Commonwealth Local Government Forum

Cameroon: putting the local into localism

24 March 2022

 

 

Decentralisation cannot be achieved without development at the local level, according to Cameroon’s Minister of Decentralisation and Local Development, George Elanga Obam.

Decentralisation through LED

He was speaking at the opening ceremony to launch a two-day symposium on local economic development organised by CLGF and the Ministry of Decentralisation. Entitled: Supporting the local decentralisation agenda of Cameroon through local economic development, the event was held in Yaounde, in the Central Region on 21 and 22 March, and attracted more than 45 mayors from across Cameroon, as well as a number of other local decentralised authorities.

 

A formal welcome was provided by the Mayor of Mbankomo and CLGF's Secretary-General, Ms Lucy Slack, who stressed the importance of Local Economic Development. "As well as creating jobs and supporting livelihoods to make our communities more sustainable," she said, "Local Economic Development and empowering people at the local level can feed into the national economy and make a meaningful contribution to global trade." 

Highest level support

Supported at the highest level by the Cameroon government, including the minister delegate to the Minister for External Relations (with responsibility for the Commonwealth), Felix Mbayu, and the minister delegate to the Minister of Economy Planning and Regional Development (with responsibility for planning), Paul Tasong. Speaking at the launch, Minister Elanga Obam said: “We will not say decentralisation is a success if we don’t have local development”. He explained that the event aimed to strengthen the contributions of regional and local authorities to the economic growth of Cameroon, something which is deeply rooted in the country’s 2020-2023 Development Strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals.

 

Various issues of fragility in Cameroon have resulted in social and economic consequences, materialising in, for example, school drop-out for young people, an upsurge in unemployment and juvenile delinquency and, more generally, a slowdown in economic activity. There is also demographic pressure in certain localities, due to the influx of refugees fleeing terrorist control areas. This training session is one of the targeted actions to help citizens turn the tide.

Enhancing knowledge and skills

This training, as well as enhancing knowledge and skills, aims at strengthening project management in regional and local authorities (RLAs) and enable local government to play a more effective role in implementation and inputting to policy in Cameroon’s decentralisation process. The ultimate goal of the training is to encourage local leaders to promote economic development in their localities; gather and evaluate relevant information on which to build effective strategies; support youth organisations in professional development; and forge partnerships of relevant actors and stakeholders within respective communities.

 

Expert Anthoney Nnoke Ngwese presented the key findings for the paper comissioned to take stock of the exisiting LED environment in Cameroon with recommendations on procurement policy, Public Private Partnerships, investment funds, development and support of local LED projects.

 

Aimed at council officials, but with a clear intention to extend to council officers as well, the Mayor of Tiko Council, Chief Peter Ikome Mesoso said: “This is an eye opener to the local elected authorities to know their rights and the powers they have to execute.”

 

Participants were called on to exchange their experiences with counterparts from the Commonwealth and each other on how local development is evolving and to learn from the examples, to be able to return to their communities and implement the best practice.

EU support and funding

As with all CLGF programmes, the event was a collaborative HQ/regional effort involving CLGF's Programme Manager, Ms Claire Frost, and the West Africa Regional Manager, Ms Joyce Ekuful. Ms Frost said: "We are very grateful to the European Commission for funding this project and enabling CLGF to use what we have learned in other LED projects around the Commonwealth, to share with our partners in Cameroon at local and national level."

 

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