Cameroon
 

Introduction

The Republic of Cameroon occupies a strategic geographical position in West and Central Africa, bordered by Nigeria to the west, Chad to the north-east, the Central African Republic to the east, and Gabon, the Republic of the Congo and Equatorial Guinea to the south. It has an estimated population of 18,060,382 with a total land surface of 475,442 sq km.

Cameroon is divided into 10 administrative areas called provinces. Provinces are in turn divided into divisions (departments), which also have sub-units of sub-divisions (arrondissements) and districts. To these basic administrative units (sub-divisions and districts) correspond local government councils. Cameroon currently has a total of 339 councils of all types, including the two city councils (communautés urbaines) of the two main cities Douala and Yaoundé.

Local government contributes around 10 per cent to GDP.

Summary

Until recently, Cameroon had a highly centralised system of government with local authorities having few powers and responsibilities and no spending ability, with their budgets having always to be approved by representatives of central administration.

Now, Cameroon is reforming its local government system to give councils greater local autonomy and to reduce interference from provincial and central governments. This will require local government to strengthen its institutions and create greater capacity, so as to ensure that local government is adequately financed for its new responsibilities.

The decentralisation programme is regarded by those involved as the greatest challenge in Cameroon local governance and may take well over a decade to fully implement as planned and to bring about the change in culture needed to create a ‘bottom-up’ system of everyday governance. A series of decrees will be required in coming years to fine-tune the legislation.

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