The Community Initiative For DevCom

1)We are committed to solving the problem of Digital Exclusion of young people especially girls in hard to reach communities of South West Cameroon, by providing access to  the Digital Economy through training  to this vulnerable group  who have been deprived of education due to armed conflict.  Due to the raging conflict, this vulnerable group of young people  has been  forced out of  their communities to adjacent, safer communities, but do not have access to basic education or livelihood skills.

2) In 2018,Codec Started The Aminkeng Centre for the Empowerment of Young Women(ACE Women) to train these young IDPs in Sewing ,Manicure and Pedicure and ICT for Digital Inclusion. The ICT Component has since not started due to absence of equipment and trainers.

3) If scaled up, it would increase the participation of this vulnerable group in the Digital Economy and sourcing for alternative livelihoods thereof.

The economies of Central Africa, Cameroon inclusive  are making slow progress in creating digital jobs, due to significant structural constraints: less than 48 in 100 people have access to electricity, while the mobile phone subscription rate (66.9%) remains ten points below the African average. Only 9 out of every 100 people use a computer in Central Africa. One-third (34.2%) of the region is covered by 4G. The high cost of subscriptions explains the low Internet penetration rate, which is 26% compared to an average of 35% for Africa, and the few jobs created by digital technology.

The digital economy represents a tremendous opportunity for the structural transformation of Central Africa. For this reason, it was chosen as the second goal of Agenda 2063 .This goal is part of the African Union’s aspiration to create a “prosperous Africa, based on inclusive growth and sustainable development” (African Union, 2015). In Cameroon, the number of direct jobs created in information and communications technology (ICT) is reported to represent 3-5% of the labour force, while each ICT job generates 4.9% of jobs in other sectors. (Wamba and Ndjie,2019).Leveraging digital technologies to promote entrepreneurship and foster the digital transformation is important.

Our solution involves providing access to Digital Tools for  young IDPs ,especially girls  through Training using the UNESCO Guidelines for Digital Inclusion for Low-skilled and Low-literate People. For low-skilled and low-literate users even the simplest technology interactions can be challenging. There is a real need to provide training and support to these users as they encounter digital solutions for the first time.

There are four major barriers to digital inclusion  identified by UNESCO and which our solution sets out to address. These include lack of infrastructure; low incomes and affordability; limited user capabilities; and lack of incentives to go online.

So, in collaboration with the Buea Institute of Technology ,we shall provide training for these IDPs in the following Basic Computing, Graphic Design, Web Design, Web Applications Development, Software Development, Computer Maintenance, Computer Networking, Digital Photography, Videography and Digital Marketing.These basic Digital skills will empower them to create jobs for themselves in the Digital Economy.

Since October 2016, the North West and South West  regions of Cameroon have been brought to a standstill by strikes and protest and an armed conflict.. First, led by teachers and lawyers defending the special status of  education and law in these English-speaking or anglophone regions, the protests spread to the entire population.  

A violent crisis erupted over perceived marginalization. The escalation of tensions, armed battles between non-state armed groups and security forces, and significant violence against the civilian population have since triggered major humanitarian needs across the two regions, linked to substantial internal displacement. Since 2017, the Non-state Armed Groups (NSAG)  demanded the closure of schools. They threatened or burned down establishments that remained opened. As a consequence, as of December 2019, 83% (5,307 out of 6,379) schools were closed, putting 81% (841,330 out of estimated 1,033,000) children out of schools and 73% (21,128 out of 28,866) teachers not reporting to work owing to the life-taking threat posted on them and children as well as attacks on education facilities. Education is used as political instrument by the parties in the conflict. Since 2017, the crisis has had a  substantial social and humanitarian impacts on children and education in the two regions  of the country. The conflict has also had repercussions for the education. The whole system has failed in providing access to inclusive learning. An estimated 1,033,000 school aged children have been affected by the crisis. They were denied the opportunity to learn and develop themselves. Tellingly, failing in achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), specially, the goal 4: ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. The current system is leaving more than 955,700 children behind.

 Child Recruitment into  Armed Actions. It is also noticed by the protection partners of child recruitment into armed groups in the both regions has exacerbated protection risks for school aged children and increasing their protection needs through safe learning. Children recruited into armed groups are killed, maimed, abused and exploited in the most appalling ways. They are  forced to observe or take part in atrocities, including against their own families and communities, and may be profoundly disturbed by what they have experienced. In some cases, children have been drugged by their commanders before action. Children who have been recruited have no access to formal education, making it hard for them to find work after the war has ended. Also, it is not uncommon for their families and communities to view them with fear and distrust because of atrocities, even if they were forced to join the armed group.

 Gender Based Violence (GBV). The conflict has severely affected the situation and living conditions of women and girls. This vulnerability has increased with the weakening or even non-existence of the entire protection system in normal situations. Thus, the situation of violence against women and girls has increased significantly since the beginning of the crisis.

   Cases of gender-based violence that are often cited by the main actors encountered are mainly rape, sexual exploitation, forced and early marriages, early and unwanted pregnancies, physical and psychological violence and even harmful cultural practices. This had an impact on the health and economic situation of women and girls, increasing their vulnerability

Other Violations and Vulnerabilities: Children continue to face a spectrum of other violations of their security and rights, including trafficking, child labor, abuse in orphanages and arbitrary and illegal arrests. While  children were vulnerable to these violations even before the conflict, anecdotal information suggests that incidents likely have increased due to the conflict in the  two regions

Addressing Needs

Providing Digital Inclusion Training is key to addressing the resilience needs of the target population.

Resilience, according to UNICEF, is the ability of children, communities, and systems to anticipate, prevent, withstand, adapt to, and recover from stresses and shocks while advancing the rights of every child, with special attention to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. Resilience in the educational setting is defined as the capacity of a system, community or individual potentially exposed to hazards to adapt. This adaptation means resisting or changing in order to reach and maintain an acceptable level of functioning and structure. Resilience depends on coping mechanisms and life skills such as problem-solving, the ability to seek support, motivation, optimism, faith, perseverance and resourcefulness. Resilience occurs when protective factors that support well-being are stronger than risk factors that cause harm

The economies of Central Africa, Cameroon inclusive  are making slow progress in creating digital jobs, due to significant structural constraints.

One of these constraints has been lack of access to education due to armed conflict and worse of all ,exclusion of hundreds of thousands of children from Digital advancements

Improving access to digital services for everyone, particularly for those who do not have access in remote and rural areas is a key objective of the Digital Inclusion challenge

This solution is part of  a community model that The Community Initiative for Development Communication(Codec Cameroon) has designed to assist  thousands of children displaced by armed conflict in south west Cameroon, to have access to basic education.

The community model comprises of providing short term formal and informal education to this vulnerable and underserved population in the form of basic literacy programmes, skills acquisition programmes and ICT skills acquisition programmes.

The first component which comprised of basic literacy and skills acquisition in Sewing and Interior Decoration for IDP  children especially girls kicked off two years ago with the creation of the Aminkeng Centre for the Empowerment of Young Women(Created with support from Gered Gereedshcahp Foundation and Van Doorn Foundation),both in the Netherlands. The Digital Inclusion Training programme is part of the ICT Programme at the centre to extend ICT Training and Digital Inclusion to this target population

Armed conflict related  school closures in Cameroon have widened existing educational, socio-economic and gender inequalities. Along with no access to distance learning resources, the country’s children have been hard hit.

Children living in conflict zones, those with learning difficulties, and those living in extreme poverty seem to have been left out in such difficult times. As parents lost their sources of livelihoods due to the conflict, the already strained living conditions worsened. Young girls and many other vulnerable groups of children continued to experience unique challenges detrimental to their access to education, especially distance learning

Digital technology could level the playing field. Education should be a basic human right. Technology is increasingly playing a role in the quality of education and more importantly how learning is done .To address the digital divide and the challenges that hamper access to quality education, this initiative thinks of inclusive and innovative ways of transferring knowledge and digital skills to young Cameroonians in rural, underserved and marginalized areas to enhance their prospects of becoming active participants and contributors in the digital and knowledge economies.

This innovative approach could have a catalytic effect on school going children because trainees from the initiative could easily create jobs, and also in turn restitute the training to other vulnerable groups in the communities .This is particularly relevant in a context where the percentage of technology created jobs is still very low and almost insignificant

The Aminkeng Centre for the Empwerment of Young Women which is envisaged to host the trining has a capacity of 150 trainees every 9 months in different areas.

The incorporation of a Digital Inclusion component will mean the programme will have a comprehensive IT training programme as well as short courses.

The centre presently has 162 trainees carrying out training in sewing for a period of 9 months. This means every 9 months the centre will train at least 200 young women in ICTS.’’

In five years, it hopes to train 1000 young women on Digital Inclusion and insert them into th Digital Economy

The number of young girls who enroll into the Digital Inclusion training programmme every session

The number of trainees who effectively complete the training programme

The number of those who finish the programme and use the skills acquired to create jobs

The number of persons that our trainees in turn train

The number of young girls who decide to continue education after the training

The level of community acceptance and use of Digital tools

The extent  of replicability of similar projects in other communities.

Apart from girls, we shall also evaluate the impact the training has on other sociological components of the society like boys and other adults.

As a community based charity organisation,we do not have paid staff.

We work with a Team made up of 15 volunteers.

We also work in partnership with other technical partners as the ned arises

Codec also have close to 100 registered community members

Our Driving Philosophy

The Community Initiative  For Development Communication,(CODEC) was founded in 2012 by   benevolent   community volunteers in  Fontem, Lebialem District , South West Region, Cameroon, themselves victims of the scourges of information poverty in health, basic  formal literacy, poor environmental management and  non -participatory community development planning with a vision of reaching community  youth  and  women who do not have any individual means to become literate, due to them becoming too illiterate, too poor ,too old or too ill because of information and knowledge  poverty.

CODEC is believes that information and knowledge are essential for people to successfully respond to the challenges of social, economic and technological changes. But to be useful, knowledge and information must be effectively communicated to people.

Goal

CODEC    promotes  the role of information in community development  through the establishment of innovative approaches in providing information and knowledge to local people and  communities ,strengthen and empower them to  be among national and global players in knowledge –based development.

Objective ;

To assist local people and communities have access to adequate information and knowledge that can enable them drive and sustain their own development through education, training and advocacy  to eliminate socially unjust practices that lead to poverty  through ;

-Increasing awareness and Knowledge in communities

-Improving and building new skills in communities

-Changing individual behaviours and collective practices

-Enhancing self esteem and promoting self efficacy among youth and women.

-Building consensus through raising public understanding and generating well-informed dialogue among community development stakeholders

As a community platform which is not for profit we  are engaging multiple stakeholders at community level to drive our solution.

Firstly,our Solution Team involves Journalists,IT expert,community mobilizers,traditional rulers,youth and women,LGBTs and all other forms of  .

We prioritise the Disabled,young women and other marginalized gorups

Over the past years ,we have have engaged partners ,both locally and internationally to drive inclusion at community level