Cameroon is a lower-middle income
country with social indicators and levels of poverty which
are below those for comparator countries. Large and rising
inequalities between north and south, inefficiencies in
public resource allocation and an adverse business
environment explain this. While insecurity due to Boko Haram
activities and rapidly rising public debt constrain efforts
at poverty reduction, there exists a huge potential for
economic growth and poverty reduction. This potential
remains mostly untapped. Realizing it will require far
reaching reforms, particularly with respect to the business
environment and public financial management, and require
politically courage to accomplish. The remainder of this
document explores how to achieve the twin goals of ending
poverty and improving shared prosperity by 2030 in a
sustainable manner. The document identifies a limited number
of binding constraints which would need to be lifted to
achieve the poverty objective. The next four chapters
present background material to chapter six, which presents
binding constraints to poverty reduction. The
micro-foundations to poverty reduction are discussed in
chapters two and three. Chapter two discusses poverty,
equity and vulnerability. Chapter three discusses human
capital and its role in poverty reduction. Chapter four
considers poverty reduction from a macro-economic
perspective. It discusses opportunities for growth and
economic transformation as well as the status of various
cross-cutting economic services. Chapter five, considers
governance, fragility and the institutional environment.
Binding constraints to sustainable poverty reduction are
identified in chapter six.