Cameroon

CESO Supports a Group Fighting Violence Against Women

by Marquita Riel
July 2006

Cameroon, a secular Central African republic, will hold elections in 2007. Already, Parliament has voted a law to decentralize decision centres; implementation of the law has yet to be voted, and the entire population hopes this will take place before the elections. CESO’s action takes place against this backdrop.

The purpose of the action is twofold: first, to increase the participation of young people and women in administering municipalities, and thus in the electoral process, by registering as many as possible on electoral lists; second, to increase the number of candidates from these two groups, neither of which has made itself heard to any significant degree until now because of the highly traditional nature of Cameroonian society which favours men and elders.

In this context, we worked with two groups of women from the Far North region. This is an area where Islamism predominates and women’s situation is extremely harsh: it includes polygamy, forced marriage of minors, genital mutilation, sororate, levirate and low levels of education for women, all of this in a context of extreme poverty.

Women who are partners of the Project are leaders of tribal or village women’s associations or members of existing political parties. They were recruited by Antenne Nord of the ALVF (Association de lutte contre la violence faite aux femmes, i.e., Association to Fight Violence against Women). We have chosen to carry out our action with women belonging to this association, which has been in existence for about ten years. The women guided us throughout the region and provided us with the information we needed to act effectively.

We have worked to develop for women leaders and ALVF members, and deliver to them, a training program designed to increase their knowledge and skills in the areas of advocacy and lobbying.

The first stage of our work, carried out in close cooperation with the two directors of the ALVF, involved developing a gender-sensitive training session in order to provide women with greater knowledge and power in relation to the mechanisms of participation in the political process. The session consisted of two parts.

The first was a theoretical section dealing with three basic aspects of women’s situation:

1. women’s civil rights as defined by the country’s constitution,
2. gender studies, which clarify the distinction between biological and cultural elements of women’s identity,
3. the various kinds of political action available to women, including advocacy and lobbying.

A second practical section was intended to provide women with both tools for advocacy and an understanding of the concrete aspects of lobbying.

As a preliminary to the practical work, we established for each of the two groups what is known as an electoral platform: a consensual statement on three major political demands to be emphasized in future advocacy and lobbying efforts. The platforms that emerged in the two groups proved very similar.

Both included the question of girls’ low level of education and the weakness of women’s representation in local decision-making bodies. Each of the electoral platforms had only one item that was not shared by the other group: in Maroua the women focused on eradicating harmful practices, while in Kousseri, they chose to emphasize the struggle against poverty, noting the financial needs of women’s associations and the struggle for women’s rights as landowners.

Once the electoral platform was established, the women used role plays to practise the skills of argument and advocacy. To help with lobbying, we gave them a guidance sheet which they will fill in by writing down elements of the process: chosen target, chosen platform item, the arguments they use, the counter-arguments they hear and their assessment of their own impact.

Finally, to make sure that the training program does not remain a dead letter, we organized each group as a support network, with an executive committee that is expected to carry out tasks such as fundraising, training sessions, periodical meetings, telephone follow-up, etc. We have kept in touch with the Association that sponsored this training activity.

According to the latest news, a day has been spent reviewing aspects of lobbying, as planned according to the Maroua group agenda, and the Maroua Executive Committee has had one meeting. A training session on the working of municipal councils was also part of the agenda and has been provided to members of both groups. I am told that telephone follow-up on lobbying efforts is still being done.

In conclusion, nowhere have women definitively achieved an increased role in their country’s political life. However, the case of Cameroon, and especially the Far North region, stands out because its traditional culture is so fiercely opposed to women’s emancipation and because of the extreme poverty experienced by the majority of the population. In this context, it becomes imperative for women to make their voices heard in local and national decision-making bodies to ensure that issues of concern to them are taken into consideration and that they are able to influence the political and economic choices of policymakers.

Cameroonian women, and especially those from the Far North, have a long way to go: the simple act of speaking in public is a huge step that few women are brave enough to take, and those who do take it are in need of a kind of support that neither their family, their tribe or their religion will provide.

For this reason, a common electoral platform was added at the beginning of the advocacy and lobbying training program and mutual help networks were established at the end in order to provide support for women who assert themselves in public. I believe that the key to success in our mission resides in our ability to continue, not only to provide a variety of training programs, but to support the two networks that have been established and that in turn provide support for courageous women who are taking risks to improve their condition and the condition of other women.

Marquita Riel taught in the University of Quebec at Montreal's Human Relations program for 35 years. She served, in turn, as Chair of the program, then Vice-Dean of the Letters and Communications Family, and finally Dean of Letters, Language and Communications Faculty.  Marquita retired two years ago and is now a volunteer adviser with CESO.

Archives:

March 2006: Canada-Cameroon Project to Promote Greater Public Involvement in Local Governance

(NB: This press clipping is in French only.) - Projet de renforcement de la participation de la population à la gouvernance locale : Des conseillers volontaires au Cameroun, Réseaux -  novembre-décembre 2006 (Voir le document en format PDF)

For further information, please contact:

CESO:
Apollinaire Ihaza
Program Manager for Africa
(apollinaire@saco-ceso.com)
Tel. 514-875-7226, ext. 105

Canada25:
Andrew Medd
Executive Director, Canada25
(amedd@canada25.com)
Tel. 604-675-7371, 416-230-7595 (cell)