Six councils in the Southwest Region have been identified for technical and financial assistance this year by the National Community-Driven Development Program (PNDP).
According to Dr. Nkem David Atenchong, PNDP Regional Coordinator for Southwest, the six identified councils will collectively receive a huge financial package of FCFA 600 million this year. He adds that PNDP will assist up to 25 councils in the Southwest Region amounting to several billions of FCFA by 2013
Nkem Atenchong, who holds a PhD in Development Studies from the Commonwealth Open University, UK and an MA in Development Policy from the University of Bremen, Germany, is quite convinced that PNDP would greatly help in alleviating poverty in the southwest region.
Dr.Nkem(pictured) sat down for an interview with Recorder Editor Christopher Ambe Shu in his office in Buea
You are the pioneer Southwest Regional Coordinator of PNDP.What is PNDP all about?PNDP stands for the National Community-Driven Development Program. It was conceived in 2005 as a tool whose objective is to assist the Government of Cameroon in poverty-alleviation and in enhancing opportunities for growth and employment.
PNDP is in its second phase –that is from 2010 -2013.It has a phase of four years. In the first phase the project was in six regions of the country excluding Northwest, Southwest, Littoral and East regions. But in the second phase these regions just named are included. So PNDP is now in all the ten regions of the country.
Why were some regions excluded from the first phase?
It is a matter of programming. You cannot do everything at once. You have to start somewhere. Certain criteria were used to identify the regions for the first phase.
Are the regions that benefited from the first phase are still benefiting from the second phase?
Yes, they are still benefiting. It is an on-going process. They could still be involved in the third phase.
In the first phase over 1.2 million households benefited from the project either directly or indirectly-in terms of rural infrastructure-roads, markets, equipment of classrooms and capacity-building in one way or the other.
Let us come back to the overall objective of PNDP.Can you throw more light on it?
In the first and second phases the funding mechanism has been put in place to assist councils. That is PNDP gives allowances to councils to elaborate their communal development plans, to follow-up development activities in rural development areas and again to assist capacity-building. The PNDP will work with councils, recruit and train technical and financial assistants who will serve as focal point in every council on behalf of PNDP.
We have to draw up legal and regulatory mechanisms for decentralization and rural development. It is a program that is also out to accompany the government in the on-going decentralization process.
When you give allowances to councils, do you actually follow-up how these funds are used?
Yes! First of all before we give money to councils we open a joint bank account in a credible financial institution. The signatories to this account are the mayor, the municipal treasurer and the PNDP coordinator. At the level of the PNDP there is a follow-up committee; there is a monitoring and evaluation unit that tracks how this money is being used. At the level of the council there is a follow –up committee that is put in place to follow-up micro-projects financed by PNDP.
In addition, you have external auditors coming from either the side of the donors or the National Coordination Unit of PNDP which is in Yaoundé.
How do you identify councils for assistance? Do they have to apply?
Councils are state institutions. The PNDP is a government program and with the implementation of decentralization, the councils are seen as the main focus of PNDP –because they are out there to reach the grassroots and to reach the grass roots, the interlocutor has to be the councils and the mayors are heads of councils.
In the Southwest, by 2013 we are going to cover 25 councils. In 2010, we are starting with six councils. In Fako, it is the Tiko council; in Meme ,you have Mbonge council; in Ndian Division, you have Bamusso Council; in Lebialem ,you have Menji council ;In Manyu ,it is the Eyumojock council and in Kupe Manenguba ,you have the Tombel council. We will work with nine councils in 2011 and 10 councils in 2012.And of course .follow-up will extend up to 2013.Let me note here that these councils have their financial allowances ready. It just like having your credits and be able to use. It is just for us to open up a joint bank account and follow-up certain procedures that have been put in place by PNDP for councils to meet up to benefit from these allowances.
How financially viable is the PNDP regional office you are heading? How much money is there for the councils to take home?
This gives me the opportunity to tell you about the PNDP financing plan. .The program is financed by both the government of Cameroon and international donors. You have the World Bank, through the IDA funds; you also have the German Development Bank and the French Development Assistance. The councils have to make some contribution as well. In all, the package that PNDP has for councils this year is close to Fcfa 600 million. Take note that the least given to each council is about Fcfa 90 million. You also have some amount for the functioning of the PNDP office and to follow-up field activities.
As pioneer regional coordinator, what have you achieved so far?
Things have been happening so fast. In PNDP action speaks louder than words. I effectively took office as pioneer coordinator in April this year. PNDP is under MINEPAT-the titular ministry. And when we came here the regional delegate of MINEPAT was so receptive and gave us two offices .But we have just transferred to our new building here in the CPNS complex, Mile 17 -Buea
When we came in we immediately organized an initiation workshop in Tombel for the mayors, secretaries-general and municipal treasurers and other sector based-ministries from the six councils that are benefiting this year. The workshop was to brief them on the PNDP, its principles and how we are to partner in the field. During that workshop we also announced another phase-that of carrying out a diagnostic study -so to get basic data about councils and local development economy, social and environmental indicators as baseline for us to start working. And it is from this baseline information that we will either actualize the communual development plan or elaborate a new communual development plan for the council .It is from these communual development plans that we will finance projects.
Now we are at the phase of signing conventions. We signed the first convention on July 16, 2010 with the Tiko council. In the convention we gave them a package of over Fcfa 28 million for Tiko to actualize their communual development plan. They have a plan but it doesn’t suit the standards of PNDP. The plan they showed did not show a village- by- village approach in the elaboration of the development plan. And with PNDP the approach must be village- by-village one. What we realized from the development plan that was elaborated in 2008 is that they concentrated on Mutengene, Likumba, Tiko, Misselle and another village. But we said for them to benefit we need a village- by-village approach…
In addition to the over Fcfa 28 million given to Tiko, there is money to take charge of the tenders’ board committee and the functioning of another committee extended to other sectors and also the award of contracts. We have also just financial conventions with the Menji, Mbonge and Bamusso Councils.
So far, have you come across any challenges?
As a new office, the challenges are enormous; we don’t yet have means of transportation on our own; we are still hiring vehicles but we are sure to have ours soon. In the field, we have the problem of communication during the rainy season-to move to areas such as Menji,Mamfe or Ndian is not easy. And you know our activities also cover the Bakassi area so moving by sea at times is a big challenge; there is this fear of insecurity around.
You are a development expert and now coordinating PNDP here. Are you convinced that this project will succeed here?
I think it is going to be a huge success. It will be a land mark success because the approach is very participatory. Right form the elaboration of the communual development plan you see the grassroots people being involved. And we are there to guide them on how to go about the micro-projects. We are telling them that, it is not just building a school or markets but also looking at social and environmental aspects- because from experience there are some projects such as markets that are built without toilets or proper drainage system. But the approach of PNDP takes care of environmental issues.
I am very convinced that we will make .The project has come to stay and the impact will be felt.
The set up is as follows: The Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development(MINEPAT) is at the top and there you have the National Orientation Committee that is chaired by the Secretary-General of MINEPAT.At the regional level, you know we work with the councils, so the SDO’s are the main supervisory authorities. Then at the council level, you have the municipal council board extended to sector-based ministries. Of course, you have the grassroots population.
You also have the National Coordination Unit with head office in Yaoundé. Mme Marie Magdalene Nga is the National Coordinator of PNDP. There are regional units-for the case of Southwest it is Buea .Of course; I am the Southwest regional coordinator. And under my supervision are four units: unit in charge of capacity-building; unit in charge of infrastructure, unit in charge of social and economic aspects and unit for Accounts. There are other support staffs.
There are service providers who go between the regional coordination units and the councils.
There are three major components: the first component is Support to Local Development, which makes sure that allowances meant for development are disbursed to the councils. The second component is Support to Decentralization-mainly for technical and financial capacity-building. The third is the Coordination, Management and Communication, Monitoring and Evaluation component.
So that is how PNDP is set up to ensure the effective implementation of the projects in the field.
NB:First Published in The Recorder Newspaper(Cameroon),of August 19,2010
No comments:
Post a Comment