Bertoua, regional headquarters of the East region played host to the 6th edition of the National Solidarity and Social Entrepreneurship week from January 10 to 14, 2023.
The 6th edition of the national solidarity and social Entrepreneurship week, known by its French acronym as SESES took place from the 9th to the 14th of January 2023 in the town of Bertoua, East region of Cameroon.
This year’s edition placed under the theme: “Stakes and challenges of social protection in Cameroon” was mainly aimed at mobilizing all national actors and development partners around the need to set up a public and private partnership-based answer to decentralized social protection system in order to respond collectively, effectively and efficiently to social protection needs of socially vulnerable persons.
As underscored by Minister Pauline Irène Nguene, Social Affairs Patroness in Cameroon, the SESES is a major activity included in Programme 71-Social Protection of Groups with specific vulnerabilities and National Solidarity.” This program just like many which are of high importance in the ministry of social affairs is to facilitate the reduction of social vulnerabilities and effectively transform generally excluded categories into true citizens who are aware of their obligations and capable, according to their capacities, of contributing to the achievement of the growth objectives set out in the Development vision “Cameroon, an emerging democratic country united in its diversity by 2035”.
In her key address, the Minister stressed on the fact that 2023 will be quite challenging and difficult due to health and security crises nationwide and worldwide.
“Climatic risks such as floods or landslides and human disasters like the recent agro-pastoral conflicts in the northern part have in turn contributed to the displacement of populations and their precariousness. This situation of social fragility has been further exacerbated by the negative impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the daily lives of Cameroonians and particularly Socially Vulnerable People known as PSV (children including those in difficult situations, disabled people, elderly, internally displaced persons, women, young people, etc.).” She outlined.
Minister Nguene equally underscored the urgent need to support socially vulnerable people who are greatly affected by some impacts in our society.
The Minister stated: “It should be remembered that the said categories constitute more than 2/3 of the total population of Cameroon estimated in 2017 at 23,248,044 inhabitants. Indeed, the proportion of dependents, that is children under 15 and people over 60, represents 49% of the population. To this, must be added persons with disabilities 15% (according to the United Nations ratio), internally displaced persons and refugees, indigenous populations within the meaning of the United Nations, and all the indigent and needy whose request for assistance received in the Units Operational Techniques of MINAS is increasing.”
In her closing remarks, she added: “The National Solidarity and Social Entrepreneurship Week appears then as a forum for advocacy, partnership building, and commitment taking aimed at promoting social inclusion of socially vulnerable persons. For this reason, I urge The Regional and local Councils and all of the stakeholders to adhere to this action of beneficial social work and give their maximum support and necessary synergy to it, by taking the commitment to reserve every year a permanent contribution for national solidarity in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Affairs in order to ensure the socio-economic reinsertion of socially vulnerable persons.”
One key issue outlined during the 6th edition of SESES in Bertoua was that of Cameroon’s commitment to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals which are part of strategies mapped out by the government in the National Development Strategy (NDS30).
Elise Kenimbeni
