Cameroon

Cameroon introduced most of its social insurance before independence in 1960, with the exception of the old age, disability and survivors’ law that was first introduced in 1969 and implemented in 1974 as part of social insurance. Cameroon initiated its first social assistance programme in 2014. The programme, named the Social Safety Net Project, is a pilot that seeks to improve the living conditions of poor and vulnerable populations, as well as improving the participants’ health, nutrition and education. Using community-based targeting and proxy-means test to identify participants, the programme reaches 40,000 households who receive about US$93.61 bimonthly. The programme has a cash transfer and a public works component that also includes training activities related to financial literacy and income-generation. Local governments can modify or complement the central government’s plans when implementing social assistance programmes.