Decree No. 2004/320 of 08 December 2004 to organise the new government of the State of Cameroon after the October 2004 presidential election created, among other new Ministries, the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Family (MINPROFF).
This creation is a significant evolution as concerns Government’s political will to have women – undeniable agents of economic and social development – and families – basic unit of society – become subjects of permanent attention.
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The combination of these two targets of government’s action within a single ministry is justified by the paramount status and exceptional role of women within families and the fact that women’s empowerment, all things considered, involves the empowerment of families and society as a whole.
The Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Family (MINPROFF), therefore, results from the combination of the “women’s empowerment” component that constituted the main mission of the former Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MINCOF) and the “family empowerment” component that was then managed by the Ministry of Social Affairs (MINAS).
Tracing the background of the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Family, therefore, boils down to recounting the evolution of the management of the two targets of Government’s action, namely, women and families. This evolution is traced based on creation and organic instruments of structures in charge of women’s empowerment on the one hand and family empowerment on the other hand. To this effect, reference dates are: 1975, 1984 and 1985, 1988 and 1995, 1997 and 2004. They also appear to be important dates with regard to the situation at the national and/or international level.
1975 was the year of the first International Women’s Conference in Mexico
It is during this year that the Ministry of Social Affairs was created (MINAS). Its missions were to be redefined and enriched latter on by Decree No. 81/295 of 23 July 1981. The Ministry was in charge of the women’s empowerment component (A) as well as the family empowerment component (B).
Women’s Empowerment
It was entrusted to the “Women’s Empowerment Service”, placed under the Department of social Development.
It is with this Service that the history of the institutional mechanism for women’s empowerment truly began in Cameroon.
Following the terms of Article 20 of the 1981 Decree to reorganise the Ministry of Social Affairs, this Service was in charge of:
- Elaborating the women’s empowerment policy;
- Ensuring full participation of women in development efforts and international cooperation.
As such, it had as duty to:
- Study the level of women’s contribution in different development sectors in accordance with priorities at the national level;
- Gather and analyse data and information on women’s condition;
- Undertake educative actions among women to ease their integration in different development sectors;
- Initiate, encourage and coordinate all actions geared towards women’s advancement within the framework of national development;
- Maintain relationships with international public and private organisations devoted to women’s empowerment;
- Assist national public and private organisations in formulating projects and requests for technical and financial cooperation at national and international level.
The Women’s empowerment Service was made up of two Bureaus:
- The Bureau of Studies and Projects;
- The Bureau of Training.
Family Empowerment
This component was assigned to the “Service for social Interventions and Control of Specialised Institutions”, placed under the Department of Public Assistance.
Following the terms of Article 14 of the 1981 Decree, this Service was in charge, among other duties, of the “assistance to families” and was made up of three Bureaus including a Bureau for assistance and a Bureau for inquiries.
1984: Creation of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MINCOF)
In 1984, on the eve of the second International Women’s Conference in Nairobi (1985), the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MINCOF) is created by Decree No. 84/29 of 04 February 1984 to organise the government. This was, undoubtedly, to show Government’s ever-increasing interest in women’s affairs and to stick to commitments taken for the decade (1975 – 1985). Conversely family empowerment was to record a step forward with the creation of a « Department of Family Empowerment» within the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MINCOF)
Created by Decree No. 84/29 of 04 February 1984 to organise the government and organised by Decree No. 84/95 of 26 March 1984, the very first Ministry of Women’s Affairs (1), apart from being a proof of Cameroon government’s political will to empower women, was also a beginning of solution to problems inherent to the operation and efficacy of the Women’s Empowerment Service.
This Ministry was in charge of:
- Ensuring the elaboration and adjustment of draft legislative or statutory instruments to promote, without discrimination, women’s integration in the different activity areas in the nation;
- Ensuring the implementation of these instruments in connection with concerned Ministries;
- Ensuring the elaboration and implementation of programmes to ease women’s integration in economic chains and their full participation in development efforts
- Relations with public or private national or international organisations for women’s empowerment;
- Supervising institutions in charge of women’s training, excepting those placed under the Ministry of National Education;
- The Department of Family Empowerment (DPF) at the Ministry of Social Affairs. This Department was created by Decree No. 85/1196 of 29 August 1985 to reorganise the Ministry of Social Affairs. Following the terms of Article 18 this Decree, the Department of Family Empowerment was in charge, as far as the family is concerned, of assistance to families and of social centres.
It is by looking through the attributions of the two Services of the Department of Family Empowerment that we can better understand the women’s empowerment duties assigned to this Department.
As a matter of fact and following the terms of Article 19 of the above-mentioned Decree, the Service of Demographic Actions was in charge, among other duties, of elaborating educational programmes for responsible parenthood and improvement of family well-being, in view of preventing the proliferation of large and poor families as well as cases of low fertility and involuntary sterility. One of the two Bureaus of this Service was the “Bureau of Family Well-being”:
As concerns the Service of Social Centers and according to the terms of Article 20 of the above-mentioned Decree, it was “responsible for the implementation of social action measures, notably, with regard to the protection of individuals and the empowerment of families”.
One of the three Bureaus of this Service was, actually, the “Bureau of Family Safeguarding
1988: The creation of the Ministry of Social and Women’s Affairs (MINASCOF)
With the economic recession that worsened as from 1987, Cameroon adopted a structural adjustment plan that imposed reduction in public expenses and restructuring of the government among other measures.
It is in this backdrop that Decree No. 88/772 of 16 May 1988 to organise the government merged the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.
The Ministry of Social and Women’s Affairs (MINASCOF) thus created is organised by Decree No. 88/1281 of 22 September 1988. It will latter on undergo another organisation with Decree No.95/00 of 09 June 1995, while keeping women’s empowerment and family empowerment among its missions.
Women’s Empowerment with MINASCOF
In 1988
Regarding women’s empowerment and going by Decree No. 88/775 of 6 May 1988 to organise the Government, the Ministry of Social and Women’s Affairs (MINASCOF) had, among other missions, to study and propose “to the government, in agreement with any interested Ministry, measures intended to have Cameroonian women’s rights respected and to easing her employment conditions”.
The Women’s Empowerment Department created in this Ministry was in charge of “the elaboration and implementation of women’s empowerment policies and programmes”.
As such, the Department notably in charge of:
The Preservation of women’s acknowledged traditional values;
Women’s education;
Women’s integration in economic chains;
Relations with public or private, national or international organisations for women’s empowerment;
The establishment of Women’s Empowerment and Family Centres (WEFC);
The establishment women’s documentation Centres.
The Women’s Empowerment Department was made up of three Services
The Women’s Education Service;
The women’s Economic Integration Service;
The Service for Relations with Women’s Organisations.
In 1995,
MINASCOF’s missions with regard to women’s empowerment were enriched.
Decree No. 95/100 of 09 June 1995 to renew the organisation of the Ministry of Social and Women’s Affairs brought in some innovations.
The first innovation was at the level of its missions. Indeed, according to Article 44 of this Decree, the Department of Women’s Empowerment was’ henceforth, in charge of:
- The elaboration and control of the implementation of policies, programmes and action plans relating to women’s empowerment;
- The monitoring of women’s empowerment organisations;
- The preparation, participation and follow-up of national and international meetings on women’s empowerment;
- Technical relations with international women’s empowerment organisations;
- The conception, development and popularisation of intermediate technologies.
The other innovation was that the Department of Women’s Empowerment was, henceforth, made of two Sub-Departments: the Sub-Department of Training and Promotion of Women’s Rights, that included: the Service for Women’s Training and the Service for the Promotion of Women’s Rights;
the Sub-Department of Women’s Economic Integration and Support to Women’s Organisations that included:
the Women’s Economic Integration Service and the Support Service for Women’s Organisations.
Family Empowerment with MINASCOF
In 1988
The Ministry of Social and Women’s Affairs, as organised by Decree No. 88/1281 of 22 September 1988, had a “Department for the Protection of Individuals and Families (DPIF), which main mission was « the elaboration and implementation of policies and programmes contributing to the improvement of the wee-being of populations” (Art. 26).
As such, the DPIF was in charge of “the elaboration and implementation of the national policy on families” (Art 26).
In concrete terms, one of the Su-Departments of this DPIF, the Sub-Department of Family Empowerment, would be charged with this duty, as well as that of assisting families (Art. 31)
This Sub-Department was made up of three Services including the Service for Demographic Actions that was responsible, among other duties, for “the elaboration of responsible parenthood education programmes” and the Family Assistance Service, responsible, among other duties, for “the implementation of social action measures, notably as concerns family empowerment”.
As such, the Family Assistance Service was in charge, among other duties, of:
- Marriage consultations and the fight against conjugal conflicts;
- The elaboration of marriage preparation programmes;
- Educational assistance to spouses.
In 1995
With the reorganisation of MINASCOF in 1995, the Department for the Protection of Individuals and Families became the Department for Families and Children that kept, among other missions, that of planning, organisation and control of the elaboration of women’s empowerment policies.
The family empowerment Service maintained in the Sub-Department of Families was charged with prevention, education and assistance activities in favour of families.
1997, MINAS and MINCOF reappear separately
Following the October 1997 presidential election, Decree No. 97/205 of 7 December 1997 to organise the Government once more creates the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and that of Social Affairs.
These two Ministries were organised respectively by Decree No. 98/068 of 04 May 1998 and Decree No. 98/069 of 04 May 1998 and were charged with women’s empowerment, for the first one, and family empowerment, for the second.
Women’s Empowerment with MINCOF of 1998
Following the terms of the above-mentioned Decree, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs was in charge of the elaboration and implementation of measures relating to the respect of Cameroonian women’s rights in society, the eradication of all forms of discrimination against women and the increase of the guarantee for equality in political, economic social and cultural domains.
As such, the Ministry:
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Studies and presents to the Government conditions to ease women’s integration in administrative, agricultural commercial and industrial sectors;
Ensures the cooperation between national and international organisations for women’s empowerment;
Ensures supervision of training institutions for women, excepting those under the Ministry of National Education.
Family Empowerment with MINAS of 1998
Decree No. 98/069 of 04 May 1998 to organise the Ministry of Social Affairs created the Department of Family and Child’s Welfare (DBEFE), charged, as concerns the family, with:
- The monitoring of activities of Non Governmental Organisations working for family welfare;
- the elaboration of legislative and statutory measures relating to family protection;
- the conception of creation and functioning standards for family protection institutions.
The Women’s Empowerment Sub-Department includes:
- The Service for Marriage and Family Education;
- The Family Assistance Service.
2004, creation of the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Family
At the beginning of His Excellency Paul Biya’s seven-year term of office at the helm of the State, Decree No. 2004/320 of 08 December 2004 to organise the new government created the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Family (MINPROFF), charged with “the elaboration and implementation of measures relating to the respect of Cameroonian women’s rights in society, the eradication of forms of discrimination against women and the increase of the guarantee for equality in political, economic, social and cultural domains; It is also in charge of the implementation of the national policy on families”.
As such, and among other duties, the Ministry:
Studies and presents to the government conditions to ease women’s employment in administrative, agricultural, commercial and industrial sectors;
Studies and proposes strategies and measures aimed at strengthening harmony within families.
It is, therefore, a new Ministry to whom is assigned the management of the two components “Women’s Empowerment” and “Family Empowerment”.
This combination of the two targets of Government action was justified at the beginning of this page. The awaited Decree to organise the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Family (MINPROFF) will certainly shed more light on inter-relations between women’s empowerment and family empowerment
