THE NATIONAL COMMUNITYDRIVEN DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM PNDP OF CAMEROON

THE NATIONAL COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (PNDP) OF CAMEROON The Role of Citizens in Service Delivery and Building State Legitimacy in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations: PNDP experience in Cameroon Washington, December 5, 2016 1

1. BACKGROUND • Situated at the Gulf of Guinea within the Central Africa Sub-region; • Surface area: 475, 442 Square kilometers (km 2). • Population of Cameroon: 23 million inhabitants (according to the 2015 ‘s projections) • Border countries: the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo. Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Nigeria. • Number of regions: 10 • Number of divisions: 58 • Number of councils: 360 2

Overview of Cameroon social and security context The great majority of population is made up of women and youths Peaceful coexistence between many ethnic groups (+/- 280) Emergence of several political parties 60 Poverty rate Evolution 52. 1 55 40. 2 39. 9 56. 8 Poverty rate (%) 50 40 37. 5 30 17. 9 20 12. 2 10 0 8. 9 2001 urbain An economy mainly based on agriculture and natural resources, with a growth rate of around 6% 2007 rural 2014 Cameroun High Poverty rate, especifically in rural areas. (2014 national household survey) Insecurity generated by Boko Haram violence, and the massive arrivals of refugees in Northern & Eastern Cameroon since 2012 3

Governance remains been a challenge for Cameroon… Cameroon Governance (WGI) 100 90 (Cameroon) Voice and Accountability 80 (Cameroon) Government Effectiveness 70 60 (Cameroon) Regulatory Quality 50 40 (Cameroon) Rule of Law 30 (Cameroon) Control of Corruption 20 (Cameroon) Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism 10 0 1996 1998 2000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Cameroon Governance (WGI 2014) 50 Voice and Accountability 40 Control of Corruption 30 20 Political Stability & Absence of Violence/Terrorism 10 Cameroon 0 Sub-Saharan Africa Lower Middle Income Countries Rule of Law Government Effectiveness 4

…which translates in issues of legitimacy… Cameroon: Citizen perception on democracy (Afrobarometer 2014 -2015) Cameroon: Trust in… (Afrobarometer 2014 -2015) relative trust Satisfied Dissatisfied Missing Don't know 80 70 67. 4 60 7. 5% 0. 1% relative distrust 52. 1 50 45 51 43. 4 53. 7 41 49. 348. 6 53. 4 42. 4 40 36. 6% 30 29. 2 20 55. 8% 10 0 elect polic parlia court t e e ous le raditiona s of la l lead ment/nat d local go aders w ional ers v e r nmen asse t cou mbly ncil religi 5

… in a context of increasing violence. • Persistent insecurity due to the highway banditry phenomenon (coupeurs de route) that has been affecting the three northern regions for several decades • Occasional insecurity due to the presence of Central African armed groups since 2011 in the Adamawa and East regions • Enhanced violence from Boko Haram terrorist group in the Far-North region since 2014 NB: The zones in red are insecurity hotbeds 6

Government response to the crisis: • Hiring 25, 000 youths in the civil service to reduce the youth unemployment; • Emergency plans in all sectors (National & focus on Northern regions; including (but not only): • Territory Development Program (PRODAT); • PNDP – Phase 3: national but with increased investments in the conflict-affected zones (Nothern Regions and East Region). 7

2. PNDP contribution to Government Response Outline: • Citizens Engagement (Citizens – Communes) • Job creation (HIMO) (High Intensity Labor Force) • Local Development (socio-econ. Infrastructures) 8

Introducing PNDP key facts • Community-Driven Development including support to the Decentralization process, in 3 phases of 4 years: – 1 st Phase : Initiation phase launched in 151 communes in 6 Regions (2004 -2009) – 2 nd Phase : Extension phase to 329 communes located in all 10 Regions of the country (ended under IDA in 2013 and still on-going under French support (C 2 D) until December 31, 2017) – 3 rd Phase : Phase of consolidation and extension to the 360 communes of Cameroon (IDA, effective since April 4, 2016) 9

2. 1 PNDP’s Citizens Engagement: overview Citizen Engagement = Two-way interaction between citizens and governments or the private sector, which give citizens a stake in decision-making with the objective to improve intermediate and final development outcomes CE is about creating feedback loops between citizens and governments, to determine if citizen voices have been taken into account

2. 1 PNDP’s Citizens Engagement: overview PREPARATION IMPLEMENTATION CONSULTATION PARTICIPATORY MONITORING - Signature of a convention with Communes - Supervision commitees at village and commune levels to monitor the CDP’s implementation (comites de concertation - CC) - Monitoring of CDP by COGES (implementation committees) - Quarterly Feedback of the CDP’s monitoring committees during village assemblies. - Communication on the budget execution of communes through quartely commune reports, coordination committees, local councils - Villages assemblies to prepare the Communal Development Plan (CDP) and commune’s budgets. GRIEVANCE REDRESS MECHANISM (GRM) GRM established as part of the M&E through a Call center, E-mails, walk-in, etc… EVALUATION BENEFICIARIES’ SATISFACTION - Surveys on citizen satisfaction on service quality every two years at the commune level. - Results disseminated through the commune’s news report, the communes’ website, local radio, etc. - Citizen feedback on project implementation through the local committees (COGES & CC) COMMUNICATION (Commune websites, commune quarterly reports, Community radios and regional TVs) 11

… Engaging citizens in planning Support: • • Technical Assistance for participatory planning Financing micro-projects Results: A group of women during a planning exercise, and just beside, a group of men and youths. • 328 councils out of the 360 councils have Commune Development Plans (CDP) elaborated through a participatory approach; • Nearly 4, 000 microprojects in sectors such as education, hydraulic, electrification, health, etc. have been co-financed by the Program and Communes, contributing to improve the living conditions of over 3 million people; Upkeep and sustainable management of microprojects through the setting up of Management Committees (COGES) 12

…Adapting participatory methodology to conflict • The adjustment of the participatory planning methodology in the areas coping with influx of refugees and internal displaced people • The utilization of community-based radios for the sensitization of the hosting populations on the reception of refugees and displaced persons. • No co-financing is requested from communes in the conflict-affected regions; 13

Strengthening local authorities… • Human Resource: support to the hiring and training of 600 communal agents on the basis of 2 per commune. – in charge of the financial management – in charge of local development A commune financial agent updating the commune’s accounting data through the SIM_BA software A commune development agent in an inspection visit to a pig farm located in the Pouma commune • Equipment: 328 commune with computers, GPS, motorbikes • Capacity-building of Communes’ staff and elected representatives, as well as civil servants at local and central level on various issue related to decentralization 14

… to interact better with their citizens • Fostering social dialogue between the populations and the development’s actors (diagnostic and planning purposes) • Setting up a knowledge bank reflecting the overall preferences during the project’s design stage, with a view to arriving at a reasoned and responsible decision-making ; • Assisting projects’ identification and planning ; • Supporting the readiness process of council projects: feasability studies, etc; • Strengthening the regular feedback loop and interaction mechanisms between elected representative at the commune level and citizens at village level. 15

2. 2 Providing local Jobs • Social policy aimed at enabling young workers involved in the Labor -Intensive working sites, to carry out their own activities at the end of the project • Pilot operation aimed at financing projects based on the « Labor. Intensive Approach (LIA)» in support of the Territory Development Program (PRODAT) 16

2. 3 Promoting local development BEFORE AFTER 17

2. 3 Promoting local development BEFORE AFTER Health-related microprojects

… including by fostering self-help dynamic Example of « Endogenous solutions » (i. e. no financing): The communities of TSONGO and ZAKAN (DEUK) distinguished themselves through a number of projects executed in their respective localities. E. g. : (i) Amelioration of access to potable water through the development of a spring; (ii) Manufacture of school benches for the primary school; (iii) Construction of a block of two classrooms with permanent building materials. 19

Citizens’ satisfaction • Improvement of citizen satisfaction as a result of their involvement in the choice of project; • Adequacy between investments and citizen formulated needs with regard to CDPs; • Better coordination of public interventions at the grass-roots level; • Enhancement of the commune funds (local tax mobilization) ; • Greater transparency in the local public finance management • Strengthening the interaction between citizen-local authority • Building trust between citizens and the State 20

THANK YOU 21