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By Christopher Ambe Shu
Cultural and development associations in Cameroon have been called upon to put in place a strong mechanism for the proper monitoring and evaluation of projects they are executing in the villages, so to get a better impact of their activities. They have also been advised to design real strategic plans to ease the achievement of their development objectives.
These recommendations have been made by a team of British researchers who used BANDECA (Bali Nyonga Development and Cultural Association) and MECA ( Manyu Elements Cultural Association) as their case study to dig into the operations of village development associations in Cameroon.
“At the moment, there is no systematic evaluation that is trying to make the work more professional and learning from mistakes and sharing good practice”, research leader, Dr Ben Page(pictured) of the University College of London, said.
The research was carried out in 2005, and had Dr Claire Mercer and Dr Martin Evans as co-researchers.
The research titled Development and the Diaspora; Hometown Associations in Cameroon and Tanzania was sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council, a government agency within the UK.
Dr Page presented the research findings to an audience of Buea varsity dons, leaders of cultural associations, and the press recently at Capitol Hotel in Buea. The presentation followed a similar workshop in London last September. Why such a research now?
“The research has been carried out because there is a lot of interest now on how Cameroonians abroad can contribute to the development of their country,”Dr Page told The Recorder. “And, we chose BANDECA and MECA primarily because they have strong groups in the UK and face the same challenges”
The research recommended the formation of larger associations to cover areas that are falling behind in terms of development or have no associations.
It recommended that ways be made easier for those especially Cameroonians abroad to invest in Cameroon
The research found that, there are a lot of individual remittances -people sending money home to the village. But it noted that, the challenge is how to convert those remittances into public good such as water supplies, health facilities etc so that they are useful for everybody in the village. It found that cultural and development associations could be good vehicles for taking money from people over seas and converting into welfare facilities. It also noted that, as it stands now it is really the people inside Cameroon –that is, members of the associations who are doing most of the development work and not those outside the country.
Dr Page told The Recorder that, data collection for the research was quite easy because as he said “people like talking about their hometowns”
The audience, after listening to and commenting on the research findings, hailed the researchers for such a brilliant initiative. They admitted having learnt from the findings. “We must say we have learnt much from your findings and congratulate you on this”, remarked Agbor Meg, president of MOHWA(a Manyu women’s group), on behalf of the participants.
By Christopher Ambe Shu
Cultural and development associations in Cameroon have been called upon to put in place a strong mechanism for the proper monitoring and evaluation of projects they are executing in the villages, so to get a better impact of their activities. They have also been advised to design real strategic plans to ease the achievement of their development objectives.
These recommendations have been made by a team of British researchers who used BANDECA (Bali Nyonga Development and Cultural Association) and MECA ( Manyu Elements Cultural Association) as their case study to dig into the operations of village development associations in Cameroon.
“At the moment, there is no systematic evaluation that is trying to make the work more professional and learning from mistakes and sharing good practice”, research leader, Dr Ben Page(pictured) of the University College of London, said.
The research was carried out in 2005, and had Dr Claire Mercer and Dr Martin Evans as co-researchers.
The research titled Development and the Diaspora; Hometown Associations in Cameroon and Tanzania was sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council, a government agency within the UK.
Dr Page presented the research findings to an audience of Buea varsity dons, leaders of cultural associations, and the press recently at Capitol Hotel in Buea. The presentation followed a similar workshop in London last September. Why such a research now?
“The research has been carried out because there is a lot of interest now on how Cameroonians abroad can contribute to the development of their country,”Dr Page told The Recorder. “And, we chose BANDECA and MECA primarily because they have strong groups in the UK and face the same challenges”
The research recommended the formation of larger associations to cover areas that are falling behind in terms of development or have no associations.
It recommended that ways be made easier for those especially Cameroonians abroad to invest in Cameroon
The research found that, there are a lot of individual remittances -people sending money home to the village. But it noted that, the challenge is how to convert those remittances into public good such as water supplies, health facilities etc so that they are useful for everybody in the village. It found that cultural and development associations could be good vehicles for taking money from people over seas and converting into welfare facilities. It also noted that, as it stands now it is really the people inside Cameroon –that is, members of the associations who are doing most of the development work and not those outside the country.
Dr Page told The Recorder that, data collection for the research was quite easy because as he said “people like talking about their hometowns”
The audience, after listening to and commenting on the research findings, hailed the researchers for such a brilliant initiative. They admitted having learnt from the findings. “We must say we have learnt much from your findings and congratulate you on this”, remarked Agbor Meg, president of MOHWA(a Manyu women’s group), on behalf of the participants.
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