The effect of the anglophone crisis on youth sexual and reproductive health in the Northwest region of Cameroon: a qualitative study | Published in Journal of Global Health Reports

The Impact of the Anglophone Crisis on Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health in Cameroon

The ongoing armed conflict in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, referred to as the “Anglophone crisis”, can be traced back to 1961 when the country as we know it today was formed by the unification of the British and French territories.^1–3 Since then, the differences between the co-existing British and French systems of education, law, policy, and general schools of thought have been a constant argument, which developed into a violent protest in 2016 and later progressed into an armed conflict in 2017.¹ This human-made humanitarian crisis, as with any armed conflict, has led to the loss of lives and property, internal displacements of the population from remote villages to major cities and out of the region, a disruption of the healthcare and educational systems, and a deterioration of the conditions of living and well-being of the populations affected. Since the onset of the Anglophone crisis in these two regions, 1 million people have been internally displaced and approximately 74,000 of them have sought refuge in neighboring Nigeria.⁴ According to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA, 2022), 80% of schools and health facilities are non-functional, approximately 3000 people have lost their lives, and nearly 4 million people need humanitarian aid.⁴

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

• Goal 1: No Poverty
• Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being
• Goal 4: Quality Education
• Goal 5: Gender Equality
• Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities
• Goal 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

Design and Setting

This study involved analysis of data obtained through a multiple-methods study with quantitative and qualitative arms, conducted by the organization Youth-2-Youth Cameroon, a youth-led organization in the Bamenda, Northwest region, Cameroon, under their Adolescent SRH Project from May to July 2020. The data were collected as part of a community-based advocacy family planning project that sought to evaluate the impact of the ongoing crisis on the SRH and wellbeing of adolescents, assess community perspectives on adolescent’s use of contraceptives, and identify urgent health needs in the community and propose appropriate solutions. This project began with a community action cycle approach,²⁰ a model that promotes individual and collective actions to address health program goals and related outcomes. The design consisted of organizing community discussion forums with the following community stakeholder groups: Parents, Youths, Religious leaders, Neighborhood leaders, Secondary school teachers, Health professionals, Pharmacists, local drug vendors, Media representatives, and NGO representatives. During the forums, participants completed a questionnaire and participated in a discussion on youth SRH, specifically knowledge, perceptions, availability of and access to resources, and recommendations for next steps for addressing the gaps identified.

Sampling and Recruitment Processes

Stakeholders were approached and invited to participate in the project by Youth-2-youth community engagement officers. A representative number of participants were invited from the three subdivisions in Bamenda. A purposive sampling was initiated, focusing specifically on the recruitment of individuals from the various stakeholder groups.²¹ Within each group, convenience and snowball recruitment technique were used.²² Each of the 316 individuals recruited participated in one of 12 forums held. Separate sessions were conducted for each of the 10 stakeholder groups. At each session, participants were also asked to complete a survey. Table 1 presents the distribution of participants per forum and stakeholder group, and the surveys completed. All participants resided in Bamenda, Northwest Region of Cameroon, since the onset of the crisis.