The Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Alamine Ousmane Mey, presided over the National Forum on Development Funding in Cameroon, jointly organised with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on 28 March 2023 at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel.
The purpose of this forum was to pool the efforts of all development stakeholders in order to find a mutual agreement on the appropriate ways of funding structural transformation, as well as inclusive and sustainable development. Specifically, the participants discussed the various options and modalities for funding development projects, following the NDS30 guidelines. This meeting, placed under the theme: “Funding Economic and Social Inclusive and Sustainable Development”, is part of the implementation of the recommendation of the International Conference on Development Funding held in Addis Ababa in July 2015, which suggests that countries adopt Integrated National Financing Frameworks (IFFs) enabling them to develop and implement a strategic, holistic and results-oriented approach to fund development. As such, and following the international approach, Cameroon assessed its overall development funding needs for the 2020-2030 period. This activity was carried out jointly with its technical development partners. It reveals a strong concentration of funding needs in the infrastructural sector (31.7%), followed by the rural sector (23.8%), the health sector (18.5%) and the industrial and services sector (14.1%). During the proceedings on 29 March 2023, panels were set up to enable participants to agree on the measures and initiatives to be taken to ensure the effective implementation of the Integrated National Financing Strategy for the socio-economic and cultural development of our country. Moreover, they were given a broad view of the various options and modalities for funding development projects, as per the NDS30 guidelines, and especially to ensure the identification of measures for the mobilisation of funds to cover the requirements for the implementation of the NDS30 flagship projects, which amount to 88,000 billion CFAF.
According to Alamine Ousmane Mey, the proposals made during this national forum will be used to prepare Cameroon’s participation in two major international rendezvous, namely the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Forum on Financing for Development (FfD Forum) scheduled to take place in New York from 17 to 20 April 2023, and the High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development scheduled for September 2023, on the sidelines of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, in the presence of Heads of State. The Yaounde forum will definitely bring a significant added value to Cameroon’s participation in these two important meetings. For Allasane Ba, UNDP Resident Representative in Cameroon ad interim, Cameroon can already count on its long-standing partner, UNDP. It should be mentioned that in order to achieve an average growth rate of 8% over the 2020-2030 period and ensure the implementation of projects for more than 37.5 billion CFA francs, while ensuring the completion of those in progress up to more than 50,000 billion CFA francs, Cameroon shall invest in the search for and the mobilisation of funding. This will include the mobilisation of domestic and external fundings, including funding from the diaspora and technical and financial partners.
