Refugee Crisis in Cameroon: The Contribution of UN Women and MINPROFF to the Empowerment of Women in the Refugee Site of Ngam

Abstract

The history of the world has been marked by violence and wars. These situations push people to be displaced from one place to another and from one country to the other to seek for refuge. Today more than ever before, the number of people leaving one region to the other is increasing, and among these are women and children. According to the UN high commissioner for refugees, in 2017, 65.6 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes worldwide, with nearly 20 people being displaced every minute as a result of conflict or persecution. Reports from UNHCR (2017) Cameroon, shows that Cameroon has more than 600,000 refugees mostly coming from the Central African Republic and Nigeria. The Government of Cameroon works with partners like the UNHCR, the World Food Programme, UNICEF, UN Women and other national institutions like the Ministry of Women‟s Empowerment and the Family (MINPROFF) to improve the lives of these refugees. UN Women and MINPROFF work particularly with women and girls. This study uses mainly the qualitative method of data collection to evaluate the contributions made by UN Women and MINPROFF to empower women in the refugee site of Ngam.