Abstract
This guide is the result of investigative work, exploration and evaluation made by a multidisciplinary team around the HIM unit of MINEPAT1 and involving representatives of different directions of this ministry intervening in the development chain and monitoring the implementation of the BIP, representatives from the ministry in charge of employment and representatives of employers' and workers' organizations with the assistance of the International Labour Office. Evaluating the socio-economic impact ex-ante of one or many investments is a concern to many institutions and actors in various countries of the world. The challenge is usually to rather anticipate the needs and thus consider appropriate responses, particularly in terms of organisation, of initial or continuous training. Also, sometimes clear choices of projects to select or technological processes to use are made. Employment is one of the variables that hold particular attention in such exercises. Thereto related concerns involve several categories of actors such as international institutions, administrations in charge of planning, local administrations, private holders of projects, federations and other professional organisations, etc. For policy makers, job creation is a constant concern, sometimes an indicator of political efficacy regardless of the nature of the proposed project. Thus the assessment of the number of direct, indirect and secondary jobs likely to be created by a project or programme becomes a major concern in Cameroon, a country where one of the major development challenges focuses on reducing distortions observed on the labour market (unemployment, underemployment, informal employment). This Guide provides its users with a flexible method and brief marks to understand and value, in the planning and programming phases of the public investment budget, the employment potential of the projects it plans to submit to budgeting or implement as part of their work plans. It is particularly aimed at central and local public administrations and their support teams to develop, validate and select projects to be budgeted or run them. It primarily aims to promote the employment dimension of each investment project regardless of its main and initial objectives, including questioning the technological choices in terms of realisation and their consequences in terms of promoting jobs and valorising local resources. It intends to develop and be supplemented by new methodological contributions, progress of information system or the provision of additional data on public investment programmes and projects in Cameroon. In this regard, any contribution is welcome.