Improving the living conditions of the public, boosting growth and employment unavoidably depend on good statistical information. Aware of this fact, government through the National Institute of Statistics has begun a national household survey. For three months the survey team will visit 13,000 homes in all ten regions across the country.

The main objective of the 4th edition is to produce indicators on the living conditions of the population, in order to help in the reduction of poverty, follow up and evaluate the National Growth and Employment Strategy Paper, and the progress towards the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals, as well as assess the effects of the on-going vast infrastructural projects on the living conditions of households in the past five years.

The exercise, which began last September with a training session for survey agents, proceeded with effective surveys on October 1 and will end in December this year.

Previous edition of ECAM indicates that poverty rate has dropped from 53.3% in 1996 to 40.2% in 2001, and again to 39.9% in 2007. Monetary poverty has shifted from 13 points between 1996 and 2001 has remained relatively stable within the period 2001-2007, that is, from 40.2% in 2001 to 39.9% in 2007.

The Director of Financial Affairs at the National Institute of Statistics, Fabasso Jean, said the figures enable the government to have in place poverty reduction actions in favour of women in the Far North, programme to improve rural family revenue, etc. The less than 4% growth rate is below expectation, hence cannot substantially reduce poverty and does not allow for a significant improvement of the living conditions of the households.

A meeting to sensitise the public and officially launch the collection of information for the national survey christened ‘Fourth Cameroon Household Survey,’ ECAM 4, presided over by the Secretary General at the Littoral Governor’s Office, Ludovic Ngbwa, held in Bonanjo October 23, 2014.