CAMEROON IN PERSPECTIVE

Description

When it became apparent in the early 2000s that debts incurred by African countries subject to Structural Adjustment Plans had become unsustainable, relief mechanisms were developed within the framework of conditionality of economic aid: poor countries would be helped on condition that they engage in structural reform programmes prescribed by the World Bank, abide by rules of good governance and agree to adhere to a regular evaluation of their performance against these preset benchmarks.

Africa, however, lacked a long-term independent evaluation mechanism. Therefore, in 2003, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) established the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), a mechanism for monitoring the governance performance of Member States.

The APRM is a self-monitoring mechanism and accession is on a voluntary basis. To date, thirty-five of the fifty-three African Union Member States (66%) have voluntarily joined the mechanism. Of these, 17 countries that have completed their self-assessment and have been peer reviewed by the Forum of Heads of State and Government. This represents only 49% of the APRM Member States and 23% of the AU Member States. The APRM process has recently been subsumed into the African Union architecture. This in my humble opinion is worrying. The risk of the politisation of the process and the reduction of the independence of the Panel is not at all to be neglected. During my tenure as Chairman of the Panel I got the sense of an increase in the desire of certain countries to influence the process. The

African continent must work hard at providing its citizens with independent processes be they Courts, Commissions, Experts or Instances put up to prevent and combat corruption.

No CEMAC country (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Chad) has completed its self-assessment, which should give us pause. This was, naturally, a challenge for Cameroon, where no systematic means of evaluation has been set up, and where attempts have been made, they have been thwarted by the status quo. Year after year, state impotence appeared as the consequence of a crisis of public management and, more generally, a breakdown of governance. African countries with a potential at least equivalent to Cameroon’s, have fulfilled their obligation of accountability as part of their APRM membership. However, the fact that a small number of countries have submitted to the assessment is not an excuse for Cameroon to avoid it. Keep in mind that a Cameroonian has presided over the APRM has been part of the Panel of Eminent Persons of this Pan-African institution.

The lack of an “evaluation in context” presented for the country, at the threshold of a century for major economic and technological transformations, poses important risks: First, there is a risk of marginalization within the concert of the international community. Assessing oneself is one way of demonstrating the efforts made to comply with the obligations to which the country has freely agreed within the framework of international cooperation, thus revealing that the State is interested in maintaining high standards. Completing the evaluation and abiding by the recommendations would also send a strong signal to potential investors that their investments would be safeguarded in Cameroon.

In addition, by avoiding this evaluation, governments deprive themselves of valuable tools that would allow them to

analyze the prevailing socio-economic reality in the field of public action, as well as modernize state actions, adapting it to the new situations revealed by periodic examinations.

It appeared to me that no major transformation was possible without first assessing Cameroon on the basis of the prerequisites of the African Peer Review Mechanism. It had become clear that the breakdown of governance observed for more than thirty years was linked to the absence of an in-depth diagnosis of the country, in all sectors of administrative, social and economic action.

In recent months, I have therefore commissioned a group of experts to conduct an evaluation of Cameroon, using the principles and methodology of the APRM process. The objective is to promote the adoption of policies, values, norms and practices of political and economic governance leading to political stability, accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration, economic growth and sustainable development. These experts, among the best specialists in public policy and economic action, have studied the country, following a proven methodology, mobilizing first-hand and often rare materials and sources. This document presents the evaluation in its entirety. I want to commend the availability of these eminent researchers, young and old, from diverse backgrounds and with high-level qualifications in various fields ranging from law and economics to political science, history, comparative literature, and telecommunications. They did not collaborate under an APRM mandate, but they scrupulously observed the APRM methodology.

The diagnosis paints a realistic picture of Cameroon, without dwelling exclusively on the shortcomings the current system
– For every shortcoming of the current system, the evaluators made recommendations to get Cameroon on the right track. It is a scientific work, and now a resource for policy makers.

We can be proud that the evaluation of Cameroon is now done.

As a citizen of Cameroon, I aspire to contribute daily to the growth of my country and the betterment of the lives of my fellow citizens. It is this calling that led me to run for President in 2018 and it is the same which led me to put together a team and work on this evaluation. This evaluation confirms what I have always known: With the right leadership and decision-making, Cameroon, with all its resources, human, material and otherwise, will soar to its rightful place among the nations of the world..

Barrister Akere T. Muna
Former Chairperson of the Eminent Person’s Panel of the APRM