Motivated by the injustices of which women were already victims in the world before the 13th century, the promulgation by the United Nations of an international day of reflection on the evaluation of the state of play of women's rights in the world in with a view to promoting new development perspectives centred not on a feeling of dominance or subjugation, but on complementarity in the service of a common interest essential in the harmonious development of society, is a laudable initiative still threatened by odious acts perpetrated by individuals confined on their selfishness.

In Cameroon, we are increasingly observing weeks of reflection and cultural events crowned by colourful parades which truly denote an appreciable degree of awareness. International Women's Rights Day is no longer an opportunity to indulge in all forms of madness but rather a day of celebration preceded by one or more weeks of reflection with a view to improving the status of women in society.

Entrepreneurship and women’s empowerment in Cameroon

Like most developing countries, the Cameroonian economic sector is characterized by the activities of the informal sector which in 2020 would have contributed 57% to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) (nkafu policy institute – 2020). But what exactly is GDP? What is a good and what is a service?

Let us take this example focuses solely on the case of the usefulness of an informal activity in a market located within an urban, district or rural municipality. The owner of a production unit or seller of a product W on a market Y, provides a paid service to a buyer Z, then pays a daily, monthly or annual tax from his income to the market administration, thus contributing to the gross domestic product of the country calculated by the national institute of statistics.

Product W is a good. The sale of the product is a paid service which is obtained thanks to a means of exchange which is a currency and which a percentage of income allows you to pay a daily or monthly tax to the market administration.

GDP is an economic indicator used to measure a country's production of wealth or the value of all goods and services produced in a country over the course of a year. For the formal sector, goods and services are all products created by a business that contributes to the country's GDP by paying taxes to the ministry of finance. With regard to the activities of the informal sector which are characterized by a range of activities, namely the informal urban and peri-urban production sector (agriculture, wood and metal carpentry, construction, etc.), the informal art sector (jewellery, sculpture, weaving, sewing, shoemaking, etc.), informal service (catering, urban transport, hairdressing, sewing, mechanical or electrical repair) and informal exchange (distribution, commerce, etc.), despite the payment of certain taxes to municipalities, most of them are not subject to taxes; This is why the budgets at the local authority level do not correspond to the real economic dynamism of cities.

The third survey on employment and the informal sector in Cameroon published in 2021 by the national statistics institute specifies that just as in 2010, the informal sector in Cameroon is characterized by informal production units concentrated in the commerce sector. More than half of them, or 56.1%, are run by women and as part of their activities, 6 out of 10 Informal Production Units do not have professional premises, and three out of 10 of them work at home. 

These figures sufficiently demonstrate that no income-generating activity is useless and that better supervision of these activities practiced in arbitrary and informal ways would further boost the country's GDP. 

But the empowerment of women through entrepreneurship or through an income-generating activity is a good option if it obeys two principles: Firstly the principle of dual sufficiency in a life as a couple or a serious marriage, and that of self-sufficiency in a premarital life. The first assumes that life as a couple or better yet marriage is serious. The exploitation of a social position or a very profitable activity in order to submit the other or to prove that one can do without him is a trend to be eradicated as much as possible in a serious union where complementarity is required. If we are to continue an adventure together, it must be able to obey this principle. Otherwise, it might be better to choose the separation option. The second principle is a means of fighting against the race for marriage at all costs to show others that we are also married or in a relationship. If indeed marriage is a wonderful thing, it is not an end in itself. It is also possible to succeed socially without being married.

For a woman or young girl to chase marriage is a lack of self-confidence which leads to unnecessary agitation and favours the proliferation of unsuitable de facto union with pathetic or even dramatic consequences. We must marry for love and not just to have the status of a married woman and suffer permanent physical and psychological abuse afterwards. And even if the condition of love must be put at the forefront, it must be shared and the marriage project must be thought out and carried by both spouses.

The worker is not only the one who brings money home but also the one who takes care of all the other necessities that family life entails. Encouraging women to become entrepreneurs so that they are autonomous should also be a way of fighting against false conceptions which limit the role of women to procreation and the relentless search for a life as a couple which exposes them to physical abuse emanating from an execrable feeling of superiority.

empowerment through an income-generating activity also aims to demonstrate that there is no activity or role that is suitable only for women within a family but that everything must be taken in the sense of complementarity which would like that the usefulness of a woman is not limited only to the level of cooking or behind an income-generating activity which would no longer make her only a “consumer”.

Also read : Gender equality : challenges of a world frozen in erroneous masochistic and cultural considerations

Any initiatives aimed at encouraging women to have or create an income-generating activity other than the tasks to be accomplished within the family unit are laudable if they are part of a dynamic of cohesion within a family where individualities should serve the family in several ways in order to achieve a fair balance favourable to the development of all members of the family.

True empowerment is first and foremost a question of education and mentalities. It is often said that the role of women is limited to the kitchen, sometimes forgetting the fact that it is in the kitchen that everything is prepared and carried out. The notion of cuisine would like us to see beyond our macho considerations to seek for the right balance, that is to say, what contributes to the well-being of everyone.

Each year or each March 8 should therefore be an opportunity to implement an action plan whose achievements must be evaluated over the course of a year and after one or more years. Every woman is by nature an entrepreneur. Managing a family is an entrepreneurial activity that involves many daily efforts or sacrifices for the proper functioning of the family. A person who already has an entrepreneurial spirit only needs to be encouraged and supported for the good of the greatest number.

OCHA/Kate Holt

Themes and achievement of the objectives targeted in Cameroon and in the world

The defence and improvement of women's rights in the world, in Africa and in Cameroon in particular, is a long-term fight. This permanent quest, which dates from the time of workers' struggles and women's demonstrations at the turn of the 18th century in the North of the United States of America and in Europe around the year 1701, was officially recognized by the United Nations on 08 March 1977. After this global call to celebrate women while continuously campaigning for the defence of their rights and the adoption of concrete measures to improve their living conditions in society, Cameroon began 9 years later on March 8, 1986 to celebrate women always through themes which demonstrate that this day is not only an opportunity to celebrate, but also an opportunity to take a further step or to begin the departure towards a very specific objective to be evaluated over time.

International Women's Rights Day is therefore not only an opportunity to seek to obtain a textile updated each year and which has become not only a tradition, but an obsession orchestrated by profitable marketing strategies taking advantage not only of the fact that there is more women than men, but also because women are obsessed with this optional tool which can however be renewed only after ten years in order to allow as many people as possible to obtain it and allow more time to the fight against serious problems that harm the development of women in societies with alarmist specificities.

Every March 8 or every week of March 8 is an opportunity to ask yourself useful questions. Where are we with regard to violence against women and young girls after fifteen (15) years? Where are we in terms of access to education, training, science and technology for decent work for women after the age of 13? Where are we in terms of women's empowerment after 9 years?

On the educational level, notable efforts have been made. Despite a slightly higher enrolment rate in favour of boys, the enrolment of young girls is on the rise even if it should be noted that their numerical superiority should normally allow a higher enrolment rate than that of boys if we take into account the results of the third general census of the human population (RGPH) carried out in 2005 on the basis of the RGPH carried out in 1987. This RGPH carried out in 2005 estimated the Cameroonian population as of July 1, 2019 at 24,348,251 of which 50.6% women. According to the World Bank, this figure would be above 27 million, still with a numerical superiority in favour of the female gender. To this it must be added that a good number of women, particularly in rural areas, have followed and continue to follow training with a view to the beneficial use of IT tools.

Regarding gender-based violence, on the other hand, according to the policy note published by the national statistics institute in 2020, whatever the form of violence, between 2004 and 2011, the figures fell. In 2018, 13% of women were victims of sexual violence. This is because of early marriages, common-law unions or cohabitation, and financial dependence on the spouse.

In his opening speech to the biannual conference of governors in Yaoundé on December 20, 2023, the Minister of Territorial Administration informed national opinion that more than 80 married women or young girls, living in cohabitation or in a free union have reportedly been beaten and murdered in Cameroon by their spouses since the beginning of 2023.

The association fighting violence against women, for its part, specifies that the rate of feminicides during the first half of 2022 (January-July) is higher than that of 2023. There are therefore still enormous efforts to be made to change this trend which requires more resources, both financial and technical, to enable certain women to escape this form of enslavement to which they have unfortunately become accustomed. Denunciations as well as local awareness campaigns via traditional authorities, ministers of religion and private and secret consultation cells should make it possible not only to loosen tongues but above all to reduce the scale of this undesirable global phenomenon.

Women claim their rights and they have the right not only because they deserve it but because they are human beings in their own right just like men. This is the reason why even at the institutional level, quotas must be respected. If we indeed follow the same academic and professional paths to ultimately have the same qualifications to varying degrees, this means that all genders have their place in all fields. To be autonomous is to put oneself at the service of others and not to allow oneself to be enslaved by others. Men just like women must invest in achieving this ideal so that there are fewer individuals so full of themselves that they demean and humiliate women under the fallacious pretext of being the stronger sex.

Empowerment is an ongoing quest that requires the involvement of all societies around the world so that countries where women's rights lag behind make additional efforts as do places where they are ahead. Each year is an opportunity to converge more towards societies where the demands of the feminine gender must be taken into consideration.

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