The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a set of objectives which were identified by the 189 member states of the UN, who have in turn committed themselves to achieving before 2015. The Goals are eight in number and each of them has identified target(s). These goals aim at ameliorating the troubles of mankind, especially those living in disadvantaged situations and circumstances.
Cameroon is one of the countries that has committed itself to attaining the targets set by these Goals. Given the fact that youth constitute the greatest proportion of the population, like in many countries, it is necessary to examine the role they play or should play in this task.
The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of youth participation as it currently exists, to outline the ways in which youth are directly involved and affected by each Goal, to demonstrate the ways in which young people are contributing to the MDGs and to offer suggestions on how to accelerate the pace of implementation of these Goals.
To do this, we need to look at the eight goals and the targets they contain, and then proceed to examine the goals in order.
THE MDGs AND THEIR TARGETS
GOAL 1: ERADICATE POVERTY AND HUNGER
Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than 1 dollar per day.
Target 2: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
GOAL 2: ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION
Target 3: Ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course in primary schooling.
GOAL 3: PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN
Target 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and at all levels of education no later than 2015.
GOAL 4: REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY
Target 5: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.
GOAL 5: IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH
Target 6: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio.
GOAL 6: COMBAT HIV/AIDS,MALARIA, AND OTHER DISEASES
Target 7: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Target 8: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.
GOAL 7: TO ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY.
Target 9: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources.
Target 10: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.
Target 11: By 2020, achieve a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.
GOAL 8: DEVELOP A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT
Target 12: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system.
Target 13: Address the Special Needs of the Less Developed Countries.
Target 14: Address the Special Needs of landlocked countries and small island developing states.
Target 15: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term.
Target 16: In co-operation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth.
Target 17: In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries.
Target 18: In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially in information and communications.
GOAL 1: TO ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER
Though Cameroon prides itself as being the ‘food basket’ of the Central African sub-region, the hardships experienced by Cameroonians are progressively more biting; not only is the number of ‘have-nots’ growing in proportions to the number of ‘haves,’ the gap between the rich and poor is increasingly widening. A growing number of people are unable to meet their basic needs. Food production is dwindling and hardly keeping up with the number of mouths to be fed. Though Cameroon is naturally rich, its potentials are either ill-exploited or under-exploited. Wealth is concentrated in a few hands, while many, especially the youth, shy away from gainful agricultural activities, under the erroneous pretext that they have been groomed for white collar jobs in school.
If the targets for the first goal are to be met, a number of measures and actions need to be undertaken:
- Self-income generating initiatives such as young farmers projects, home gardens, etc. need to be encouraged, supported, and promoted;
- Government must create mechanisms that ensure young people are involved in the development of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper;
- Development policies should prioritize the growth of rural areas, which have high percentages of unemployed youth and little public infrastructure, by engaging young people in creating necessary services and infrastructure; and
- Young people should be engaged in the fight against corruption.
GOAL 2: ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION
Education is the single most important factor for young people in leading productive and responsible lives. Their ideas, talents and skills must be developed to foster peace, equity and sustainability. Education is development – it creates choices and opportunities for people, reduces the twin burdens of poverty and disease, and gives people a stronger voice in society. For nations it creates a dynamic workforce of well-informed citizens able to compete and cooperate globally, opening doors to economic and social prosperity.
In Cameroon, the government’s education policy is commendable; there is free primary education, and each year new institutions of learning are created, teachers are recruited, and the budget allocation for education is always a heavy package. Education is the only domain with four ministries to carry out government’s policy: MINEDUB, MINESEC, MINESUP, and MINESEP. Much, however, still needs to be done if this goal is to be achieved. The Education Policy needs to be tailored toward meeting the employment needs of the country; amongst other things:
- Youth, who make up a great proportion of the teaching staff in schools, need to be more committed in their jobs;
- Government needs to take more measures to ensure that primary education is effectively free;
- Terms and conditions of service and training for the teaching staff need to be improved; and
- Measures need to be introduced to ensure that all students attend school and that students are involved in the enforcement of these measures (student councils).
Achieving Target 3 of the MDGs will help achieve targets for all the MDGs; it will combat poverty, promote gender equality, create awareness of HIV/AIDS and maternal health, and promote environmental sustainability.
GOAL 3: PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN
Gender inequalities have important negative implications for development outcomes and the well-being of families. Women and girls generally bear the most direct costs of these inequalities because of discriminatory social norms, incentives, and legal institutions. There is a great need to promote gender equality and the empowerment of young women and girls.
Gender inequality starts early and keeps women at a disadvantage throughout their lives. In Cameroon, girls are more likely to drop out of school and to receive less education than boys because of discrimination, education expenses and household duties.
The Cameroon government’s gender policy (essentially implemented by the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Family) pays attention to these challenges, hence the steady, albeit slow, increase in the number of female ministers, parliamentarians and mayors, and the appointment of female divisional and sub-divisional officers, who can act as role models to young women and girls.
In order to consolidate the policies and actions that have been embarked upon, steps should be taken to:
- Introduce programs that provide opportunities for young women to fully participate in decision-making processes including male advocacy programs;
- Encourage and support the advancement of women in the political arena; and
- Strengthen national efforts to implement initiatives under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
The empowerment of women is linked to every MDG and gender analysis should be incorporated across all the MDGs.
GOAL 4: REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY
In Cameroon, 95% of children under five years die for every 1000 births – the vast majority from causes preventable through a combination of good care, nutrition and medical treatment. The major causes of child mortality are a lack of access to family planning, poor water quality and sanitation along with related diseases such as cholera, diarrhea and malaria, lack of sexual and reproductive health education and services and poverty.
Young people can contribute toward the reduction of child mortality in their communities. This is possible through training young people to provide health related services to their peers. Young mothers, midwives, health professionals and community health workers need to be trained in the provision of high quality pre and post-natal care. Youth advocacy initiatives are needed to ensure the provision of essential vaccinations, clean water and air, and sanitation to children at risk. These is also the need to promote peer-to-peer education on adolescent reproductive health and unwanted pregnancies.
GOAL 5: IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH
Worldwide, more than 50 million women suffer from poor reproductive health and serious pregnancy-related illnesses and disabilities. Every year, more than 500,000 women die of complications from pregnancy and childbirth (according to the WHO). Most of these deaths occur in Asia, but the risk of dying is highest in Africa.
In order for maternal health to be improved, there needs to be programmes that deal specifically with material health, safe motherhood and nutrition. In Cameroon, religious and cultural barriers continue to present a challenge when addressing maternal health, and therefore need special attention.
The government’s health policy lays a lot of emphasis on maternal healthcare. For this goal to be achieved, there is the need to:
- Establish youth friendly clinics to help prevent child-bearing at young ages and unplanned pregnancies, as well as promoting longer intervals between pregnancies;
- Improve the involvement of men in maternal health programmes;
- Promote reproductive and sexual health education in rural and urban areas through formal curricula and non-formal activities; and
- Get young people involved in preventing harmful cultural practices through experience sharing and the exchange of ideas.
GOAL 6: COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA, AND OTHER DISEASES
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are among the world’s biggest killers. These diseases interact in ways that make their combined impact worse. Globally, everyday, 6000 young people become infected with the virus (according to UNAIDS), and statistics show that young girls in particular are the most vulnerable to infection; therefore the susceptibility of youth to HIV/AIDS must be examined in detail.
The Cameroon government’s concern with regards to this problem can be seen in its involvement in youth related Anti-AIDS campaigns and the subsidization of anti-retroviral drugs. Anti-AIDS committees have been created all over the country to help check the pandemic. Government also works in collaboration with other bodies like the African Synergy for the fight against AIDS, GTZ, UNAIDS and WHO, among others.
The AIDS situation in the country can be better improved upon, with a behavioral change from the youth, who are most infected and affected by the disease. Youth need to be involved in sexual behavioral research and in the implementation of programmes. This might prove more effective given the fact that young people trust and understand themselves and share similar fates and beliefs in issues related to sex. There is also the need to involve HIV-positive youth in decision-making processes.
GOAL 7: ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Environmental issues are directly related to the achievement of the MDGs, given the fact that the Goals cannot be pursued in a vacuum. This Goal calls for the involvement of young people in environmental issues which include the provision of clean and safe water and renewable energy and promoting sustainable consumption.
For this to be attained:
-Intergovernmental agencies should develop or scale-up and replicate initiatives supporting youth participation in policy and programmatic development on environmental sustainability;
-Governments, intergovernmental agencies and youth organizations should develop partnerships for joint environmental initiatives aimed at building capacity in young people at the national level; and
-Global networks amongst youth organizations should be built and supported.
GOAL 8: DEVELOP A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
Strengthening global partnerships is vital to ensuring that young people become active partners as well as beneficiaries in development. An aptitude for development can serve as a means for involving youth and creating sustainable livelihoods that provide new opportunities for today’s isolated youth to participate in the global economy.
The options for action could include:
-Advancing ICTs to enhance and increase productivity, strengthen regional networks and increase educational opportunities which will address unemployment and economic growth;
-Advocating for youth representatives to be part of government delegations to regional and UN leaders meetings; and
-Lobby for increased funding support from donor agencies to help countries meet their commitments to the MDGs.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that the greater responsibility for the achievement of the MDGs lies with youth. Given the fact that they have continuously been relegated to the background, and the fact that they are in the majority, we wish to call on the youth to pool their resources together at the local, national, regional and global levels, to seize their rights and work for the good of their peers and consequently their entire society. This can only be done if the youth shy away from the social ills in which they are currently involved – drug abuse, corruption, laziness, prostitution, theft, tribalism and nepotism, to name but a few.
Positive leadership will only be attained with hard work, which should begin with the recognition of hard work. With concerted efforts, the youth can move mountains.
* AJI James is a holder of a B.SC.(Hons) International Studies and an M.Phil. International Relations (Diplomacy), from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, Nigeria and the International Relations Institute of Cameroon (IRIC) Yaounde, respectively. He presently works at the Cameroon Ministry of External Relations, Yaounde.
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