It was during a dinner conference moderated by Cyrill Edou Alo'o, the director general of this strategic direction of the Ministry of Finance, held on March 7 in Yaoundé.
On March 8, 2024, Cameroon, together with all the countries on the planet, celebrated the 39th edition of International Women's Rights Day. As a prelude to this event, ladies from numerous organizations, associations, institutions and administrations carried out for a week a set of activities related to the gender issue, such as the dinner conference organized by the General Directorate of the Budget ( DGB).
Based on the theme chosen this year in Cameroon, namely: “Investing in women, accelerating the pace”, the Amazons of the DGB found it interesting to discuss this subject by asking the fundamental question of knowing what investments What should be done to accelerate the pace towards gender equality within the DGB, the Ministry of Finance and Cameroon in general?
To answer this question, they invited a set of high-level panelists with the specific objective of identifying investments that have already been made. And above all the levers that must be activated to effectively accelerate the pace towards equality between men and women. During her very enriching presentation, the professor, Viviane Ondoua Biwole, for example, identified a certain number of these levers or actions to be carried out to truly achieve the 50/50 objective as desired by international human rights bodies. wife.
She indicated that this concerns discretionary power, remuneration, training for women and girls and gender-sensitive budgeting. This, not without having taken stock of the issue.
She noted that although they often have the job profile, women are marginally represented in both elective and nominal positions.
Returning to a work that she had written in 2022, the university professor noted that in Cameroon, only 17% of women are members of the government and none has moved from one ministry to another since 1960, 22% chairmen of the board of directors and 16% general directors of listed public companies.
In the CTDs there are only 30 female mayors out of 360, there are no women among the presidents of regional councils, etc. Statistics which contrast with the commitments of the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, who for example committed during the presidential elections of 2011 and 2018 to “accelerate the process of institutionalization of gender parity”, t - she points out.
In addition to the theoretical aspects covered by Professor Viviane Ondoua Biwole, other gender experts presented on practical aspects such as the evaluation of the state of gender implementation within the DGB. It is visibly satisfied that the female staff of the DGB separated from their top manager Cyrill Edou Alo'o this February 7 around a festive dinner while waiting for the highlight of the activities the next day.
Reaction
Cyrill Edou Alo’o , Director General of Budget
The festivities marking the 39th edition of International Women's Day were launched by the Cameroonian authorities and throughout society and not just within administrations. The celebrations continue and are varied. Within the DGB, we thought it necessary to organize a conference debate on the official theme of “Investing in women, accelerating the pace”.
We therefore analyzed the said theme around the speakers following the example of PR Viviane Ondoua Biwole who raised all the issues on which gender issues must still progress taking into account the projects already carried out...Interventions and many others which aimed to train and enable the women and men of the DGB to become aware of gender issues...The different levers on which we must act to accelerate the pace have been identified and we leave here with proposals and an action plan to be implemented within the DGB in line with that of the Ministry of Finance and the national plan… We will therefore work on this action plan and its implementation.
Comments collected by Julien Efila
Comments