Cameroon

Background

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This map does not reflect a position by UNICEF on the legal status of any country or territory or the delimitation of any frontiers.

Conditions for Cameroon’s children have deteriorated in recent years. Infant and under-five mortality rates in 2005 were actually higher than their 1990 levels.

Issues facing children in Cameroon

• Maternal mortality is alarmingly high.
• Malaria accounts for more than 40 per cent of all deaths among children under age five, yet less than 1 per cent of children sleep under insecticide-treated nets.
• The adult HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is 5.4 per cent. Ignorance of the modes of transmission threatens young people.
• National primary school attendance rates have improved to 78 per cent. The three northernmost provinces lag far behind the rest of Cameroon in school attendance. In these areas, half of all girls are out of school. 
• The educational system is hampered by a shortage of qualified teachers. Many schools lack water and sanitation.  
• Some 2 million city dwellers lack safe drinking water and adequate sanitation, resulting in outbreaks of cholera. Children living in urban poverty are especially vulnerable to violence and exploitation.
• Cameroon is a transit country for child trafficking.

Activities and results for children

• Millions of young children have been immunized against polio and other preventable diseases in 2005. To protect women and children from malaria, UNICEF has procured 300,000 insecticide-treated bed nets.
• Thirty-seven health facilities in UNICEF focus areas have been equipped to manage childhood diseases effectively. 
• The ‘Unite for Children  Unite Against AIDS’ campaign was launched in 2005 with the support of Cameroon’s First Lady.  
• UNICEF supports 80 youth-friendly centres for information and counselling on HIV/AIDS. More than 6,000 teens are participating in peer-education activities, sharing vital information about HIV/AIDS.
• A programme to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS is being expanded to health facilities nationwide. 
• In Adamawa province, one of the most disadvantaged regions of Cameroon, UNICEF programmes have improved prenatal care, immunization coverage, birth registration, pre-school enrolment and voluntary HIV testing.  
• In UNICEF focus areas, some 1,500 teachers in ‘child-friendly/girl-friendly’ schools received training. UNICEF also provided these schools with 18,150 new textbooks and 550 school benches.
• Social workers, customs agents and police have been trained to combat child trafficking. 
• UNICEF and its partners responded to 2005’s famine in the Far North province with emergency food supplies.