Improving the employability prospects of Internally Displaced Adolescents for future educational and employment opportunities, Nkongsamba West Region-Cameroon.
Date: 1 – 2 November 2024.
Donor: USAID through YALI RLC DAKAR, SENEGAL
Implementing Partner: YALI West Africa Alumni Association-Cameroon (YWA-AAC)
Project rationale:
Cameroon hosts over a million IDPs making her the second largest population of IDPs in Central Africa after the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The vast majority fled violence in the North, Northwest, and Southwest regions. The ID Index Report 2022 highlights around 909,000 people living in displacement in Cameroon as a result of conflict and violence and around 28,000 as a result of disasters. Most of the youths concerned have missed out on several years of schooling, and many have been separated from their parents and communities after fleeing fighting to seek refuge in safer towns within the regions and out of the regions. Most IDPs now reside and live in the peripheral of the affected regions while others are scattered in other parts of the country including urban areas. Livelihood opportunities for these IDPs are very limited pushing most IDPs to engage in short-term precarious employment such as child labor and prostitution to survive. Widespread cases of these have been reported in the area to which IDPs have been displaced. These realities together with the missing years of education, place these youth in more marginalized positions in the labor market. Labor market vulnerability (e.g., unemployment, temporary employment, unpaid employment) is particularly acute among Cameroonian youth (ages 15-35), who are not only more likely to be in precarious employment but often remain economically inactive. Young people in Cameroon are twice as likely as non-youth to have exited the labor force (19 percent vs 10 percent), with even higher rates among young women (World Bank, 2021). Given the present circumstances, tailored employment support interventions are, therefore, needed to support individual development, promote social cohesion, and effectively utilize the country’s human capital. There is a need to support young internally displaced people with relevant life and employability competencies to support job preparedness for future education and employment opportunities. Transitioning to gainful employment requires the identification of individual interests and strengths, and making the right choices. Developing ideas for a future career and making decisions to enter the labor market are key tasks during adolescence.
Why the West region of Cameroon
Labor market vulnerability in the west region of Cameroon is particularly acute among youth, the majority are girls who are often not in education or employment. Adolescent girls are often among the most vulnerable group involved in precarious employment which is largely in the informal sector.
Goal: To increase the employability prospect of internally displaced adolescent girls who are not in education or employment by strengthening their entrepreneurial competence through sport.
Objective: To improve the entrepreneurial competence of 50 internally displaced adolescent girls by supporting the development of individual attributes for problem-solving and decision-making through physical activity.
Target group: Out-of-school girls (15 – 18 years old).