L'état du renforcement des capacités en Afrique

How do we take stock of the current state of capacity building in Africa? This is the question that this article attempts to respond to. By drawing inspiration from the existing scientific work, drawing from the statistics produced both within and outside the continent, and by referring to developments put forward by different national and international institutions, it is possible to construct the path of capacity building in Africa around theories of change and human capital. The resulting practice of capacity, which was fascinated by the setting up of ACBF in 1991, and supported by the intervention of several development partners, greatly influenced the way the African State operated, the modalities of implementation of educational and scientific systems, the introduction of microfinance, and also the impact of multilateral trade negotiations.This article suggests that capacity‐building in Africa still requires urgent and vigorous actions regarding the production, in both quality and quantity, of scientists, the coordination of efforts dispersed among regional or continental bodies, and the strengthening of individual and collective programmes which prioritise the development of Africanhumanresources in Africa. Key words: human capital, capabilities, change, capacity‐building, ACBF, training, scientific research, projects and programme

Iskorištavanje dječjeg rada u Yaoundéu – Kamerunu: poučeni iskustvima iz provedene ankete djece

Although child labour is a phenomenon widely studied around the world, there are few papers that tackle the problem in Cameroon. The objective of this paper is to fill the gap by questioning the subject in Yaoundé, the capital city. But child labour phenomenon is analysed here from a questionnaire that has two distinctive features: (i) the questionnaire is exclusively devoted to child labour, and (ii) all the participants in the survey are exclusively children themselves. No adult (parent, guardian, elder, employer, etc.) was consulted and given a chance to answer on behalf of a child. This process is extremely rare in child labour, since in general individuals other than children are requested to testify and answer inslead of children. While some results obtained from a standard Logit model on the determinant of child labour are well known, the others are either not known or insignificant. We suspect that the reason is the data collection.Sažetak Iako se problem iskorištavanja dječjeg rada proučava diljem svijeta, malobrojne su studije koje se bave tim problemom u Kamerunu. Cilj ovog članka je popuniti prazninu istraživanjem ove pojave u glavnom gradu – yaoundé. Istraživanje fenomena dječjeg rada prvenstveno se temeljio na: (i) upitniku koji je isključivo bio usredotočen na problem dječjeg rada, i (ii) na ispitivanju djece-radnika kao glavnim sudionicima u istraživanju. Ovo je jedinstven primjer, jer odrasli (roditelji, skrbnici, poslodavci i sl.) nisu bili uključeni u istraživanje, budući da su u prethodnim istraživanjima iskorištavanja dječjeg rada, ispitanici bili odrasli koji su u ime djece popunjavali upitnike. U usporedbi s primjenom standardnog Logit modela o određivanju dječjeg rada čiji rezultati su općepoznati, primjena drugih modela rezultira ili nepoznatim ili gotovo beznačajnim činjenicama, što navodi na sumnju o ispravnosti prikupljanja podataka

Remittances, Financial Inclusion and Income Inequality in Africa

This paper extends the existing literature on financial inclusion by analyzing the role of financial inclusion (FI) within remittances on income inequality (Gini, Atkinson and Palma-Ratio). It examines whether FI amplifies the reduction in income inequality in a panel of 47 countries over the period 2004-2014. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method Moments. We used Five financial inclusion indicators (ATMs for 100,000 adults; banking branches for 100,000 adults; credits: deposits and insurance), remittances and three income inequality variables (Gini index; Atkinson and Palma ratio) as part of this study. The results show that migrant remittances and FI reduce income inequality. The results further indicate that FI implifies the impact of the migrant remittances on income inequality, revealing a complementarity between remittances and FI to reduce income inequality. The complementary action of financial inclusion on migrants' remittances offers wider access to financial services which also leads to an increase in remittances and therefore reduces inequalities

Microeconomics Foundations of Entrepreneurial Performance in the Informal Sector: A Case Study of Cameroon

This study aim is to identify, according to microeconomic approach, the determinants of the performance of individual entrepreneurs in the informal sector in Cameroon, through their units performance. Using the Second Survey in the Informal sector and Employment (SSIE) collected in 2010 in Cameroon, we made two regressions of a profit function of an entrepreneur with the method of multiple regressions after a statistic analysis of some characteristics that influence entrepreneur performance in the informal activities. After this analysis, some lessons emerge. First, there are significant gaps in the income generated by informal activities. Then, the impact of factors that can improve the performance of entrepreneurs varies widely depending on the measurement used to capture their performance (sales or income). Finally, individual factors such as education level, seniority, specific experience in entrepreneurship and the time spent on the job significantly increase the performance of informal entrepreneurs. Similarly, the factors of the firm (sector of activity, level of capital, number of permanent employees) exception due to the age of the firm, also significantly improve the performance of informal entrepreneurs better than the individual factors (27% against 15%). However, the main factor that reduce their performance are the economic environment (difficulties in accessing to infrastructure and finance). This could be explained by the fact that, operating in the informal sector, reduce access to financial services and public infrastructures. Several recommendations can be made in line with the improvement of informal entrepreneurship and access to financial services, in order to build strong entrepreneurship in developing countries

Adoption of agricultural innovations in risky environment: the case of corn producers in the west of Cameroon

The use of modern agricultural inputs has been cited as a major factor for increasing productivity in most sub-Saharan African countries. A wide range of variables influence the adoption of such inputs. It is important to identify these variables in order to ensure the implementation of more effective programmes to promote the use of modern inputs. This article examines the determinants of adoption of three new agricultural technologies (improved maize seeds, inorganic fertiliser and pesticide) by corn producers in the west of Cameroon. Rather than the univariate probit model which is commonly used, the multivariate probit model is employed to take account of the correlation between the disturbances of the three adoption models. The results indicate that the decision to adopt agricultural innovations is significantly influenced by farmers’ education, income and risk perception as well as farm size. Therefore, policies aimed at setting up sustainable risk management markets, increasing the level of education of farmers and their access to credit could greatly promote the adoption of agricultural innovations by farmers of Cameroon in general and in the western region in particular

Sensibilité du Secteur Bancaire aux Chocs Macroéconomiques: Cas de la sous-région CEMAC

International audienceThis paper qualitatively and quantitatively assesses the degree of resilience in the financial intermediary sector of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (CEMAC) to macroeconomic shocks and discusses the relevant policy implications. Using GMM and a battery of estimations techniques, the panel-based investigations broadly show that the sub-region is vulnerable to macroeconomic shocks. Lower bank provisions result on the one hand from shortages or decreases in long-term financing, real exchange, GDP per capita growth rate and on the other hand from increases of interest rates. Whereas the change in interest rate increases net income commission, the effect is negative from lower levels of short-term financing. The incidence of changes in interest rates on the interest rate margin of banks is ambiguous. The findings broadly confirm the need to incorporate macroeconomic shocks in financial policy decision making. The paper contributes at the same to the knowledge on stock management in monetary zones and the need to: (1) timely intervene to mitigate potential shocks and; (2) increase control to sustain the credibility of the banking system

Child labour in Yaoundé-Cameroon: Some lessons drawn from a survey on children

Although child labour is a phenomenon widely studied around the world, there are few papers that tackle the problem in Cameroon. The objective of this paper is to fill the gap by questioning the subject in Yaoundé, the capital city. But child labour phenomenon is analysed here from a questionnaire that has two distinctive features: (i) the questionnaire is exclusively devoted to child labour, and (ii) all the participants in the survey are exclusively children themselves. No adult (parent, guardian, elder, employer, etc.) was consulted and given a chance to answer on behalf of a child. This process is extremely rare in child labour, since in general individuals other than children are requested to testify and answer inslead of children. While some results obtained from a standard Logit model on the determinant of child labour are well known, the others are either not known or insignificant. We suspect that the reason is the data collection

Human capital accumulation of children in Cameroon: does disability really matter?

Although most of the world's disabled people live in developing countries, little is known about the consequences of disability in this part of the world. Using the DHS-MICS 2011 data of Cameroon, this paper contributes to the literature by providing new robust estimates of the effect of child disability on education in a developing country context. It controls for unobserved heterogeneity within the households by using a 'true' sibling fixed effect model and also accounts for the severity of disability. The results show that moderate and severe disabilities reduce the probability that a child attends school and diminish school progress