HOW DOES THE PUBLIC POLICY OF CAMEROON INFLUENCE THE BEHAVIOUR OF INDIVIDUALS

ABSTRACT

Public policy is whatever the government chooses to do or not to do. Public policy
aims at regulating the behaviour of people in the society and it is designed for the
wellbeing of the citizens. This study is therefore concerned with the evaluation
of whether individuals both producers and consumers of sachet whisky respect
the alcohol control policy placed on the consumption and production of sachet
whisky below 50 millilitres signed by the Ministry of Mines, Industry and
Technological Development, Fuh Calistus Gentry on April 11, 2023. The scope
of the study is to determine how the ban on the production and consumption of
sachet whisky influence individual behavior in Buea as perceived by retailers and
consumers of sachet whisky.

Based on this, the study tries to identify whether
this ministerial policy has been respected. This research discussed on the
methodology by which the data contained in the research were collected. The
sources of data and the method of analyzing primary data such as questionnaires.
Also, secondary data such as journals, notes and relevant literature consulted.
Simple percentage method was used in analyzing the data collected. Chapter four
analyzed and interpreted the responses of the respondents by using the tabular
form for easy understanding the analysis. The government therefore should
endeavor to put an effective body in charge of the implementation of policies if
it wants to be respected by citizens

CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Public policy emerged in the 1960s, encompassing political science, sociology,
economics and other disciplines. Policy studies emerged out of a greater concern
for specific policy problem arising in the society. Public policy indicates that
policy is a pattern of government activity on some topic or matter which has a
purpose or goal (Public Policy in The Eighties, Charles S, bullock iii, James E,
Anderson, David w Brady).

Public policies are influenced by factors like public
opinion, economic conditions, interest groups, non-governmental organizations
(NGOs), business lobbying and other political activity. Public policy endures and
evolves to respond to the ever-changing needs of the citizens it serves.
Public policy embodies attempts to alter individuals’ behavior by either forcing
or permitting them to do things they otherwise would have not done (Schneider
and Ingram 1993) P513. Today, public policies are viewed as a political system’s
responses to public demands and problems arising from its environment in
domains of health, education, transportation, security and so on. (Peter S.M
2020). Governments have a number of instruments put in place to bring about
behavior change.

Traditionally, public administration scholars identify the carrot,
the whip and the sermon (Bemelmans Videc, Rist, and Vendung 1998). The carrot
stands for changing behavior by changing incentives. In addition to the carrot,
there is the whip. For instance, a smoking ban in public places is a clear case in
which the government uses the proverbial whip to guide citizen’s behavior. The
third policy is the sermon that is the information campaigns of government about
not drinking alcohol until age 21 is a way of shaping the citizen’s behavior
concerning their health (public administration review, October 2019)

Public policy is a very important phenomenon which demonstrates the quality
and type of work of the government. public policy regulates the behavior of
people in the society and it is designed for the wellbeing of the citizens. Public
policies can shape the behavior of individuals positively or negatively. Positively
in the sense that, it depicts the concern of the government and involves its action
to a particular problem on which the policy is made and negatively in the sense
that it involves decisions by government officials regarding not taking any action
on a particular issue. Thus, Public policies may regulate behavior by organizing
bureaucracies, distributing benefits or extract taxes.

African public policy has travelled different philosophical paths or ideological
regimes ranging from different socialist flavors. This began immediately after
independence, with development administration framed by modernization theory,
and shortly gained impetus with the introduction of market principles in the
1980’s following the triumph of liberal ideologies. Thus, embarking on the
Structural Adjustment Programmers (SAP’s), Poverty Reduction Strategies
Programmers (PRSP’s) and many more others (Gideon Onyaang 2021).

However, Cameroon vision 2035 predisposes the government to engage in
consultative actions besides engaging in bottom-up public policy processes for
effective implementation (Cameroon Vision, 2035). To achieve vision 2035, the
government of Cameroon developed the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper
(GESP) 2010-20 and was later on replaced with another ten years Development
Strategy the National Development Strategy (NDS) 2020-30 as a policy
framework to significantly transform the Cameroonian economy.
Policies development in Cameroon were managed since independence through a
series of five-year development plans until the implementation of Structural
Adjustments during the late 1980s. Six successive plans were implemented
between 1961 and 1990. Five phases can be identified in the evolution of
economic policy in Cameroon.

The first phase runs roughly from independence to the end of the 1960s which
was marked by the continuation of French and British colonial economic policies
and institutions, with limited government intervention in the economy.
The second phase covered the period from the late 1960s to the late 1970s and
was one of the institutional proliferations with the creation of an astonishingly
large number of institutions with varying structures.

The third phase was initiated during the late 1970s and covering the preparation
and launching of the fifth and sixth plans which can be called the reflective phase
because it marked the beginning of an effort to undertake major economic policy
reforms that were well overdue, particularly in the face of stagnation in the
economic sector and the poor performance of the economy.
The fourth phase started during the late 1980s with the implementation of the
Structural Adjustment and Stabilization Programme following continuous
imbalances in the economy. This phase also covered the 1990s up to the late
1990s.
The fifth phase runs from the late 2000s till present, covering the Heavily
Indebted Poor Counties’ Initiative (HIPCI) and the Poverty Reduction Strategy
(PRS), the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper (GESP) and Vision 2035, the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and lastly the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs).
Nevertheless, public policy in Cameroon often ignores elements of executive
policy making thereby leading to an understanding that errors and failures of
policies are not attributed to the president’s actions but to an international
economic situation or an entourage and managers unable to understand its vision.
(Pigeaud 2011.p.108).

In Cameroon, many policies were put in place to influence individual behaviour
such as tobacco control policies. For example, in 19988, the Cameroonian
government prohibited smoking in all structures of the Ministry of Public Health
and in 1998, the prohibition of sales and consumption of tobacco and drugs
around schools.

Also, an increase in taxes may be used to regulate behaviour as
the government of Cameroon used excise tax on tobacco products in 1999 to
increase the price for which cigarette was sold thereby discouraging the
production and consumption of cigarettes in Cameroon. This study will therefore
be focus on the new governmental policy to alter individual behavior change
towards the production and consumption of sachet whisky in Cameroon. Lately,
alcohol control policy was placed on the production and consumption of sachets
whisky below 50 milliliters was prohibited and defaulters expose themselves to
legal actions. This decision to influence individuals’ behavior was taken by the
Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development, Fuh Calistus
Gentry, released on April 11, 2023.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Cameroon is one of the largest consumers of alcohol in Africa due to the
popularity of alcohol in Cameroon. It has been so far very difficult to not only
implement, but monitor policies which aim to control the excessive consumption
of alcohol.

Reducing harmful alcohol consumption will require a strict approach
which should seek to penalize the excessive consumption of alcohol. The decision
taken by the government to ban the sales and consumption of sachet whisky did
not come from the thin air for it is worth recalling that the ban is contained in an
inter-ministerial text of 12th September 2014, with its producers given a two-year
period of sales to finish their stock, but unfortunately, this deadline was not
respected for these sales was not respected.

This was to arrive at a consensus
between government officials and producers of sachet whisky, so failure to
respect this agreement has made the government of Cameroon take this harsh
decision to ban the production and consumption of sachet whisky in Cameroon.
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS