Research has revealed that the realisation of gender equality and women empowerment in Cameroon will need more than just ratifying and adopting gender-friendly laws.

The study, titled The Gender Equality Agenda: Evaluation of the Millennium Development Goal 3 in Cameroon, carried out by Tabi Marriane Enow, a Masters student at the International Relations Institute, IRIC, states that the MDG 3 of Promoting Gender Equality and Women Empowerment is far from being achieved in Cameroon.

The research shows that, despite the fact that Cameroon has adopted and ratified almost all international, regional, legal instruments for the protection of women’s rights, the Cameroonian woman still witnesses discrimination occurring within the family, the community and the nation, which inhibits her ability to exercise autonomy.

Elaborating on why Cameroon is far from achieving the MDG 3, the study discloses the persistence of inequalities using indicators such as inequalities in women’s employment and earnings, girls’ dropout rate from school as the education ladder moves up, women’s unequal access to funding since they are considered by most credit institutions to be high risk borrowers, women’s limited representation in decision-making positions, women’s unequal assess to inheritance and land.

The study reveals that most actors in charge of promoting gender equality and women empowerment in Cameroon see the ratification and adoption of gender-friendly laws by the Government as an ended commitment and not a means to implementation.

Using the Ministry of Women Empowerment and the Family, MINPROFF and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment, UN Women, as reference points, the study shows how both institutions give different explanations as to why inequalities still persist in Cameroon.

MINPROFF, on one hand, talks more specifically of inadequate human and financial resources to take care of more than half of the population. They explain that the Ministry’s budget has been experiencing constant cuts and it has the lowest this year, despite the fact that it is charged with taking care of issues relating to more than half of Cameroon’s population; while UN Women reveals that such inequalities persistence stem from inadequate ownership of ratified legal instruments for the protection of women’s and girl’s rights.

They hold that adopting and ratifying an instrument is one thing, but fully implementing it is an additional process that requires the concerted efforts and collaboration of all actors.

The research equally revealed that the MDG was limited from its inception, stating that the goals were made from a global perspective, not looking at the effort Cameroon as a country would need in order to make the same relative degree of progress at the same time with other developed countries within the same time framework.

It also asserted that even though the three indicators under Goal 3 reflect important dimensions of achieving gender equality, the goal failed to target Cameroon’s critical gender concerns such as violence against women and girls, women’s disproportionate share of unpaid care work, women’s unequal access to assets, violations of women and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights, their unequal participation in private and public decision-making beyond national parliaments and female genital mutilation. All these, the research said, make it difficult for Cameroon to achieve the gender agenda of equality.

The study proposes that laws should go beyond ratification if the Government of Cameroon has to live up to its international commitments vis-à-vis gender equality and women empowerment.

It also proposes that laws condemning harmful practices should be implemented and enforced, while at the same time, confronting those which damage the integrity and diminish the humanity of girls and women.