Promoting academic-driven protection of children: UB, UNICEF inaugurate Child Rights Centre.

It is one of the fruits of a partnership between UNICEF Cameroon and the University of Buea. 

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea, Prof Ngomo Horace Manga, and the UNICEF Country Representative in Cameroon, Nadine Perrault, inaugurated it on Thursday April 30, 2026. 

The ceremony featured the signing of a Specific Agreement, underscoring the deepening partnership aimed at embedding children’s rights into higher education, research, and community action across Cameroon.

The inauguration builds directly on a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, signed in July 2024 between UNICEF and several Cameroonian universities, positioning academia as a strategic engine for sustainable change, particularly in the South West Region, where children often face intersecting vulnerabilities related to education access, health, protection, and the impacts of climate change.

The Child Rights Centre will serve as a dynamic hub for knowledge generation, innovation, and practical action. Its mandate includes integrating child rights into university curricula across disciplines, promoting interdisciplinary research on education, health, child protection, and climate change, facilitating policy dialogue between students, academics, policymakers, and communities and organising awareness campaigns, training programmes, and social mobilisation initiatives.

Nadine Perrault described the initiative as the realisation of a shared vision hatched on July 16, 2024, when UNICEF and partner universities committed to transforming campuses into engines of change for children. 

“This journey began on 16 July 2024,” she said. Addressing the children present during the ceremony, she said: “…this Centre is yours. This space is one where your voices can be heard, amplified and transformed into action”.

She emphasised that the Centre will function as a vibrant platform for learning, research, and advocacy. It aims to empower students to become champions of children’s rights, while supporting interdisciplinary work on key issues affecting Cameroonian children.

On his part, Prof Ngomo Horace Manga, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buea, hailed the ceremony as historic, expressing gratitude to UNICEF for selecting the University of Buea as host institution and assured partners that the Centre would receive the full attention and resources it requires. 

“Through this Centre, the University of Buea will join Cameroon and UNICEF to build a culture where children’s rights are understood, respected and protected by all,” Prof Ngomo said.

The Vice Chancellor also received an Honorary Award from UNICEF, in recognition of the university’s commitment to the protection of children. Prof Ngomo dedicated the award to the entire university community.

The Centre reflects a deliberate strategy to adapt successful international models to Cameroon’s local context, to generate scientific evidence that can inform national policies and foster a broader culture of respect for children’s rights.

Both Perrault and Prof Manga highlighted the mutual benefits of such a partnership: universities gain a focused platform to translate knowledge into societal impact, while UNICEF leverages academic rigour to strengthen evidence-based advocacy and capacity building.

“This partnership with the University of Buea reflects our strong belief that universities are powerful drivers of change,” Perrault noted. 

Prof Manga described the Centre as “a strategic investment in the future of our nation”. 

With the launch of the Child Rights Centre at the University of Buea, students, lecturers, researchers, and surrounding communities are now better positioned to champion children’s rights. 

The ceremony was graced with the presence of Class Four pupils from St. Theresa International Bilingual School who entertained the audience with plays and songs centred on the rights of the child. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3780 of Tuesday May 05, 2026