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Local Development: FEICOM Prepares to Help Index Council Partners

The Local Development Index will be a scientific document to help development actors take decisions on projects.
The Special Council Support Fund for Mutual Assistance (FEICOM) will by the end of 2010 prepare the Local Development Index, a document that will help actors in local development determine the priority projects to be financed in the local council areas. The index will be coming a year after the government started transferring some competences and resources from the central administration to the local councils in a bid to concretise the decentralisation process and foster local development.
During a seminar in Yaounde yesterday, a multi-disciplinary working group presented the terms of reference of the study on the Local Development Index for validation. The Director General of FEICOM, Philippe Camille Akoa said, as a development instrument, the institution has as one of its key missions to finance council and inter-council projects, stating that the mission is rendered difficult by insufficient financial resources. The Local Development Index which FEICOM started working on since 2008, Mr Akoa said, is an instrument that will help identify the most needy localities and prioritise assistance to Cameroonians councils. The index will therefore improve on the impact of assistance by local development partners to Cameroonians councils, be an instrument to help in decision-making with regard to prioritising assistance to councils. Local development partners will use the index as a barometer in financing and supporting councils in their projects.
The Minister of State, Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, Marafa Hamidou Yaya patronised the seminar. Speaking on his behalf, the Inspector in MINATD in charge of Local Councils, Justin Dieudonné Ngong, said the seminar was an opportunity for actors in the decentralisation process to master the social development indicators and the stakes of drawing up statistics that will take into account the level of development in councils. He said nine ministries this year, transferred some competence and resources to councils. FEICOM’s role in the decentralisation process, the MINATD official stated, will consist in centralising resources to councils such as the general allocation for decentralisation, forest royalties, communal tax etc,.