The Minister of Women’s Empowerment and the Family, Marie-Thérèse Abena Ondoa has urged Secretary Generals (SG’s) of the various Ministries to get women actively involved in development oriented activities that can help move the country forward. She was speaking last Friday in an advocacy conference on gender mainstreaming organised by her ministry in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNDP).
Though the country has few women in decision-making positions, Marie-Thérèse Abena Ondoa declared that the rate is still low and this does not enhance initiatives to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs. Though the country has made strides in the previous years in getting more women into decision making positions, she said more remains to be done, to ensure that women actually make their voices heard when important decisions concerning the development of the nation are being taken. “Equal rights and duties remain a challenge to the nation,” she reiterated. Women make 50.5 per cent of the country’s population, participate in the country’s economic activity for close to 40 percent and have close to 96 per cent of farm produce, yet they are not actively involved in decision making. Active in the informal and formal sectors and contribute to child education, not forgetting how they lose lives while giving live, Mrs Marie-Thérèse said, adding that there is need for both parties to support her and make it a reality that gender equality is possible and important to the socio- economic and political development of the country.
The Resident Representative of the UNDP in Cameroon, Alain Sibenaler, said his institution is elaborating two documents that can help enhance gender mainstreaming in Cameroon. “We are proposing an advocacy approach that enables decision makers understand that it is important to promote gender and investment in women,” he said. He emphasised on the need to mainstream gender in all spheres of life; political decision making by giving data that show the inequality between men and women in every day life. “We are also proposing a very simple guide where every decision maker starting from SGs of ministries has a checklist where they can see how and whether gender is properly mainstreamed in their own ministries,” he noted.
Figures from an advocacy kit by the UNDP indicate that women representation in development oriented programmes in Cameroon is far below standards. Out of 339 mayors in the country, 23 are women while 316 are men. 24 women have been elected to the National Assembly is the 2007-2012 legislature against 155 for men. 15 per cent of them are said to occupy positions of responsibility either as Director Generals or associates. Out of 71 posts for State Directorate Generals, women occupy only four while men occupy 67.
