At workshop in Buea: Local Dev’t Minister rolls out ministry’s strategic 2025 roadmap.

The strategic roadmap of the ministry was presented at the start of the sixth annual strategic retreat of MINDDEVEL's senior officials also known as the Goal-Setting Workshop, holding in Buea.

In his opening remarks during the meeting Monday, Minister Elanga Obam told the gathering the that the challenges facing the ministry in 2025 include MINDDEVEL's effective contribution to the presidential and regional elections scheduled for the end of the year; the evaluation of the Special Statute and support for the stakeholders concerned; and the continuation of the mass birth certificate issuing operation.

The Buea MINDDEVEL Goal Setting Workshop, it should be said, is unfolding under the theme: “Decentralisation and local development: the contribution of digital technology to modernising services for citizens”.

It has assembled senior officials of the central services of MINDDEVEL as well as regional delegates of the ministry.

Minister counts achievements of 2024

Speaking as he flagged off the workshop which ends Friday, Minister Elanga Obam explained that the aim of the gathering is to enable the main decentralisation players present to discuss the various projects linked to the modernisation of the decentralised local authorities, with a view to improving the implementation of public policies and the quality of services offered to the populations.

The minister disclosed that the past year has enabled the ministry to make decisive progress in certain areas. He cited the improvement of the legal, social and economic framework of the decentralisation sub-sector, with the aim of ensuring that local authorities are more effective. 

On the legal front, the minister cited the promulgation of laws relating to local taxation and the civil status registration system on the one hand, and the signing of the decree laying down the specifications specifying the conditions and technical procedures for exercising the powers transferred by the State to the regions in the area of secondary education, as well as the decrees relating to the proper functioning of municipal police services on the other. 

He said with regard to the development of human resources in the Decentralised Local Collectivities, CTDs, the ministry approved 176 employment contracts and processed 99 requests. 

The minister continued that in addition, the payment of municipal magistrates' salary arrears for the 2013-2020 mandate enabled MINDDEVEL to clear the arrears of seven hundred and seven (707) municipal magistrates in three waves for a total amount of two billion fifty-eight million eight hundred and fifty thousand FCFA (2,058,850,000). 

Speaking further, the minister disclosed that the Secretaries-General of the ten regional councils were also trained, as were four hundred and seventy-two (472) Secretaries-General and municipal collectors from councils of the Centre, South, North-West, South-West, Adamawa and East regions. 

“With regard to citizen participation and monitoring the setting up of neighbourhood or village committees, the actions carried out have enabled the consolidation of a file of eight hundred and forty (840) of these committees,” he said, noting that: “In the economic sector, MINDDEVEL has disseminated the Geographic Information System, GIS to the 374 communes and urban communities. In addition, the CTDs have been provided with a new methodological guide for drawing up development plans for communes and urban communities”.

He cited despite the achievements recorded in 2024, the annual individual and collective performance evaluations at MINDDEVEL has enabled the ministry to identify some more mitigated performance elements that stakeholders are called upon to correct. 

“Our work should lead us to define an effective deployment strategy focusing on priority sectors, taking into account the short and medium-term challenges,” he stated.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3345 of Tuesday January 21, 2025