To address regional challenges: Foretia Foundation equips youth with policy analysis, advocacy skills.

The capacity building workshop in Yaounde is organised by the Nkafu Policy Institute, a leading think tank of the Denis & Lenora Foretia Foundation.

According to Dr Adeline Nembot, Senior Policy Analyst at Economic Division of the Nkafu Policy Institute, the programme is a strategic initiative that seeks to provide a structured and practical platform to build capacity among policymakers, researchers, and civil society leaders to respond to specific challenges of Economic Community of Central African States, ECCAS.

“This is a very important training in our African context, especially the Central African sub region and Cameroon. Looking at what we are going through, we need persons who can formulate policy recommendations and strategy which can be implemented in our society so that the decision makers can take pertinent decisions, which improve the wellbeing of Cameroonian citizens,” Dr Nembot said.  

The broad-based training that brought together participants from public institutions, civil society, think tanks amongst others will enable them amplify the importance of informed policymaking in Central Africa and inspire broader engagement.

“We want to equip them first with the fundamentals of public policies, then the techniques and tools of policy analysis, and how to do the advocacy or transfer the policy to the decision-makers,” she further said. 

On his part, Dr Sundjo Fabien, facilitator at the workshop and Senior Economic Policy Fellow at the University of Bamenda, said one of the key modules handled during the first day of the training was problem identification.

“Identification of a problem is the first step in the policy cycle and I discussed with them on how to identify a problem, the strategy to identify a problem, and how to frame a policy problem; from an issue to a problem,” he told the press. 

He also drilled the participants on the tools and techniques used to analyse problems.

“We discussed about the problem tree and how the problem tree is analysed and other methodologies like the logic model. We equally saw the stakeholder analysis as a tool and how it can be implemented as a policy strategy and policy advocacy,” he added. 

Participants hail enriching programme

One of the participants, Chiara Manjo, explained that her reason for participating in the workshop was to network and have a better mastery of public policy analysis.

Assessing the first day of the training, she admitted that it was an enriching session as she has gained understanding of identifying public analysis issues and public policy issues.

“Looking forward, I am hoping that by the end of the course, I am able to properly implement public policy analysis and to ensure that it doesn’t only end at conceptualisation,” Manjo, who works at the International Rescue Committee as Protection Assistant, added. 

Another participant, Maidjane Mbara Josephine, affirmed that the training has been very enriching.

The civil society activist engaged in the monitoring of mining activities said, “we have so far been equipped with pertinent tools to effectively carry out public policy analysis especially for us accompanying the State in mining exploitations in the country and the need to analyse their impacts in the communities”. 

Maidjane avowed that the knowledge acquired during the training sessions will help her in her function of accompany mining communities that are affected by mining projects, especially in the East and South regions.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3449 of Thursday May 15, 2025