Academic literature on the topic 'Yaoundé (Cameroon) – Economic conditions'

The notion of civil society became popular and generalized in Africa during the 1990s, through the initiatives of international bodies like the World Bank and agencies for international development. In Cameroon, the economic recession caused by the deterioration of exchange rates and falling prices of agricultural raw materials (coffee, cocoa, and co on) has favored the emergence of these actors alongside the state in managing and improving the living conditions of those urban populations. In the field of reproductive health, civil society, through associations, is pursuing public orientation through services of education, promotion, and diffusion. Observing the Association for the Struggle against Violence against Women (ALFV in French) ALFV and Women, Health, and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa (FESADE in French) shows how a health policy is operationalized via endogenous initiatives. This research, which is mainly empirical, was conducted between 2006 and 2009 with institutional health managers and managers of associative structures in Yaoundé and throughout Cameroon. Spanish la noción de sociedad civil se populariza y vulgariza en África hacia los años 90 bajo la iniciativa de instancias internacionales como el Banco Mundial y las agencias de desarrollo. En Camerún, la recesión económica debida a la caída de las tasas de cambio y a la baja en las materias primas agrícolas (café, cacao, algodón) favoreció la emergencia de dicha sociedad paralelamente al Estado en la gestión y mejoramiento de las condiciones de vida de las poblaciones urbanas. Por ejemplo, en el campo de la salud reproductiva, la sociedad civil, en la forma de asociaciones, lleva a cabo acciones públicas a través de los servicios de educación, promoción y difusión. La observación de los ejemplos de la Asociación para la Lucha contra la Violencia contra la Mujer (ALVF en francés) y de Mujer, Salud y Desarrollo en el África subsahariana (FESADE en francés) permite ver cómo se operativiza una política de salud a través de iniciativas endógenas. Esta investigación esencialmente empírica fue desarrollada entre 2006 y 2009 con los responsables institucionales de salud y con los responsables de las estructuras asociativas de Yaoundé y Camerún. French La notion de société civile se popularise et se vulgarise en Afrique vers les années 90 à l'initiative d'instances internationales comme la Banque mondiale et des agences d'aide au développement. Au Cameroun, la récession économique due à la détérioration des termes de l'échange et à la chute des prix des matières premières agricoles (café, cacao, coton) a favorisé l'émergence de cet intervenant aux côtés de l'Etat dans la gestion et l'amélioration des conditions de vie des populations urbaines. Dans le domaine de la santé reproductive, la société civile, sous la forme d'associations par exemple, poursuit les orientations publiques à travers des services d'éducation, de promotion et de diffusion. En observant les exemples de l'ALVF et de la FESADE, nous étudions comment s'opérationnalise une politique de santé à travers des initiatives endogènes. Ce e recherche, essentiellement empirique, a été menée entre 2006 et 2009 auprès de responsables institutionnels de santé et de responsables des structures associatives à Yaoundé et dans d'autres villes du Cameroun.

Cameroon has 93969 different enterprises (NIS, 2010) operating in varied fields aimed at fostering economic growth. The enterprises confront challenges such as infrastructural weaknesses, unfavorable business climate and poor governance (World Bank, 2013), thus leading to disappointing results in terms of economic growth. Such a situation has attracted much attention from businessmen and policy-makers alike as to what to do in order to reverse the situation for favorable job creation and economic growth. The paper aims at examining the impact of external financing to enterprises in order to offer employment in Cameroon. Econometrically analyzing a sample of 180 loan recipients and 273 non-loan recipients, using the decomposition technique of Blinder-Oaxaca (1973), results show that enterprises that received external funding were more performing and creating jobs than those that did not, especially those operating in Yaoundé and Douala. A positive gap of total number of employees existed between loan and non-loan recipients estimated at 15 employees per enterprise. Also, such loans received positively amplify the actions of productive factors in Yaoundé and Douala considering the number of establishments and businesses. Equally, there exist a difference due to observable characteristics of enterprises and their coefficients, contributing 181.1 and 140.12% respectively for loan and non-loan recipients. We therefore recommend that the state, financial institutions and enterprises should work in synergy to collectively improve on enterprise financing so as to boost employment in Cameroon that can lead to economic growth.

Bushmeat is a major food and economic resource in sub-Saharan Africa, and with increasing urbanization bushmeat consumption has spread from villages to cities. To facilitate long-term monitoring of the bushmeat market in Yaoundé, Cameroon, we carried out a baseline survey of the transportation routes of bushmeat into the city and of urban bushmeat sales. We inventoried all bushmeat sales points, and located 15 markets and 145 restaurants and cafeterias selling an estimated total of 1,052 bushmeat dishes per day. This trade provides an occupation for 249 people, of whom 84.3% are women. Trains from Ngaoundere in the north and minibuses from the east supply more than 70% of the sales points in the Elig-Edzoa market, located next to the railway, and the Nkoldongo bus station. From these two places bushmeat is redistributed to other commercial sites within the city. The routes into Yaoundé transport bushmeat from a vast area of the country and in particular from the savannah and central provinces, which are rich in wildlife and contain National Parks and safari hunting areas. However, overall, bushmeat consumption at commercial outlets in the city is low relative to the number of inhabitants.

Since the mid-2000s, the political capital of Cameroon, Yaounde is undergoing construction with many urban development projects coordinated by the Yaounde City Council carried out in residential areas and informal settlements. These various activities as many other urban development projects have impacts on the living conditions of the inhabitants. This article focuses on the projects specifically carried out in the informal settlements, aims at analyzing the meaning and the scope of those projects in the lives of individuals and communities. Indeed, this work, is interested in the different operations of eviction, opening up and restructuring that took place in the informal settlements as well as their social consequences on the entire population of the city. It describes these different operations as public actions that are not deployed over the entire area occupied by the popular neighborhoods in Yaoundé, but only on certain slums concentrated around the central town. These results and conclusion are developed from data obtained during direct observations in the slums, from archives and from semi-structured interviews with some urban actors who participated in the implementation of urban development programs in the slums of Yaoundé.

In developing countries, the management of solid waste constitutes one of the main challenges of the present decade. A pre collecting pilot operation taking solid waste from individual households to municipal bins was implemented at Melen in Yaounde. The methods used for the preparation of this operation included meetings between project partners to agree on project objectives and implementation, the identification and interviewing of key actors, conducting a population census and an assessment of the waste generating activities in the targeted area, documenting research, meetings for information sharing and discussion with the inhabitants and the mapping of potential waste collecting itineraries in the targeted areas. By the end of the first year of investigation, we identified the actors of waste management and the services they offered, identified the youth associations capable of waste collection process implementation, and assessed the population’s ability to finance collection the cost of which varied between US$1.25 and US$5 per month. In addition, we noticed that 81% of the households were ready to pay for the pre collection of their waste. The project team endeavoured to create an environment that supported dialogue among various actors enabling follow-up and supervision of the process on the field. The assessment of the first 5 years of the waste program has proven the commitment of the inhabitants to participate in this type of operation through the direct payment for the service: 40 % of the targeted households continued to pay for the pre collection service. The total contribution collected is about US$7,750 per year that permits the employment of 8 persons. This operation collected 22.4 tons of waste per month between 2002 and 2007, waste that would have been otherwise thrown into the streams, directly improving the environment and the population's health in these quarters.

RESUME :

Comme la plupart des villes africaines, Yaoundé, capitale du Cameroun, est confrontée aux phénomènes d’urbanisation croissante. Cette urbanisation rapide n’est pas accompagnée d’une croissance économique. En fait, le pouvoir d’achat extrêmement bas, le chômage, le sous-emploi, la pauvreté, voire la misère, ont amené une frange importante de la population à inventer de nouvelles solutions pour s’assurer un revenu. C’est alors qu’apparaît le phénomène d’agriculture urbaine et périurbaine. La caractérisation de cette agriculture a mis en évidence une interaction entre les catégories d’acteurs, les types d’espaces, les types de cultures, les produits obtenus et les revenus moyens générés. Il ressort de l’analyse des résultats que cette forme d’agriculture emploie près de 2000 personnes, pour la plupart des jeunes et, surtout, des femmes, dont la moyenne d’âge est de 35 ans. C’est une activité basée principalement dans les bas-fonds marécageux, le bas des pentes, les abords des routes avec une forte pression sur l’espace. Les cultures sont diversifiées et sont à dominance maraîchère, vivrière et floricole. Elles varient en fonction des trois espaces étudiés, à savoir l’auréole urbaine, la zone périurbaine et l’hinterland rural.

L’analyse du système de commercialisation a mis en évidence trois types de circuits à travers lesquels les produits transitent des producteurs aux consommateurs. Ce sont notamment les circuits longs, les circuits courts et les circuits directs. Dans ces circuits de commercialisation, la régulation du marché se réalise au niveau de tous les intervenants. Cela signifie que les prix des produits ne sont pas fixés d’avance, mais varient en fonction de la demande. En ce qui concerne la rentabilité, l’analyse sur les comptes d’exploitation des cultures de céleri, de ndolé et de morelle noire indique que cette agriculture est rentable avec un gain moyen journalier de près de trois euros pour les producteurs. C’est la raison pour laquelle certains maraîchers estiment qu’à la place d’un travail salarial de près de 75euros / mois, ils préfèrent rester dans leur jardin.

Cependant, aucun cadre juridique et réglementaire lié à l’exercice de cette activité n’est disponible. Aucun article de loi ne l’autorise. Nous avons noté également de nombreuses autres contraintes liées à l’organisation des producteurs, aux pratiques, à la structuration et la mise en marché des produits. Ces résultats ont alors d’importantes implications quant à la compréhension des interactions entre les agriculteurs en ville et le monde politique de Yaoundé. Les fonctions multiples de cette activité tel que l’emploi pour les jeunes, les revenus substantiels pour les couches des populations les plus vulnérables, la gestion des déchets urbains et la beauté du paysage étant autant d’attraits qui concourent à son encouragement.

Les stratégies qui visent à susciter l’implication des producteurs urbains dans le développement de la ville de Yaoundé ont été mises en œuvre à travers la CAUPA (Coalition pour la promotion de l’agriculture urbaine et périurbaine en Afrique). L’intégration de ces stratégies dans les schémas directeurs d’aménagements urbains, pourrait contribuer à concilier les défis d'une amélioration du bien-être des populations en quête de survie. Cette thèse met en évidence la nécessité d’une médiation entre les différentes catégories d’acteurs pour une agriculture urbaine et périurbaine de qualité. Les résultats pourront permettre aux décideurs et administrateurs des villes de disposer d‘informations utiles sur l’importance de cette forme d’agriculture qui est, non seulement montante, mais aussi controversée.

SUMMARY:

As in most African cities, Yaounde, the capital city of Cameroon, is faced with the phenomenon of urbanization. This leads to socio-economic problems especially in food supply and acquisition of basic necessities. The extremely low purchasing power, unemployment, underemployment, poverty - say misery, brought a significant proportion of the population to invent new solutions to ensure basic income through urban and peri-urban agriculture. The characterization of this agricultural system highlights the interaction between various stakeholders, types of spaces and crops, productivity and average revenue generated. Results show that this agricultural system has generated employment for about 2000 people, mainly youths and especially women, with 35 years average age. The activity is based mainly in lowland floody zones, low slope, landscaping roads with increase land pressure. Vegetables, gardening and flowers are dominant diversified crops noticed in the area. These crops vary from urban, peri-urban and rural areas, three landscape which were studied.

The analysis of the marketing chain show three main types of distribution chains through which products pass from producers to consumers. These include long distribution, short distribution and direct channel. In these channels, the regulation of the market is achieved at the level of all stakeholders. This means that the prices of the products are therefore fixed in advance, and also are functions of demand. Regarding profitability, the analysis on the farmer’s accounts of Celery, Bitter leaf and Black nightshade indicates that this agriculture is profitable with an average daily gain of almost 3 euro per producers. That's why some gardeners believes that instead of a salary of almost 75 euro per month, they prefer to stay in their farm.

However, no legal and regulatory framework related to this activity is available in the case of Yaounde. Also, there are many other constraints related to the organization of producers, practices, structuring and implementation of products in the markets. These results have important implications to the understanding of the interaction between farmers and policy makers. The multiple functions of this activity such as youth employment, income for substantial segments of the most vulnerable populations, urban waste management and the beautification of the landscape is as much attraction that contribute to its promotion.

A strategy to encourage the implication of urban producers in the development of the city of Yaounde has been implemented through CAUPA. The integration of these strategies in urban planners, could help for the challenges of improving people’s welfare. Subsequently, this thesis brings forth the need for a mediation between different stakeholders and contributes to good quality of peri-urban agriculture. The results can therefore enable decision-makers and policy to provide useful information on the importance of this form of agriculture which is not only rising, but also controversial.

Doctorat en Sciences agronomiques et ingénierie biologique
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Linking education, science and technology with national development is a subject of increasing concern in many developing countries. In this dissertation, we have studied empirically the contribution, or lack of it, which public investment in education, science and technology has made to the attainment of development objectives in Cameroon since 1960. Using a small computable macroeconometric model of Cameroon incorporating some major relevant quantitative aspects of the knowledge sector, we have investigated the effects on that sector and on the overall economic system of increased education- and research-service resources. We have also analyzed some of the major qualitative factors that are important in this sector.
Our results suggest that, given existing patterns of education, science and technology in Cameroon, the contribution of public investment in this sector may be small compared to the potential contribution suggested in the literature. The implications of these results are examined for policy-making and planning at the national level.

Since the emergence of business journalism as a genre within the broad spectrum of news reporting, most of the scholarly works into its development have focused on growth in the western (that is developed) world. This indicates that very limited research has been done in the field of business journalism in the developing economies. Thus there exist gaps in understanding the practice of business journalism in Africa and part of this is rooted in how the practice is defined. This study aims to shed light on the practice of business journalism in this African context. It explores the onset and development of business journalism and its evolution in Africa. The main focus in this case study was to understand the definition of business news in the specific context of the Cameroon Tribune. Individual in-depth interviews were used as the main (primary) data collection method along with observation and cursory reading as complementary (secondary) methods. This study is influenced by the sociology of news production which foregrounds theoretical frames such as news construction and gatekeeping. Findings from this study reveal that business news at the Cameroon Tribune is elitist, essentially defined around personality and, is in the most part, development news. Additional findings indicate that the absence of any editorial guidelines leaves most reporters secondguessing how to please management with socialised values mostly acquired through peer learning. In conclusion, this study advances the necessity for the Africanisation of business news. This would entail reporting financial, economic, consumer, and corporate affairs, from a vocabulary and composition context that unveils much exchange taking place in the lives of many Africans.

Thesis (MA (Political Science. International Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.
Bibliography
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research has used a critical discourse analysis approach encompassing postcolonial theory and theory of media effects in order to investigate the influence of political discourse in the media upon youth’s violence in Cameroon. As a result it has been found that the use of private violence by young people in urban cities has become ordinary. Such an attitude reflects among other some aspects of youth’s lifestyle designed to cope with the hardship of their social status and to resist the elite’s dominance. While no counter-narrative has been found in the independent publications about the portrayal of youth’s violence as criminal by the state-owned press, the young people nevertheless have produced through a street culture a narrative deconstructing the political discourse in the media and highlighting their grievances in a more or less violent tone. Thus the use of private violence during the riot in February 2008, is far from an isolated (re)action of angry young people , it obeys the very practicality of their existence and the political turmoil it might cause is incidental to the way of life in which it is embedded.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die navorsing het ‘n kritiese diskoers analise-benadering gebruik wat ‘n postkoloniale teorie en ‘n teorie van media-effekte insluit om sodoende die invloed van politieke diskoers in die media op jeuggeweld in Kameroen, te ondersoek. Daar is gevolglik gevind dat die gebruik van private geweld deur jongmense in stedelike gebiede normaal geword het. So ‘n houding reflekteer onder andere sommige aspekte van die jeug se leefstyl wat ontwerp is om die ontbering van hul sosiale status te hanteer en ook die elite se dominasie te weerstaan. Ofskoon geen teen-narratief sover gevind is in die onafhanklike publikasies oor die uitbeelding van jeuggeweld as krimineel en die publikasies van die staatsbeheerde pers wat die jeug uitbeeld met min agentskap nie, het jongmense wel ‘n teen-narratief geskep deur ‘n straat-kultuur. Hierdie teen-narratief dekonstruktueer die politieke diskoers in die media en onderstreep hul griewe in ‘n geweldadige toon. Dus die gebruik van private geweld gedurende die onluste in Februarie 2008, wat nie as ‘n geïsoleerde (re)aksie van woedende jongmense gesien kan word nie, is getrou aan die wese van hulle bestaan en die politieke onrus wat dit moontlik mag veroorsaak, is bykomstig tot die leefstyl waarin dit vasgelê is.”

Cette thèse est construite en trois parties. La première est tout d’abord consacrée à une analyse réflexive de l’engagement ethnographique qui prend la rue comme terrain, et aux diverses formes de relation et de visibilité auquel conduit ce choix. Le cadre théorique et méthodologique affirme en particulier des positions méthodologiques et théoriques à l’égard de l’informalité. On y trouve également une acception élargie de la production, qui inclut les métiers urbains de service, ainsi que la nécessité d’étudier ensemble production et reproduction pour lire l’agencement des rapports sociaux. La seconde partie s’emploie à la reconstruction de la genèse de la division sociale du travail au Cameroun, dans un contexte colonial de « mise en valeur » et dans celui, postérieur à l’indépendance, des étapes de mutations économiques ayant affecté les logiques et formes de mise au travail des hommes et des femmes et produit une forme spécifique de séparation entre production et reproduction. En quatre périodes historiques, on y lit ainsi une généalogie des formes d’emplois urbains et des rapports sociaux qui les structurent, et tout particulièrement les rapports de sexe, de classe et de génération, inscrite dans le cadre du capitalisme global. Dans la troisième partie l’analyse du matériau empirique récolté pendant le travail de terrain et au-delà permet d’analyser les inégalités sociales à Yaoundé, de décrire des modes de vie et leurs difficultés matérielles et d’éclairer les stratégies pour faire face à la pauvreté. L’ethnographie révèle la division sociale du travail et des positions dans les métiers urbains, organisée autour de l’extorsion de surtravail sous forme de rente, sous diverses modalités, en une compétition forcenée, qui aboutit à reléguer les femmes et les enfants aux tâches de reproduction sociale, sans pour autant les écarter des tâches de production. Cette thèse de sociologie prend le parti d’inscrire l’analyse des métiers urbains dans une socio-histoire du capitalisme et de son implantation au Cameroun. Elle dépasse les catégories de travail formel / informel pour faire l’analyse matérialiste des formes de mise au travail articulée avec celle d’étudier ensemble, et non de façon dissociée, la production et la reproduction, à la lumière des rapports sociaux de sexe, de race, de classe et de génération. Cette thèse éclaire non seulement les rapports de domination et d’exploitation, mais aussi les formes de résistance et d’agencéité, au prisme de deux outils conceptuels qu’elle forge et enracine soigneusement : celui de régime libéral communautaire, et celui de rapport de rente d’exploitation
The research relates to urban workers in Cameroon. As part of a theoretical inquiry, the manner in which we produce was given a fresh approach, in a new conception of work. To that end, the author has moved away from the tenets of the sociology of work to consider the city as a unit of production of useful services. That made it possible to widen the analysis in terms of work relations and grasp the dynamics of conflict, domination and exploitation, and also of change in the activities covered. The analysis is focussed on the forms employed in urban trades in Cameroon, by showing their characteristics. The decision to give that examination a historical perspective has made it possible to show that some trades have acquired a structuring role in the urban relations of production in Cameroon. That is true of the taxi services trade, which occupies a hegemonic place. Without being anachronistic or ethnocentric, it would appear that this area of work plays the part played by small artisans in English urban centres during the emergence of industrial capitalism in that country as described so well by E.P. Thompson. With their collective industry institutions, these workers have had a structuring role in the transformation of relations with work, and have provided leadership in social struggles. This ethnographic study in Yaoundé took place in a social atmosphere of apparent stability. Indeed, from the people’s protest movements of ‘dead cities’ in the early 1990s to the ‘hunger riots’ in 2008, Cameroon was experiencing a situation of permanent insurrection. When the author toured the country in 2010, the protests seem to have died down. That was certainly a forced break, in the face of violent repression by the government. The field work was therefore carried out during that apparent lull in 2010-2011, 2012 and 2015.The aim was to study the issue of the work and social reproduction of urban workers in Cameroon. What are its forms and determinants ? How has it changed in the course of the years since the start of development under colonial rule up to the contemporary period of structural adjustment ? How do the people get organised when they are excluded from the system of ordinary law ? The author believes that to address those questions, it is of relevance to use a sociohistorical approach that articulates work relations of class, race, gender and also generation

Cameroon is found in Central Africa and is bordered by Nigeria, Chad, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo. Due to its strategic location, Cameroon is the maritime gateway for commercial goods to the landlocked region of Central Africa (Chad, Central African Republic, and northern Congo). It has an area of 475,442 square kilometres (km) and has a population of 23.4 million inhabitants. Its capital is Yaoundé, but the largest city in terms of population and economic importance is Douala, where the main seaport and the busiest airport of Cameroon, Douala International Airport, are found. The autonomous port of Douala represents 80–85 per cent of the maritime transport of Cameroon and is the largest port in the CEMAC (Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa). A secondary airport is found in Yaoundé, the Yaoundé Nsimalen International Airport.