By 
UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.
Cameroon is a Lower Middle-Income economy considered as a driver in Central Africa. The HDI value for 2019 stands at 0.563 – placing the country in the category “Average human development” and the 153rd rank out of 189 countries. The country is facing three simultaneous complex and protracted crises, namely the attacks by Boko Haram in the Far North region, the flow of refugees from the crisis in Central African Republic and a socio-political crisis in the North-West and South-West Regions plus C19. These crises triggered large-scale displacement that affected nine out of Cameroon’s ten regions.
The country’s political, economic, and social environment is conducive to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Cameroon signed most international and regional conventions and treaties on the protection and promotion of women’s rights. Efforts were visible for a better consideration of gender issues in the recently adopted 2020-2030 National Development Strategy. The new 2022-2026 UNSCDF was adopted in September 2021 with Gender mainstreamed throughout and a stand-alone Gender Outcome.
The advancement of the National Agenda on gender equality faces several challenges amongst which, low dedicated financial and human resources, gender data gaps, the persistence of patriarchy and harmful norms and the increasing humanitarian needs. To respond to these challenges, UN Women is bringing its unique comparative advantage and its ability to leverage its triple mandate of normative support, UN coordination, and operational activities. The agency has been an enabler of success and represents a major asset of UNCT in Cameroon through the implementation of its Strategic Notes to support 1) Engendering of the governance system including promoting Gender Data, 2) Preventing and fighting Gender Based violence in humanitarian and development settings, 3) Promoting Women Economic Empowerment including through Second Chance Education and 4) Promoting Women Peace and Security and humanitarian actions. These interventions areas are framed by the Leave No one Behind principle and a strong partnership with national stakeholders especially Government and CSOs.
The Country Representative is responsible for leading and managing the Cameroon Country Office (CO) portfolio and for translating the UN Women’s Strategic Plan (SP) into Strategic Notes and Bienial Work Plans in line with regional and national priorities, into development initiatives and concrete results by developing, implementing and managing programmes and projects under the CO; and developing effective partnerships with Government counterparts, UN system agencies and organizations, civil society organizations, Women Led Organizations and with bilateral and non-traditional donors in order to promote inter-agency partnerships, support the UN reform, and mobilize resources to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The Country Representative operates in a matrix management model, primarily accountable and reporting to the relevant UN Women Regional Director on UN Women -specific mandates, activities and results. Additionally, as a UNCT member, under the Management and Accountability Framework (MAF) of the UN development and resident coordinator system, the Country Representative has mutual accountability with the Resident Coordinator for periodically reporting on contributions and support for the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF, formerly UNDAF).The Regional Director conducts the performance review of the Country Representative whilst seeking inputs from the RC on the Country Representative’s contributions as a UNCT member.
Comments