Cameroonian Youth Leader, Founder and President of YOBCA shines at the Global Impact Summit in Washington DC, USA.

Cleatine Asongwe CHUNGONG popularly known as “Monsieur le Diplomat or better still “The Wanda Boy” was one of the 102 fellows drawn from 86 countries around the world that participated in the 2022 Global Impact Summit organized by the U.S. Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs with support from the International Research and Exchange Board-IREX. Cleatine just like his peers were the first CSP cohort not to have traveled to the U.S. for the 4 months residency training due to the Covid 19. However, they did showed some resilience in completing the virtual training and also in the implementation of their 6 months Community Action Projects (CAP). While at the Summit, Cleatine CHUNGONG facilitated a workshop on Promoting Youth Participation in Political and Electoral Processes during which he learned the different challenges faced by youth from other countries and the ways in which they can overcome such challenges.

With his wealth of experience as Political and Programmes Officer at UK High Commission Yaoundé and President and Founder of Youth for a Better Cameroon (YOBCA), Cleatine Asongwe promotes transparency and accountability through capacity building projects to help youth make informed choices in local elections. Through his virtual collaboration with Protect Democracy in Washington, D.C., Cleatine successfully drafted a memo on how civic infrastructures promote democratic resilience in the face of autocracy. He opined that institutions are made up of people, who are influenced and held accountable by citizens. Citing the recent case of America, Asongwe stated there was significant organizing and coordination between different groups during the presidency of Donald Trump and around the 2020 election, when it had become evident that Trump posed a clear and present danger to U.S. democracy and was actively seeking to remain in power by all means possible. To him the best way to fight autocracy is to mobilize leaders old and young of the many networks, coalitions, and communities that are already organizing around various social and political issues across the ideological spectrum together in cross-partisan settings with democracy experts to reflect on the true nature of the threat.

For his follow-on project in Cameroon, Cleatine has trained at least 70 young people on promoting transparency, accountability, and ethics in public institutions and led discussions on anti-corruption. He intends to sustain the awareness raising campaigns through community projects and hopes to achieve a much desired impact in future elections where citizens shall be called upon to vote for ideas that will bring about development, employments, economic stability and the respect of fundamental human rights and freedoms.

Cleatine Asongwe CHUNGONG thanks the U.S. Department of States for the wonderful opportunities it provides for young people in the world to expand and grow their networks and expertise in finding solutions to everyday problems. The young talent noted that, the U.S. government remains a valuable development partner in tackling global challenges such as climate change, rising insecurity, immigration and global governance.

Berinyuy Cajetan, Publisher

Berinyuy Cajetan is the founder and publisher of Human Rights and Legal Research Centre (HRLRC) since 2017. He has intensive experience in strategic communications for Civil Society Organizations, campaign and advocacy, and social issues. He has an intensive experiencing in human rights monitoring, documentation and reporting.