UN WOMEN Cameroon established the new Civil Society Advisory Group (CSAG)

To align with international guidelines and its 2018-2020 Strategic Note, UN Women Cameroon country office organized, on December 13, the establishment of the new Civil Society Advisory Group (CSAG). Thirty participants took part of the working day. They represent women and men from the former and new CSAG, coming from Civil Society Organizations; resource persons from the Thematic Group of Civil Society Organizations on Gender and Public Policy in Cameroon (GTOG) and Ministry of Promotion of Women and the Family, who acted as observers, as well as staff from UN Women to provide facilitation.

From the creation of UN Women, the General Assembly of the United Nations asked the head of the brand new Organization to “continue the current practice of effective consultation with civil society organizations and encourage their significant contribution to the work of the Entity ”. In response to this request, UN Women has set up Civil Society Advisory Groups (CSAGs) at global, regional and national levels, to strengthen existing partnerships and intensify strategic dialogue with civil society partners in countries, as well as regionally and internationally.

The UN Women CSAGs offer the opportunity to create a civil society solidarity network that can coordinate efforts with UN Women to accelerate advocacy and action to achieve gender equality by 2030.

The objectives of this preliminary meeting were to: (i) introduce the members of the new group to the outgoing CSAG; (ii) allow participants to elect the officers of the new CSAG; (iii) allow participants to draw up a work plan for 2020.

According to Ms. DJESSI of ACAFEJ, a member of the former CSAG, “the former group faced several challenges because the objectives were not well developed at the outset. The roles were therefore biased since there were many misunderstandings between us”. In view of this statement, the newly elected spokesperson in the person of Mrs. UMARO Mainuna, and her alternate Mrs. MBAH ONANA Labatut, have committed to make their expertise and knowledge available to UN Women to strengthen its leadership, such as stipulated by the CSAG strategy. This commitment is in line with the vision of the Deputy Representative of UN Women Cameroon, Mrs. Hind JALAL, who sees the CSAG as “a consultative mechanism facilitating regular dialogue between civil society and UN Women, and allowing civil society to share its perspectives, expertise and knowledge to inform UN Women in its work.”

At the end of the working day, the following resolutions were adopted :

• Develop the Group's ethics charter
• Work with professionalism
• Silencing the egos for effective conflict management and collective work so that gender equality is a reality in Cameroon ;
• Organize, in January 2020, a workshop to allow new members to better understand and take ownership of the reasons, goals, roles, missions and objectives of the CSAG ;
• Adopt the 2020 action plan ;
• Allocate a budget for the implementation of the identified activities.