“We Accompany Youths Because They Are Critical Thinkers”

How do you accompany youths as concerns the promotion of entrepreneurship?
Actually, we have a group of youths that we brought together and they have been able to create some important networks. You have one of the networks which embodies a lot of youths is the United Africa Network which is a pan African organisation for the empowerment and development of African youths. Here, we have been trying to bring them together. Some of them are graduates from the university and some are final year students. We bring them together and train them as youth leaders and to also make them understand that they can on their own become employers. We organise conferences, debates and trainings where we invite experts in the various fields to come and talk to them. We also try as much as possible to see how we can get them listen to some business persons. We also bring experts from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and from the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industry. This is because most of them have come to us, saying they have farmlands. They have discussed with their parents and they have been given lands for cultivation. We try as much as possible to meet Ministers concerned to accompany them with training. These ministries have really helped in the start-up of these youths. We also ensure that the youths are well informed about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is by involving them in with experts from UNDP, UNESCO and some from UNICEF because we strongly believe that if they understand the SDGs, it is going to help them to become change makers.
Why the special interest on youths?
The youths play a significant role in the review, monitoring and implementation of the 2030 Agenda of Cameroon and they also play a significant role in holding the government responsible and accountable. The youths with the political commitments and given adequate resources, have the potential to make the most effective transformation of the world into a better place. The youths contribute trust to the implementation of the SDGs and that is why we think we can achieve them by accompanying the youths in their various development projects. This is because they are the legacy we are leaving for tomorrow. And the only way to leave a proper legacy is to train the youths. We should therefore be able to empower them and give them the hope that they deserve, and that is what we are doing. We think that the youth are a vital segment of the society that we really have to be involved with. We accompany the youths because they are critical thinkers and they ask questions about the world around them. We want them to...