its people living in urban areas, a child dies every 4 seconds from preventable causes? We marvel at the riches of those who billionaires which Forbes profiles year-in and year-out. But do we for an instance stop to think about those people in a little village somewhere in Cameroon called Bafmeng where women give birth at the help of torch lights and where parents cannot afford 3 dollars to register their children in school.

I am intimately convinced that the greatness of a people is measured by the care accorded its children and those among them who cannot afford to provide their children the tools and opportunities to become people on whom society can count.

Are you among those who think there is nothing you can do for the world’s children? Do you believe the world is a global village with the fate of its inhabitants more interlinked than never before? Then there is something you can do, however small, to contribute to the achievement of the aspiration of parents the world over –that of given birth to a child and seeing that child grow to become an adult-which is was recognized in the year 2010 by the UN by making the reduction of infant mortality one of its Millennium Development Goals(MDGs). Join one of the numerous networks of the thousand of people who with lots passion and engagement have willingly decided to fight poverty to the last drop of their blood .
Yes! Poverty ultimately begins when we fail to act to uphold the dignity of our fellow beings. As we celebrate world population Day in 2012, let’s all act for greater access of women and children to health facilities.

Don't Pregnant Teens Also Deserve Education?

The destiny of every nation, village and community lies in the hands of its people and is closely linked to their intellectual development. All the nations, villages and communities we admire, hail or despise today are only a fruit of its people’s concern or complacency to partake in their nation, village and community development efforts.

Education and especially that of the girl child is one of these development efforts from which people in rural and urban communities in Cameroon are being excluded. Consciously or unconsciously, an ever increasing number of young girls are, because of pregnancy, being refused their rights of belonging to a community, their right to education is continuously abused, and they are restrained from taking part in community developmental activities.

A Policy Based on Stigma and Rumor

In Cameroon, the dismissal of a girl that is pregnant is inscribed in the internal rules and regulations of almost all schools (primary and secondary). Based on these internal rules which have no legal backing, pregnant teenage girls are dismissed daily from these schools on grounds that, they will serve as bad examples to the other girls in the school, and soil the reputation of the educational establishment.

Waves of shock and anger ran through my family last month when Regine, an 18 year old extended family member, was dismissed from school on grounds that she was pregnant. Dismissed from school in Lower sixth (last but one year in secondary, Regina was no doubt luckier than the 57% of pupils in Cameroon who do not survive to the last grade of primary school; a majority of them being girls (UNICEF).But she is also undisputedly very unlucky in that, prospects of her completing secondary school have been greatly compromised by her purported pregnancy and above all her dismissal from school. Did you get it right? I said purported pregnancy because it has turned out that Regine is not pregnant. Yet she will not be readmitted into her school or any other in the village.

Regina’s case is just one in a thousand of such cases whereby, based on rumor and hearsay, the future of girls in Cameroon is sacrificed on the Alter of morality and Puritanism.

Dismissing Pregnant Girls Robs Them of Their Education Forever

According to statistics from the German Cooperation Agency (GTZ) in Cameroon, 20 -30% of young mothers had unplanned pregnancies with more than half of these girls becoming pregnant after their first sexual encounter, and 25% of them dropping out of school permanently. This, coupled with my observation that a majority of girls dismissed from schools on grounds of pregnancy, rarely ever go back to school, poses a problem of the effectiveness of sex education in the Cameroonian educational system and the raison-d’être of practices like these which makes the school not the safe haven it is meant to be but an environment where exclusion, intolerance, hypocrisy, and terror reigns supreme.

While I agree that teenage pregnancy has to be discouraged, I fiercely oppose the approach to achieving this goal which consists of dismissing pregnant teenagers and advocate for an approach that ‘Manages’ rather than ‘punishes’ teenage pregnancy.

Educating on SRHR: A Shared Responsibility

An efficient management of teenage pregnancy is only possible through the education and sensitization of young boys and girls on their Sex and Reproductive Health Rights(SRHR).In my opinion, this approach is even more inclusive and just when the responsibility of educating children on their Sex and Reproductive Health Rights(SRHR) is shared by all the stakeholders in various communities.

There exist a host of cultural and religious taboos in most rural communities in Cameroon, makes sex education to a considerable proportion of people living in these communities a source of moral decay and a means of making children indulge into sex early. Viewed with a bad eye by most traditional and religious authorities, the restriction of lessons on sex education to basics is the order of the day in Cameroon.

A study carried out by the Germano-Cameroonian Health Program (SRJA), reveals that 62 % of girls who admitted having had an abortion had given birth before the age of 19, and 10% before the age of 16.A majority of these girls did not do any pre-natal medical consultations with 26% of them girls having contracted a sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the previous year. Frightening, no doubt, are the above facts and figures are, even more frightening is the number of girls who die while having an abortion in the towns and villages of Cameroon. How many of these poor outcomes could good sex education and contraceptive access have prevented?

Dismissal: Not a Solution; the Source of More Troubles

To reduce the horror caused by unsafe abortions in Cameroon, Sex and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) should be given the place it deserves in the school curricula. The way sex education is currently being done in schools across the country is very shallow with pupils and students limited on to the concepts around sex while they are not taught their Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights.

In addition to the above, the exclusion of teenage mothers from society through dismissal from school and isolation is a problem rather than a solution. Rather than constantly telling pregnant teenagers that they are a disgrace to their family, their church, or community, they should instead be shown that they can a play a fundamental role in the development of their communities.

The impact of the stigmatization of teenage mothers and the dismissal of pregnant teenagers from schools thus goes beyond just negatively affecting their ability to exercise their right to education, but is having a huge impact on the sexual and reproductive health rights of girls in rural communities in Cameroon. Action that is inclusive is needed if development efforts of each and everyone are to be counted. Because in my opinion, the dismissal of pregnant teenagers rather than being a solution has been the source of many more troubles for communities in my country.

Marrying at 15 is her Greatest Regret

In Cameroon, taxis and other public transport have become the place where Cameroonians most enjoy discussing political and social issues. And so it happened a few weeks ago that I boarded a Taxi whose driver did not stop telling people of the disgust he had for parents who send their girls to school.

‘At 14, when my daughter passes her BEPC(GCE o level), I send her to school for two more years to go and ‘waste time’ so that she reaches 16 and I give her out to a man for marriage. No girl in my home aged 16! Her husband’s home is where she belongs’, said the driver proudly with the tone of his voice revealing how convinced he was of what he had just said.

I looked at him with anger and then thought of the many girls whose lives have been ruined by selfish and inconsiderate decisions taken by their parents to get them out of school and ‘ hand them over’ to their so-called husbands. Furious at the sayings of the driver, I could not help but think about Linda (not her real name), whom I met some years back.

Linda, like 36% of girls in Cameroon, was a victim of child marriage (UNICEF). She hails from one of Cameroon’s rural communities, which account 23% of the cases of forced marriages in the country (UNICEF). Linda dropped out of school in form three (third year of secondary school) 10 years ago following pressure from her parents to marry a man, 20 years older than her, and whom she had never met. Bowing to her parents’ pressure she thus forfeited her rights to education, her rights to choose to marry whom she loves, and her rights as a child.

MARRYING AT 15 YEARS IS LINDA's GREATEST REGRET

Having no choice in the face of this decision taken by her parents, at 15, Linda’s dreams of becoming a Doctor were thus shattered. Today, Linda is 25 , has 3 children whose upkeep is sole dependent her, has become the bread winner for her household, and regrets having giving in to the pressure mounted on her by her parents to get married to this man for whom she has become a child bearing instrument and sole provider.

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that marriage should be ‘entered only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses’. Going by this definition and taking into consideration the stands of the Convention on the Elimination on All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which holds that children below 18 years should not be allowed to get married because they do not have full maturity and capacity to act, one will have every reason to stand against child marriages-any union in this circumstances will be considered as forced marriage.

But according to Plan International, an international Non Governmental Organization (NGO), ten million girls under the age of 18 marry each year. Still not moved? The above figure implies that:
• 833,333 girls under 18 marry each month
• 192,307 girls under 18 marry each week
• 27,397 girls under 18 marry each day
• 19 girls under 18 marry each every minute
• Around 1 girl under 18 marries every three seconds

Despite the fact that all sub-Saharan African countries (except Somalia) are signatories to the Charter on Rights of a Child, Sub-Saharan Africa has the second highest rate of early and forced marriage (38%) according to statistics from the above mentioned NGO . 14.3 million girls in this region are married before they reach 18. Studies show that the average age of marriage in this region remains among the world's lowest and the percentage of adolescent mothers the world's highest.

CAUSES RANGING FROM TRADITION TO POVERTY

In Cameroon, child marriage is most prevalent in rural areas, where poverty , traditions, ignorance of the law, and illiteracy still reign supreme . These include traditional, religious and cultural practices which continue to treat women as commodities and inferior beings that have little or no role to play in their communities and are good only for the kitchen.

Also, the prevailing poverty in rural areas makes the girl the only realistic potential source of income to parents. They thus arrange marriages for these girls and charge a bride price that will enable them buy food, and other household commodities. This may also be to pay back money borrowed by a parent who cannot repay and so gives the daughter in the place of payment.

CHILD MARRIAGE: A WICKED PRACTICE

The negative effects of early marriage in my community go beyond just the girls concerned and affect the children they give birth to. Thus low weight babies and a high rate of morbidity among children born by girls in forced marriages is very common.

Young married girls are more often than not victims of Ve sico Vaginal Fistula (VVF). VVF is incontinence of the bladder which allows the patient to pass urine indiscriminately. VVF in arises in cases of forced marriages because of the very tender age and immaturity of the sexual organs of the girls who are forced into these unions.

Also , young married girls are exposed to: mental health effects, the hazards of contracting HIV/AIDS and STIs from their older husbands and above all to unwanted pregnancies, Premature births, and other pregnancy-related complications which at times take away the lives of these young girls. In fact, in low and middle income countries, childbirth is the #1 killer of young women between ages 15 and 19.

POLITICAL WILL IS NOT ENOUGH TO END CHILD MARRIAGES

I very much agree that political will, the voting of laws that prohibit child marriage, the equitable distribution of resources to its citizens to mitigate the effects of poverty and reduce illiteracy are needed to put an end to child marriages in Cameroon. But I am more than convinced that a more accessible, affordable, conducive, and above all inclusive educational system is needed to effectively fight against forced marriages

The educational system in rural areas is a great push factor for early marriages in Cameroon. Gender based violence(GBV), poor infrastructure, gender bias teaching material(text books), cultural practices which discourage parents from fully investing on the education of women, and a non-conducive learning environment are all motivating factors for girls to drop out of school. Hailing from a rural community, I have observed that most girls who drop out of school have marriage as a main option. Thus, education in rural communities should be made not only more accessible and efficient but also more welcoming to girls.

To guard against the consequences of child marriage, girls must be protected against traditional and religious practices that enslaves and traumatizes them. So that, unlike Linda who is today a roadside roasted maize seller, they all achieve their dreams of greatness in this world. All girls have the right to live happy and fulfilled lives, don’t they?

This blog can also be read at:http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/u/Gastonkwa/2012/4/23/Marrying-at-15-is-her-Greatest-Regret

GIRL OR BOY, WE ARE ALL HUMAN!

March 8 is celebrated the world over as International Women’s day.  I will like to share with you a speech which depicts the reality of being a girl in today’s world, especially in developing countries. In his Nobel lecture in 2001, Koffi Annan insists on the necessity for a global partnership to effectively fight against poverty, gender based violence, hunger,hatred, and all forms of discriminations.  Read this its great and inspiring!

Today, in Afghanistan, a girl will be born. Her mother will hold her and feed her, comfort her and care for her – just as any mother would anywhere in the world. In these most basic acts of human nature, humanity knows no divisions. But to be born a girl in today's Afghanistan is to begin life centuries away from the prosperity that one small part of humanity has achieved. It is to live under conditions that many of us in this hall would consider inhuman.

I speak of a girl in Afghanistan, but I might equally well have mentioned a baby boy or girl in Sierra Leone. No one today is unaware of this divide between the world’s rich and poor. No one today can claim ignorance of the cost that this divide imposes on the poor and dispossessed who are no less deserving of human dignity, fundamental freedoms, security, food and education than any of us. The cost, however, is not borne by them alone. Ultimately, it is borne by all of us – North and South, rich and poor, men and women of all races and religions.

Today's real borders are not between nations, but between powerful and powerless, free and fettered, privileged and humiliated. Today, no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another.

Scientists tell us that the world of nature is so small and interdependent that a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon rainforest can generate a violent storm on the other side of the earth. This principle is known as the "Butterfly Effect." Today, we realize, perhaps more than ever, that the world of human activity also has its own "Butterfly Effect" – for better or for worse.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have entered the third millennium through a gate of fire. If today, after the horror of 11 September, we see better, and we see further – we will realize that humanity is indivisible. New threats make no distinction between races, nations or regions. A new insecurity has entered every mind, regardless of wealth or status. A deeper awareness of the bonds that bind us all – in pain as in prosperity – has gripped young and old.

In the early beginnings of the 21st century – a century already violently disabused of any hopes that progress towards global peace and prosperity is inevitable -- this new reality can no longer be ignored. It must be confronted.

The 20th century was perhaps the deadliest in human history, devastated by innumerable conflicts, untold suffering, and unimaginable crimes. Time after time, a group or a nation inflicted extreme violence on another, often driven by irrational hatred and suspicion, or unbounded arrogance and thirst for power and resources. In response to these cataclysms, the leaders of the world came together at mid-century to unite the nations as never before.

A forum was created – the United Nations – where all nations could join forces to affirm the dignity and worth of every person, and to secure peace and development for all peoples. Here States could unite to strengthen the rule of law, recognize and address the needs of the poor, restrain man’s brutality and greed, conserve the resources and beauty of nature, sustain the equal rights of men and women, and provide for the safety of future generations.

We thus inherit from the 20th century the political, as well as the scientific and technological power, which – if only we have the will to use them – give us the chance to vanquish poverty, ignorance and disease.

In the 21st Century I believe the mission of the United Nations will be defined by a new, more profound, awareness of the sanctity and dignity of every human life, regardless of race or religion. This will require us to look beyond the framework of States, and beneath the surface of nations or communities. We must focus, as never before, on improving the conditions of the individual men and women who give the state or nation its richness and character. We must begin with the young Afghan girl, recognizing that saving that one life is to save humanity itself.

Over the past five years, I have often recalled that the United Nations' Charter begins with the words: "We the peoples." What is not always recognized is that "we the peoples" are made up of individuals whose claims to the most fundamental rights have too often been sacrificed in the supposed interests of the state or the nation.

A genocide begins with the killing of one man – not for what he has done, but because of who he is. A campaign of 'ethnic cleansing' begins with one neighbour turning on another. Poverty begins when even one child is denied his or her fundamental right to education. What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life, all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations.

In this new century, we must start from the understanding that peace belongs not only to states or peoples, but to each and every member of those communities. The sovereignty of States must no longer be used as a shield for gross violations of human rights. Peace must be made real and tangible in the daily existence of every individual in need. Peace must be sought, above all, because it is the condition for every member of the human family to live a life of dignity and security.

The rights of the individual are of no less importance to immigrants and minorities in Europe and the Americas than to women in Afghanistan or children in Africa. They are as fundamental to the poor as to the rich; they are as necessary to the security of the developed world as to that of the developing world.

From this vision of the role of the United Nations in the next century flow three key priorities for the future: eradicating poverty, preventing conflict, and promoting democracy. Only in a world that is rid of poverty can all men and women make the most of their abilities. Only where individual rights are respected can differences be channelled politically and resolved peacefully. Only in a democratic environment, based on respect for diversity and dialogue, can individual self-expression and self-government be secured, and freedom of association be upheld.

Throughout my term as Secretary-General, I have sought to place human beings at the centre of everything we do – from conflict prevention to development to human rights. Securing real and lasting improvement in the lives of individual men and women is the measure of all we do at the United Nations.

It is in this spirit that I humbly accept the Centennial Nobel Peace Prize. Forty years ago today, the Prize for 1961 was awarded for the first time to a Secretary-General of the United Nations – posthumously, because Dag Hammarskjöld had already given his life for peace in Central Africa. And on the same day, the Prize for 1960 was awarded for the first time to an African – Albert Luthuli, one of the earliest leaders of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. For me, as a young African beginning his career in the United Nations a few months later, those two men set a standard that I have sought to follow throughout my working life.

This award belongs not just to me. I do not stand here alone. On behalf of all my colleagues in every part of the United Nations, in every corner of the globe, who have devoted their lives – and in many instances risked or given their lives in the cause of peace – I thank the Members of the Nobel Committee for this high honour. My own path to service at the United Nations was made possible by the sacrifice and commitment of my family and many friends from all continents – some of whom have passed away – who taught me and guided me. To them, I offer my most profound gratitude.

In a world filled with weapons of war and all too often words of war, the Nobel Committee has become a vital agent for peace. Sadly, a prize for peace is a rarity in this world. Most nations have monuments or memorials to war, bronze salutations to heroic battles, archways of triumph. But peace has no parade, no pantheon of victory.

What it does have is the Nobel Prize – a statement of hope and courage with unique resonance and authority. Only by understanding and addressing the needs of individuals for peace, for dignity, and for security can we at the United Nations hope to live up to the honour conferred today, and fulfil the vision of our founders. This is the broad mission of peace that United Nations staff members carry out every day in every part of the world.

A few of them, women and men, are with us in this hall today. Among them, for instance, are a Military Observer from Senegal who is helping to provide basic security in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; a Civilian Police Adviser from the United States who is helping to improve the rule of law in Kosovo; a UNICEF Child Protection Officer from Ecuador who is helping to secure the rights of Colombia's most vulnerable citizens; and a World Food Programme Officer from China who is helping to feed the people of North Korea.

Distinguished guests,

The idea that there is one people in possession of the truth, one answer to the world’s ills, or one solution to humanity’s needs, has done untold harm throughout history – especially in the last century. Today, however, even amidst continuing ethnic conflict around the world, there is a growing understanding that human diversity is both the reality that makes dialogue necessary, and the very basis for that dialogue.

We understand, as never before, that each of us is fully worthy of the respect and dignity essential to our common humanity. We recognize that we are the products of many cultures, traditions and memories; that mutual respect allows us to study and learn from other cultures; and that we gain strength by combining the foreign with the familiar.

In every great faith and tradition one can find the values of tolerance and mutual understanding. The Qur’an, for example, tells us that "We created you from a single pair of male and female and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other." Confucius urged his followers: "when the good way prevails in the state, speak boldly and act boldly. When the state has lost the way, act boldly and speak softly." In the Jewish tradition, the injunction to "love thy neighbour as thyself," is considered to be the very essence of the Torah.

This thought is reflected in the Christian Gospel, which also teaches us to love our enemies and pray for those who wish to persecute us. Hindus are taught that "truth is one, the sages give it various names." And in the Buddhist tradition, individuals are urged to act with compassion in every facet of life.

Each of us has the right to take pride in our particular faith or heritage. But the notion that what is ours is necessarily in conflict with what is theirs is both false and dangerous. It has resulted in endless enmity and conflict, leading men to commit the greatest of crimes in the name of a higher power.

It need not be so. People of different religions and cultures live side by side in almost every part of the world, and most of us have overlapping identities which unite us with very different groups. We can love what we are, without hating what – and who – we are not. We can thrive in our own tradition, even as we learn from others, and come to respect their teachings.

This will not be possible, however, without freedom of religion, of expression, of assembly, and basic equality under the law. Indeed, the lesson of the past century has been that where the dignity of the individual has been trampled or threatened – where citizens have not enjoyed the basic right to choose their government, or the right to change it regularly – conflict has too often followed, with innocent civilians paying the price, in lives cut short and communities destroyed.

The obstacles to democracy have little to do with culture or religion, and much more to do with the desire of those in power to maintain their position at any cost. This is neither a new phenomenon nor one confined to any particular part of the world. People of all cultures value their freedom of choice, and feel the need to have a say in decisions affecting their lives.

The United Nations, whose membership comprises almost all the States in the world, is founded on the principle of the equal worth of every human being. It is the nearest thing we have to a representative institution that can address the interests of all states, and all peoples. Through this universal, indispensable instrument of human progress, States can serve the interests of their citizens by recognizing common interests and pursuing them in unity. No doubt, that is why the Nobel Committee says that it "wishes, in its centenary year, to proclaim that the only negotiable route to global peace and cooperation goes by way of the United Nations".

I believe the Committee also recognized that this era of global challenges leaves no choice but cooperation at the global level. When States undermine the rule of law and violate the rights of their individual citizens, they become a menace not only to their own people, but also to their neighbours, and indeed the world. What we need today is better governance – legitimate, democratic governance that allows each individual to flourish, and each State to thrive.

Your Majesties,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

You will recall that I began my address with a reference to the girl born in Afghanistan today. Even though her mother will do all in her power to protect and sustain her, there is a one-in-four risk that she will not live to see her fifth birthday. Whether she does is just one test of our common humanity – of our belief in our individual responsibility for our fellow men and women. But it is the only test that matters.

Remember this girl and then our larger aims – to fight poverty, prevent conflict, or cure disease – will not seem distant, or impossible. Indeed, those aims will seem very near, and very achievable – as they should. Because beneath the surface of states and nations, ideas and language, lies the fate of individual human beings in need. Answering their needs will be the mission of the United Nations in the century to come.

Thank you very much.

Youth Employment: youth perspectives on the pursuit of decent work in changing times.

Today we have the largest generation of young people the world has ever known. They are demanding their rights and a greater voice in economic and political life. We need to pull the UN system together like never before to support a new social contract of job-rich economic growth. Let us start with young people! UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

In the aftermath of the economic crisis, the global youth unemployment rate saw its largest annual increase on record in 2009, resulting in around 75.8 million unemployed youth For the first time, inputs gathered from young people around the world through an extensive online consultation form the core of the World Youth Report, entitled Youth Employment: Youth Perspectives on the Pursuit of Decent Work in Changing Times.

The report, published by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), also outlines the situation of young people in the labour market and youth employment trends.
Young people and representatives of youth-led organizations were invited to share through digital and social media platforms their views, experiences and recommendations on preparing for, entering, and remaining active in the workforce. A total of approximately 1,100 contributions (as well as photos and videos) were received from young people around the world during the four-week consultation period.



The report reveals that young people are worried about the quality and relevance of their education, as mentioned by Amadou, a 24-year-old man from Senegal: “Today it should be easier to find a job because our generation is the most educated but there is an inadequacy between the training offered and the needs of the labour market.” Other subjects of concern include job vulnerability, labour migration, delayed marriage, and the rural divide, as well as age, gender and racial discrimination.

Overview of the Report

Chapter I introduces the status of young people in the labour market and youth employment trends. It provides a snapshot of key youth employment-related demographics, highlighting the critical role of youth employment in social development. The chapter also considers positive and negative trends across countries in various stages of development to illustrate the state of youth employment world-wide.

Chapter II explores education, as the foundation for working life, with focus on views regarding educational quality and utility. Vocational education, life skills and entrepreneurship are highlighted. The chapter examines what some schools are doing, and what more can be done, to help young people transition to work. It considers ways for educational systems to be more responsive to the changing needs of economies and societies, and labour markets in particular. It also looks at ways in which young people may hold policymakers and decision-makers accountable for fulfilling the right to quality education.

Chapter III focuses on the transition of young people into work, particularly the search for a first job. It examines the availability among youth of information on labour markets and job seeking, and explores various mechanisms and tools to inform and advise young people, from networking to subsidized employment programmes. The chapter also looks into potential emerging areas of opportunity for young people.

Chapter IV explores the quality and conditions of jobs held by youth, and how young people’s working situation interacts with their family and home lives. It addresses high rates among youth of underemployment, participation in the informal economy, vulnerable employment, wages and working conditions. The chapter also examines how a lack of decent work opportunities can influence family life, social processes such as marriage and fertility, as well as health and well-being.

Young people themselves are crucial stakeholders in the pursuit of decent and productive work for all. They are rights-holders and active participants in society, in addition to representing the future global workforce; often times, they are also pioneers. Yet, too frequently, their voices go unheard and their positive and negative experiences and viewpoints unshared, particularly with decision-makers. The present report takes heed of calls by Member States, youth-led and youth-focused organizations, young people and others to bring young people’s voices into fora where youth issues are discussed and acted upon. Therefore, the World Youth Report 2011 is intended above all to explore youth employment issues mainly through the words of young people themselves around the world.

 http://unworldyouthreport.org/

Youth Bulge: A Demographic Dividend or a Demographic Bomb in Developing Countries?

The youth bulge is a common phenomenon in many developing countries, and in particular, in the least developed countries.   It is often due to a stage of development where a country achieves success in reducing infant mortality but mothers still have a high fertility rate. The result is that a large share of the population is comprised of children and young adults, and today’s children are tomorrow’s young adults. 

Figures 1 (a)-(b) provide some illustrative examples. Dividing the world into more and less developed groupings (by UN definitions) reveals a large difference in the age distribution of the population. The share of the population in the 15 to 29 age bracket is about 7 percentage points higher for the less developed world than the more developed regions. In Africa (both Sub-Saharan and North Africa), we see that about 40 percent of the population is under 15, and nearly 70 percent is under 30 (Figure 1(a)). In a decade, Africa’s share of the population between 15 and 29 years of age may reach 28 percent of its population.  In some countries in “fragile situations” (by World Bank definitions), almost three-quarters of the population is under 30 (examples in Figure 1(b)), and a large share of 15-29 year olds will persist for decades to come (Figures 1(c) and (d)).

Source: Author’s calculations based on data from United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2011). World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision. Medium fertility scenario is used for the 2050 projections.

In a country with a youth bulge, as the young adults enter the working age, the country’s dependency ratio-- that is, the ratio of the non-working age population to the working age population—will decline. If the increase in the number of working age individuals can be fully employed in productive activities, other things being equal, the level of average income per capita should increase as a result. The youth bulge will become a demographic dividend. However, if a large cohort of young people cannot find employment and earn satisfactory income, the youth bulge will become a demographic bomb, because a large mass of frustrated youth is likely to become a potential source of social and political instability¹.Therefore, one basic measure of a country’s success in turning the youth bulge into a demographic dividend is the youth (un)employment rate.   Unfortunately, the recent record has not been favorable. While unemployment rates are naturally higher for young people, given their limited work experience, the double digit unemployment rates presented in Figure 2 are worrisome. Typically, the prevailing youth unemployment rates are about twice the rate of the general workforce.   The situation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and in the countries of Europe and Central Asia is particularly troubling: youth unemployment is on the order of 20 percent or even higher. In addition, informality is more prevalent among youth in MENA, so even for those who are employed, there may be problems with job quality².

Source: World Development Indicators and ILO Global Employment Trends for Youth. Two lines for MENA in recent years are for the separate sub-regions of the Middle East and North Africa by ILO definitions.

East Asian economies have been able to turn to the youth bulge into a demographic dividend. Take the Republic of Korea as an example. Over the past forty years, the dependency ratio declined substantially in Korea (Figure 4(a)). In addition to dramatic GDP growth and rapid increases in average wages, youth unemployment has been below 12 percent and often in the single digits in recent years (ILO data cited above). The same is true for China. Its dependency ratio followed a similar pattern to Korea’s (Figure 1(a)). Since initiating economic reforms since the late 1970, China has been able to generate millions of new jobs while also relocating young workers from lower productivity agricultural activities to higher productivity manufacturing—all without experiencing high unemployment among the youthful labor force. In recent decades, countries in North Africa have also experienced dramatic declines in the dependency ratio (Figure 3(b)); however, as we saw above (Figure 2), youth unemployment has been a severe problem.

  Source: United Nations, World Population Prospects: the 2010 Revision.

 The Traditional Policy Response: Prepare the Youthful Supply of Labor

The conventional approach for dealing with youth bulge is to make young people job ready. The idea is that young people’s skills – or more broadly, human capital—needs to be increased to enhance their productivity in the labor market. The 2007 World Development Report, Development and the Next Generation, lays out the policy agenda by focusing on five key life transitions: learning, work, health, family, and citizenship. Three “lenses” are used to focus the policy discussion: opportunities, capabilities and second chances.   Basic skills and access to secondary and tertiary education, for example, are needed to create opportunities, while capabilities to make the right decisions for seizing opportunities can be enhanced through better information, access to credit and other factors. On the other hand, when outcomes are negative—for example, poor decisions lead to low levels of education or exposure to communicable diseases—young adults may need access to services that can help them re-start their economic and personal lives. The 2007 WDR emphasized both the skills upgrading and the institutional setting for improving economic outcomes for young people.

The above discussion provides a useful framework for mitigating youth unemployment issue from the supply side; however, demand for labor services is essential for absorbing new entrants to the workforce. Such a shift in demand can be achieved only by a dynamic change in economic structure. Countries that have been successful in this regard move from a high share of employment in agriculture towards an increasing share of employment in manufacturing first and then gradually to the service sector in the post industrialization stage. Generally, this structural change is accompanied by rural-urban migration, and it usually starts in labor intensive manufacturing.  On an aggregate level, one can look at the sectoral shift out of agriculture and into industry and services – both in terms of value-added and employment. For example, Egypt in 1980 had a GDP per capita (in constant 2005 PPP dollars) of $2,400, while China was only at $524 and Korea was already ten times higher at $5500 (WDI data).   Egypt had only a slightly higer share of agriculture and employment in GDP, compared to Korea; however, this structure largely stagnated in the case of Egypt in the ensuing decades (Figures 4(a) and (b)). Meanwhile, China now with a GDP per capita of $6800 (2005 constant PPP) has a lower share of agriculture in total value added and the employment share has declined continuously.  On a more micro level, countries like Korea have then moved up the industrial ladder to more sophisticated and more capital intensive goods, as capital has accumulated with high investment rates over time^3. Throughout this process, shifting labor demand creates opportunities for working age population to be employed in jobs moving from lower productivity sectors to higher productivity sectors. 

Source: World Development Indicators

The youth unemployment issue has been in the news with respect to the “Arab Spring.”   Many youth protesting in the streets have relatively high education levels. A recent World Bank report⁴ finds that for oil importing countries in the Middle East and North Africa, government sector employment is oversized relative to other middle-income countries, while oil exporters have a high growth sector – oil production—that is not labor intensive. The report concludes “…the number jobs created in the last decade was considerably less than the number needed to address key challenges, such as high youth unemployment, low labor force participation rates, especially among women, and fast –growing labor forces.”⁵ The emerging new leaders in the Middle East and North Africa are acutely aware of the urgent need to tackle youth unemployment.  Indeed, the WDR 2013 on jobs, which is being drafted now and is being shared in outline form with diverse stakeholders, will grapple with this issue, among others.  

How the New Structural Economics (NSE) and the Growth Identification and Facilitation Framework (GIFF) can help put young people to work

A successful development strategy that will facilitate the structural change and create job opportunities for youth can be based upon the principles outlined in the New Structural Economics (NSE) and its policy implementation via the Growth Identification and Facilitation Framework⁶.  The NSE highlights that a country’s economic structure is endogenous to its endowment structure; however, the government needs to play a facilitating role in the process of structural change and this role needs to be structured according to clearly defined principles. 

First, for an economy to be competitive in both the domestic and international market, it should follow its comparative advantage, as determined by its endowment structure.  In the early stage of development, sectors that the economy has comparative advantage will be labor or resource intensive. Examples include light manufacturing, smallholder agriculture, fishing and mining. Only a few activities like mining are likely to be capital intensive in this early stage. In the later stages of development, the competitive sector will become increasingly capital intensive, as capital accumulates thus changing the country’s endowment structure. In the industrial upgrading towards more capital intensive production, infrastructure needs to be improved simultaneously to reduce the firms’ transaction costs, and there is a clear role for government to play in this regard.

Secondly, if a country follows the above principle, its factor endowment upgrading will be fast (due to large profits and a high return to investment), and its industrial structure should be upgraded accordingly. The upgrading entails information (for example, which new industries to invest), coordination (improvement in “hard” (e.g., transport) and “soft” (institutional) infrastructure), and externalities (useful information generated by  “first movers”). All of these aspects involve externalities or public (semi-public) goods that the market will not automatically resolve on its own. The government needs to play facilitating role in help the private sector overcome these issues in order to achieve dynamic growth.

A practical approach for the government to operationalize the NSE is laid out in the six steps of the Growth Identification and Facilitation Framework.   Without getting into all the details, the six steps are: (i) identify the list of tradable goods and services that have been produced for about 20 years in dynamically growing countries with similar endowment structures and a per capita income that is about 100 percent higher than their own; (ii) among the industries in that list, the government may give priority to those in which some domestic private firms have already entered spontaneously, and try to identify the obstacles that are preventing these firms from upgrading the quality of their products or the barriers that limit entry to those industries by other private firms; (iii) some of those industries in the list may be completely new to domestic firms, and the government could adopt specific measures to encourage firms in the higher-income countries identified in the first step to invest in these industries; (iv) governments should pay close attention to successful self discoveries by private enterprises and provide support to scale up those industries; (v) in developing countries with poor infrastructure and an unfriendly business environment, the government can invest in industrial parks or export processing zones and make the necessary improvements to attract domestic private firms and/or foreign firms that may be willing to invest in the targeted industries; and (vi) the government may also provide limited incentives to domestic pioneer firms or foreign investors that work within the list of industries identified in step 1 in order to compensate for the non-rival, public knowledge created by their investments.

As above data reveal, the youth bulge will be an important demographic phenomenon in developing countries, and especially in Sub-Saharan African countries, in the coming decades. While it is important to increase the employability of young people themselves, it is also essential to facilitate dynamic structural change to create jobs for youth. By doing so, the youth bulge can be transformed into a demographic dividend, and the demographic bomb can be defused.

  Justin Yifu Lin
 http://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/

The United Nations will come for us.

  To kick-start 2012, I am proposing we start it with inspiration from a very controversial figure-a person whose legacy as UK prime minister will for a long time be a controversial issue. I am talking of Gordon Brown.

I don't really care about  what people will think of him as prime minister. What matters to me is how I see the man Brown- he is a man with a great  heart and a compassionate soul. 

Please read the speech below which he presented at the 65th UN General assembly dedicated to measuring the progress made by nations in the achievement of MDGs. Since hearing this speech for the first time, it has had a great impact on my advocacy for the achievement of MDGs.Please read on.


"I come to the richest city in this, the richest country, to declare on behalf of the poorest citizens, of the poorest countries, a global poverty emergency that we must now address.

Under Ban Ki-moon's leadership, we gather today from the Head of the African Union President Kikwete to the Prime Minister of China, from Bill Gates to Bono, Governments, NGOs, businesses, people of all faiths and societies, in a new unique and historic coalition against poverty to unite the world in an unprecedented effort from now on to secure the Millennium Development Goals.  And already this is a historic Summit.  Even at this time of financial difficulty, already we know that eight billion dollars has been pledged to reduce poverty.

Now our United Nations Chapter begins, we, the people, and I am humbled to stand here and speak for the thousands of our people who are dying because they are too poor to live and throughout the ages the fate of the hungry, the homeless, the deprived, and what we do to help, has been the touchstone of compassion, the crucible in which our morality is tested.  And we cannot stand aside.  We say we are "one world", but every three seconds, we allow one child to die from extreme poverty.

Some say this time of financial turbulence is the time to put our ambitions on hold, to cut back or postpone the dream of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, but this would be the worst time to turn back.
Every global problem we have requires global solutions, involving all the continents of the world.  We cannot solve the food shortages that face many continents without involving Africa and developing countries.  We cannot solve climate change without involving Africa and developing countries.  We cannot solve the pressure on resources and energy without involving Africa and the developing countries.  And Africa and our developing countries are not the problem - they are part of the very solution to today's problem.
In the museum in Rwanda, which commemorates the thousands killed as the world looked on and looked the other way, there is a picture of a young boy who was tortured to death and the plaque reads:
Name:  David
Age:  10
Favourite Sport:  Football
Enjoyed making people laugh
Dream of becoming a doctor
Last words:  the United Nations will come for us.
But we never did.  Even as he died, that child believed the best of us.  In reality, our promises meant to him nothing at all.

Today, facing famine, we promised we, the United Nations of the world, will come to help, but the hungry are dying while we wait.  Facing poverty, we promise that we will come to help, but poor are dying while we wait.   Facing betrayal of the Millennium Development Goals, we say again we will come, but many continue to die while we wait.  And I believe our greatest enemy is not war or inequality or any single ideology or a financial crisis;  it is too much indifference.  Indifference in the face of sole-destroying poverty, indifference in the face of catastrophic threats to our planet.  A casual uncaring corrosive pass-by on the other side, walk by indifference as [inaudible] said "to be indifferent to suffering makes the human being inhuman", so today again, it is this United Nations of the world that is on trial.  It is our credibilities, as representatives of the global community, that is being tested.  It is our commitment to one inclusive sustainable world that is under challenged.  Our global leadership itself is being questioned and let us face the shameful truth that while we have made huge advances, 40 million more children at school, three million children living who would otherwise have died, three million getting treatment for AIDS, but despite all our promises, with one mother dying in childbirth every minute, the 2015 goal to cut maternal in infant mortality will not be met even in 2020 or 2030, not before 2050.  And the 75 million of the world's children still without a school to go to, the goal promising every child schooling will not be met on present trends in 2015 or 2025 or even in 2100 and I say to the richest countries of the world the poorest of the world have been patient, but a hundred years is too long to wait for justice.

So to seek to make poverty history, we need to make new history today, and make it happen now, so I ask you to take today four goal steps:

- first, on health, that we recruit and train a million health workers, saving the lives of three million mothers and seven million children;

- second, on malaria, we agree that we will stop all malaria deaths by 2015, to ensure everyone has a bed net by 2010, to fund the research for the vaccine that can prevent the loss of life;  and

- then on education, to get 24 million more children into school by 2010, to get us back on track to universal education by 2015;  and

- fourth, on famine, to prevent today's starvation in the Horn of Africa, to fund and deliver seeds and fertilizers to 30 countries in time for the planting season, to invest ten billions in Africa so it can help feed not just Africa, but feed beyond Africa with its exports.

In the past, feed the world meant that we helped to feed Africa.  In future, if we do things right, we will do best by enabling Africa to feed the world.

So, let this United Nations, this leaderhip of the world, today rouse the conscience of the world.  Someone else's global citizens to great and common purpose so that millions of men, women and children trapped in the prison of poverty can at last be set free."

States must not ignore human rights in efforts to end poverty

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

Accelerating progress on the Millennium Development Goals

Save Our Rural Areas! Part .2

 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

SAVE OUR RURAL AREAS! Part 1

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.

AGRICULTURE:ULTIMATE WAY OUT OF POVERTY Part 2.

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.