Sixty young professionals, graduates, students and school dropouts aged between 15 and 35 have brainstormed on Cameroon’s economic situation with a focus on its Vision 2035 and the worldwide post-2015 agenda. They decried exclusion from decision making positions but resolved to make themselves available and acceptable for leadership.

The post-2015 agenda is another 15-year development slogan of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) expected to be adopted this September in New York by the various governments to replace the expiring slogan of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) meant for 2000-2015.

The youth came from the Centre, Littoral, North West, South, South West, and West Regions of Cameroon. The boys and girls from diverse backgrounds sojourned in Buea 11 and 12 August under the auspices of Women for a Change Cameroon (WFAC).

Their reflections centred on poverty, inequality and climate change as issues that are triggering three critical world summits this year. The summits include the last July meeting in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) on financing the global development goals, the up-coming September gathering in New York (USA) to sign the sustainable development goals and the December assembly in Paris (France) to adopt a global agreement averting the dangerous climate change.

The SDGs, as explained by WFAC’s Coordinator, Zoneziwoh Mbondgulo Wondieh, include No Poverty, No Hunger, Good Health, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Clean Water and Sanitation, Clean Energy, Good Jobs and Economic Growth, Innovation and Infrastructure, Reduce Inequalities, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Responsible Consumption, Protect the Planet, Life below Water, Life on Land, Peace and Justice, and Partnership to defend the Goals.

Incidentally, Cameroon’s emergence programme called Vision 2035 is tailored on the lines of the SDGs. The Vision has gained the strong adherence of the nation’s youth said to constitute 64 per cent of the population.