CCMN to Continue Promoting SDGs

CCMN to Continue Promoting SDGs

Members of the North West and West chapter of the Cameroon Community Media Network (CCMN) have resolved to continue promoting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. They came to this conclusion at the end of a one day meeting that had as objective, to evaluate the Peace Journalism and Conflict Transformation Project of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon being implemented by the network and propose future projects for sponsorship since the life span of the Peace Journalism project shall soon be completed.

CCMN NW/W Chapter BOD Members

Maikem Emmanulla is a UN Trained SDG promoter. As a member of the network, she couldn't hide expressing her feelings when she learnt of the resolution by CCMN NW/W chapter members to engage in an SDG promotion project. She said, "I'm very happy to learn that CCMN in the days ahead will work on SDG 11 because as a whole, they are being neglected in our communities. People aren't aware they even exist and these are goals that target issues that affect our communities. Therefore bringing SDGs into the network is going to help communities know what they're all about and promote best practices"

Though seemingly a new concept in the ears of many, these goals were introduced by the U.N since 2015. Emmanuella explained that SDGs use the bottom-top approach by starting with the common man to create room for inclusion and involvement of everyone in their own development. She added that at first, the concept of Millennium Development goals came about but never lasted for long because it rather targeted those at the top for development implementation but with SDGs, everyone is included, from the commoner to the officials and policy makers.

Maikem Emmanuella, CCMN Member/SDGs Promoter

SDGs are designed for the world but there are fears while other nations would've have succeeded to implement most, if not all of them before the 2030 deadline, Cameroon will still be lagging behind reasons being the ongoing Anglophone crisis, Boko Haram attacks, post elections violence etc. "The crisis in the anglophone regions has trampled on development a lot" said Maikem Emmanuella.

"We have roads that are not being developed, the health sector is being affected, teenage pregnancy everywhere, people are sick, hungry and are in temporal shelters needing homes most especially IDPs. In fact we have so many problems that need to be fixed" she added before ending on a pessimistic note that if all these problems aren't solved, achieving SDGs in Cameroon come 2030 is going to be far fetched.

Welcoming participants at the meeting that took place on Wednesday November 20th 2019 at the Presbyterian Church Centre, Ntamulung, Bamenda, the Program Manager, Akah Rosaline Obah disclosed that CCMN has been congratulated in several quarters for setting the pace in not only talking but walking the talk when it comes to peace journalism. She called on all to remain peace builders and advocates in their various corners. Lastly, she revealed that because of its good output, membership in the chapter has grown to 60 and that from next year, the network shall exist in six chapters; North West, South West, Littoral, Centre, West and North.

Some network members

Shared into groups to do a situational analyses of the project, attendees were tasked to  evaluate the contribution of the media in deescalating the conflict and the contributions of other stakeholders in the conflict deescalation process. From the various responses, it was visible that media houses now report about the crisis using the peace journalism approach and as such,  irresponsible citizen journalism has been greatly reduced plus the exposure given by the media to humanitarian concerns emanating from the crisis that has  led to the influx of international humanitarian bodies into the region to assist the displaced and affected persons.

However, they admitted it's not been all rosy as some organs have vehemently continued to rather escalate the crisis through hate speech, fake news and sensational/war journalism though in minimal instances.

The positive and negative contributions of state actors, non state actors, the civil society and religious bodies in the ongoing crisis were also assessed together with new challenges and opportunities gained by the media, the community and others.

Before the meeting ended, the network members resolved to engage in a new project that will go in line with promoting any Sustainable Development Goal of the United Nations. The soon to end Peace Journalism and Conflict Transformation Project fell under goal 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. After deliberations, it was concluded that the next project will have to do with SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities and or SDG 13 - Climate Action.

The members will from now henceforth in addition to peace reporting also focus on covering the upcoming February 9th 2019 municipal and legislative elections, humanitarian reporting, food insecurity, poor waste management in the region especially Bamenda central town, poor road infrastructure and rampant kidnaps for ransoms.