Tackling Cameroon’s socio-economic hurdles: Ewane Cliford Ngabe proposes measures in PhD thesis.

The research is titled: “Cameroon’s National Development Strategies and Socioeconomic Challenges: An Evaluation of the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper; GESP”.

The study, he said, revealed that Cameroon’s Growth and Employment Strategy Paper, GESP, has made great strides in several sectors but not enough to reverse the country’s persistent poverty, unemployment and infrastructure gaps. 

In his recommendations, the candidate called for stronger governance, monitoring and evaluation and less dependence on external aid. 

Ewane Ngabe noted that in recent years, Cameroon had rolled out strategic plans to address its socio-economic challenges including the GESP, launched as the country’s main economic policy instrument for the 2010-2019 period. 

The strategy, according to the researcher, was laudable with objectives such as to reduce poverty, cut unemployment, build adequate infrastructure, improve human capital, strengthen governance, and upgrade the health sector.

However, Ewane Ngabe’s research asked a central question: has the GESP actually delivered with the response being the persistence of the challenges the government aimed to resolve with such a plan. 

“The problem observed is the persistence of certain challenges such as poverty, lack of employment, and infrastructure that is still not always adequate,” he explained.

Using a qualitative approach with conceptual and thematic analysis, interviews and focus group discussions with actors involved in drafting and implementing the GESP, Ewane Ngabe grounded his work in dependency theory, big push theory and endogenous growth theory. 

He noted that though they have been some improvements, the pace of change remains very slow to materially impact the key indicators.

“The findings generally indicate that the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper made great strides in many sectors. However, this success was greatly mitigated by the many challenges the country faced both exogenous, and some endogenous,” he told the jury.

He cited three key limiting factors: over-dependence on developed economies and international bodies, low or scattered investments in infrastructure, and a labour force that remains less skilled.

To ensure the success of future strategies, he has proposed a set of policy recommendations aimed at improving the effectiveness of future development frameworks.

Ewane Ngabe cited strengthening governance and fight corruption; reinforce monitoring and evaluation and investing more domestically in infrastructure. 

The candidate also mentioned the need for increase in internal mobilization of resources for heavy investment, especially in productive sectors.

Speaking on the relevance of the work to journalists, Ewane Ngabe said the goal was not to dismiss the GESP but to learn from it. 

“I want to highlight the challenges here so that the National Development Strategy can be an even greater success than the GESP,” he said.

Dr Ewane Cliford Ngabe, it should be said, holds a MSc and BSc in Economics and an LLB in Law, all from the University of Buea. 

The defense panel was chaired by Professor Abangma James Arrey, with Professor John Ndefru as Internal Reviewer, Professor Mbida Onambele as External Reviewer and Professor Onana Antoine as Member.

The research work was supervised by Professor Ta-Mbi Nkongho and Dr Munjah Vitalis as Co-supervisor.

Jury members at the end of the defense saluted the quality of the research and lauded the candidate’s mastery of the subject matter. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3885 of Friday August 21, 2026