Women Emancipation in Cameroon: How can men contribute

In a bid to foster women’s empowerment and gender equality in Cameroon and around the world, the UN Women; United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, office in Cameroon on October the 29th, 2015 organised a discussion forum on the theme “the contribution of men and boys to the promotion of gender equality and the emancipation of women in Cameroon”.

The representative of the Minister of Women Empowerment and the Family used the occasion to laud the efforts of UN Women as their activities fall within government’s action plan to foster women’s empowerment and gender equality with boys and men as main partners in the course. The Country Representative of UN Women, Adama Moussa, said the objective of the 9th edition of “Cafe Genre” is to evaluate the contribution of the male folk to the course, notably on communication on the universal challenges of gender equality and the stakes of male involvement, canvas for male support in gender equality and women empowerment as well as share experiences on ongoing efforts to ensure gender equality in Cameroon.

During discussions moderated by Prof. Nnomo from the University of Yaounde I, panelists drawn from the youth and communication sectors in the country took time to elaborate their roles as agents of change in advancing gender equality in Cameroon. The first speaker, a representative of the Director General of CRTV, Mrs Mama Nchare talked on how to change a purely male dominated organisation to gender balance organisation and for what results. Mrs Mama Nchare focused on CRTV as case study. The President of the Cameroon National Council, Jean Marc Mbafor shared ideas on youths and the construction of a society based on equality for a transformative change. At the end of discussion, it was revealed that men and boys have an inevitable role to play for the development of women in the society.