Youth Unemployment in Cameroon: From Policy Promises to Practical Solutions

Youth unemployment in Cameroon remains a serious and ongoing socio-economic challenge with important consequences for economic growth, social stability, and national development. Although the government has introduced a range of policies and programmes to improve employment opportunities for young people, their impact has been limited and uneven. This study explores the structural, institutional, and policy-related factors that shape youth unemployment in Cameroon, with a particular focus on the gap between policy design and implementation. Using a qualitative approach based on secondary data and policy analysis, the paper identifies key challenges such as the mismatch between education and labour market needs, the dominance of the informal sector, weak coordination among institutions, and limited access to opportunities, especially in rural and conflict-affected areas. The findings show that the persistence of youth unemployment is not mainly due to a lack of policies, but rather to weak implementation and poor alignment with labour market realities. In many cases, well-designed programmes fail to produce meaningful results because of coordination problems, limited resources, and weak monitoring systems. The study concludes that addressing youth unemployment in Cameroon requires a stronger focus on implementation, better institutional coordination, and more context-sensitive approaches that can translate policy intentions into real and sustainable employment outcomes.