Support to jobs, the resilience of the small entreprises and informal workers during and beyond the COVID-19 in Cameroon

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The 45% of the informal economic units are already having difficulty in financing from tontines and other associations. Also, more than 90% of small businesses and informal production units (40% of which are headed by women) reported having experienced negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on their performance parameters. Overall, 82.6% of business holders reported a decline in their production. In terms of incidence, almost half of companies negatively affected by the pandemic recorded a decline of more than 50% in their production. Sales fell for almost 95.5% of companies. With regard to employment, overall, 58.2% of firms have reduced their employee numbers. This phenomenon is relatively more observed at the level of SMEs in the modern sector with almost 62.2% of the companies concerned. However, 50% of the SMEs in the informal sector were also affected. In addition, the following sectors have recorded a loss of more than 50% of employment: education, accommodation (hotel) and catering, forestry, construction, trade. In the context of the pandemic, many women workers in trade activities (food sales, sale of miscellaneous items, restaurateurs, hairdressers, small agricultural producers and in family gardens, etc.) have been affected by a critical drop in demand, resulting in huge losses of working hours and in some cases work stoppages detrimental to the maintenance of their purchasing power and standard of living (ILO Assessment, 2020). It should be noted that for 15% of companies, the capacity to continue their activities could not last beyond three months if the pandemic is to continue throughout the year. This proportion is higher in small informal production units comprising the majority of women (INS, 2020). Thus, as a result of the transmission of the effects of the health crisis on the informal and labour market, women small-entrepreneurs or managers of informal production units have been most affected by the decline in their activities, in their level of sales, as well as in their turnover with negative effects on their incomes and jobs in the informal urban and rural sector. In total, the main findings on the effects of the pandemic on the labour market and informal economy workers have led the Government to seek a collaboration from the United Nations system to support the socio-economic response plan to deal with the negative consequences of the pandemic. A joint Socio-Economic Response Plan (SERP) for the United Nations system was developed and shared with the national side to contribute to national efforts to combat this health crisis. This report has particularly focused on strategic orientations and operational action plan in order to support jobs, small and medium size enterprises and informal economy actors, mainly the most vulnerable women and young people, affected by the socioeconomic impacts of the health crisis. Given that women, young people especially under the age of 25, are the most vulnerable actors in the informal economy, as they are facing more shortages in term of technical, professional and life skills, they have been most affected by health risks, job and income losses as a result of COVID19. Moreover, the employment and enterpreneurship promotion services and institutions, which are supposed to provide technical support to them, are facing some issues in term of provision of innovative and digital tools to fill these gaps found from vulnerable women and young people, particularly in the crisis context. The synergies of the interventions proposed within the framework of this joint project, between local structures (local, regional or national authorities, civil society) and UN agencies (ILO, UNESCO, UNFPA and UN-Habitat) on the one hand; the coordination and provision of aid and essential services on the other hand, not only improves the efficiency, relevance and effectiveness of the intervention, but also promotes a more sustainable recovery of communities affecte

Project symbol

CMR/20/52/UND

Admin unit

DWT/CO-Yaounde

Start date

12/01/2021

End date

01/04/2022

Total allocation

242107

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

213314

Development Partners

Multi Partner Trust Fund Office, UNDP

Country/Countries

Cameroon

Outcomes

Outcome 3: Economic, social and environmental transitions for full, productive and freely chosen employment and decent work for all