World Bank to support more than 200,000 vulnerable Cameroonians to access social safety nets and livelihood opportunities

The World Bank approved credit from the International Development Associated (IDA) in the amount of $160 million to support Cameroon’s efforts to expand and modernize its social protection system and to create better employment opportunities for vulnerable urban youth.

The Adaptive Safety Nets and Economic Inclusion Project seeks specifically to: expand the coverage and shock-responsive capacity of the safety nets system for poor households; and increase access to income-generation and entrepreneurship support opportunities for youth in urban areas.

The project will benefit poor households and urban youth ages 18 to 35, with internally displaced persons comprising an important share of beneficiaries. It is expected to reach 217,500 direct beneficiaries, with broad poverty reduction and job creation spillover effects on their households and communities. In addition, the project will finance the development of a social registry and a digital payment system to improve the country’s ability to deliver benefits safely, quickly, and transparently.

“Social assistance coverage in Cameroon continues to remain limited. It is therefore important to further strengthen social protection systems, especially for Women and Youth, to respond to different shocks. The COVID-19 response has highlighted the need to provide timely support to affected and vulnerable populations,” said Abdoulaye Seck, World Bank Country Director for Cameroon. “In this context, it is particularly important to focus on the economic inclusion of youth, reducing youth underemployment and promoting youth entrepreneurship.”

The Adaptive Safety Nets and Economic Inclusion project will offer income support to build and protect human capital; promote youth economic inclusion and entrepreneurship; and will focus on developing a social registry and scaling up the digital government-to-person payment system.