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The global escalation of natural and human-induced disasters, and their future predicted occurrence is extremely worrying, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In addition to summarizing global disaster management frameworks, this book discusses the African Union's strategy for disaster risk reduction (AU-DRR), including country-specific cases, and explores the extent to which national policies resonate with AU-DRR. By combining reviews with empirical evidence, the chapters provide an in-depth analysis of disaster policy processes, institutions and arrangements in SSA, situating the sub-continent within overarching global and African instruments such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the African Union's Disaster Risk Reduction strategy. The book further provides novel insights which can enhance understanding of disaster risk reduction in Africa from a policy perspective. A combined analysis of all the chapters provides an interesting summary and information for creating disaster management policies for improved results in SSA. With an extensive glossary of terms and index, the book lends itself to specialized academics and students, but also to disaster management policy makers and practitioners and the occasional user.

AbstractThe general focus of policy is to achieve pre‐designed goals considered by policy‐makers to be of interest to societies or targeted groups. Policy research has, therefore, witnessed a significant tilt towards improving scientific knowledge and understanding policy enactment processes, and the extent to which they achieve desired goals. Policy deviance – the tendency for members of society to ignore or disrespect laid‐down policy guidelines – has often been considered a crucial determinant for poor policy outcomes. However, the benefits of policy deviance, and the conditions under which societal groups register such benefits currently account for only a negligible number of studies. This article reduces this existing knowledge gap by examining the nexus between policy deviance and poverty reduction, based on a case study of deviant migrant households who relocated to settle around the Lake Nyos area in Cameroon. The empirical analysis through a livelihoods lens revealed a positive relationship between deviance and poverty reduction. The conclusion suggests that not all policy deviance situations lead to negative outcomes. It emphasises the need for a constant analysis of the policy outcome nexus, as opposed to the assumption that deviance leads to negative outcomes. Further research is needed to ground this contention.

Good governance and development discussions shed light on the role of citizen participation as a fundamental mechanism of achieving sustainable development in local communities. The current popularity of decentralization, especially in the developing world, is unparalleled, with 80% of all developing and transition countries undertaking some form of decentralization over the past two decades. As of July 2004, the Cameroonian house of parliament promulgated into law, three bills on decentralization. Under the provisions of the laws of 2004, there is the devolution of powers accompanied by the transfer of means (financial, material and human), to local councils. This move to decentralize power, authority and resources is seen as a logical way forward to bring development closer to the people not only in terms of actions, but also in terms of their development choices. Although emphasis is placed on the need for communities to achieve sustainable development, the role of decentralization is primordial. This paper posits that decentralization, if effectively implemented, could serve as a panacea to the sustainable development impasse of local communities in Cameroon. It holds that a highly inappreciable level of decentralization that characterizes the Cameroon society has been the bulwark to sustainable development of communities. The paper recommends the need to speed-up the process of decentralization by undertaken effectively reforms and creating timelines for targets towards decentralization and sustainable community development through empowerment.

Community participation in rural development is no longer a new terminology in the development lexicon of developing countries. In most developing nations, there exist a great disparity between the rural and the urban centres in terms of socio-economic development. Central Ejagham, an enclaved community in Manyu Division of southwestern Cameroon has, over the years, been faced with a number of development challenges. In response to this, and inline with the government of Cameroon's policy of supporting self-reliant development, the community engaged in a series of self-defined community development activities in a multiplicity of sectors, on the bases of locally identified abilities and resources. This paper adopts qualitative methods such as interviews, focus group discussions, detailed field observations which were complemented by secondary data sources and content analysis to examine the barriers and indigenous efforts towards enhancing community participation in Central Ejagham. We observe that the level of participation in a majority of the projects falls either within the "tokenism" or the "citizen control" rungs of Sherry Arnstein's Ladder of Citizen Participation. In addition, although "tokenism" rung projects in Central Ejagham receive much financial and technical support, although they are saddled with commitment-related challenges. Conversely, projects at the "citizen control" rung are characterized by significant commitment but are hampered by limited (financial and technical)resources. To further enhance community participation, we recommend that projects at the "tokenism" rung which are generally viable in terms of financial and technical capacity be stepped up to the "citizen control" level, inorder to guarantee maximum participation for better results. In addition, we suggest that the legislative arm of the government should introduce a bill on the need to effectively support community developmental efforts. This. We believe, will make "citizen control" rung projects to become more effective. Finally, a platform to guarantee the sustainability of projects and to ensure the adequate dissemination of information on sourcing for external funding to support projects should be introduced.

The role of entrepreneurship in economic growth cannot be overemphasized. Entrepreneurship has the potentials of improving upon economic growth in Cameroon and for this to be possible, an enabling environment should be created to develop entrepreneurial activities for increased economic growth. Using value added by the agricultural and industrial sectors, and foreign direct investment (FDI), this study sought to assess the role of entrepreneurship on economic growth in Cameroon between 1975 and 2014. The coefficients (Ai) were estimated using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) techniques because of its BLUE (Best Linear Unbiased Estimator) property. The statistical (1st order) test was used to evaluate the combined influence of the independent variables. The coefficient of multiple determinations (adjusted R) was also used to determine the level of reliability of independent variables while the F-Statistics test was used to test for reliability of the estimates. The t-statistics was further used to test for the significance of the individual independent estimate. Using the statistical (1st order) test at 1%, 5% and 10% levels of significance, the results reveal that the coefficients of the value added by the agricultural sector, industrial sectors and FDI were all positive, indicating that entrepreneurial activities have the potential to improve upon economic growth in Cameroon. It was also observed that at 1%, 5% and 10% levels of significance, there is a positive significant value added by entrepreneurship in the industrial sector to economic growth, while the agricultural sector and FDI had no significant value added by entrepreneurship to economic growth in Cameroon at all three levels of significance. The study recommended, among others, that since FDI results in high profit repatriation and capital flight in Cameroon, it would be necessary for the government to put in place laws that encourage a 50/50 equity between domestic and foreign entrepreneurship. Also, Value added agriculture should be encourage most ...

This study examines the effect of climate variability on cocoa production which is the mainstay of the population of Meme Division. Meme Division stands as one of the highest cocoa producing divisions of the Cameroon. Field studies accompanied by the administration of 155 questionnaires (50 each for Kumba and Mbonge Subdivisions and 55 for Konye Subdivision) were employed. Information on climatic variables (temperature and rainfall) and cocoa output for 21 years (1990-2010) was also obtained. The data was analyzed with the use of the four point likert scale survey and the coefficient of variation (CV). The results showed that the CV for rainfall (15.1%) and temperature (11.0%) all exceeded the variability threshold of 10% indicating that they exhibit significant variability. Trend analysis for cocoa output shows that unusual variations were experienced in some years. This was further confirmed by the Jarque-Bera statistics of 0.68 (P-Value = 0.71) which indicates that the output of cocoa is not normally distributed over time. It was also observed that the increasing unpredictability of rainfall and temperatures tend to confuse the cocoa crop and the farmers as their traditional farming calendar have been distorted; no sooner has the cocoa crop been able to adjust with the new climatic scenario than they are confronted with a different pattern. Furthermore, farmers noted a drop in cocoa output per hectare. This has led to a reduction in incomes realised giving rise to limited possibility for expansion. It is seemingly evident that their present adaptation strategies are yet to contain this ugly situation. The study suggests a number of agricultural development planning options which the government and the local population can embark on to develop a resilience framework for cocoa farmers in Meme Division in the face of expected variability in climate.