Cameroon Rallies Development Partners Behind 2030 Development Agenda

Cameroon has opened discussions with its development partners on a consultation framework intended to improve coordination around the implementation of the National Development Strategy 2020-2030 (NDS30).

Government officials, bilateral and multilateral partners, United Nations agencies and other development institutions met in Yaounde on July 29 to examine the charter that would govern the mechanism. The document is expected to define how the parties consult one another, align their interventions with government priorities and improve the overall coherence of the support provided under the strategy.

Economy, Planning and Regional Development Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey said the initiative should deepen the involvement of technical and financial partners in both the NDS30 and the government’s main reform programs. He noted that several months of preparatory work had already produced the basic elements of the roadmaps discussed at the meeting, reflecting what he described as a shared willingness to establish a more collaborative approach.

That effort is meant to ensure that the programs supported by development partners are not implemented in isolation, but contribute more consistently to the same national objectives. Under the NDS30, those objectives include industrialization, agricultural modernization, stronger energy and transport infrastructure, human capital development, governance reforms and social protection.

United Nations Resident Coordinator Issa Sanogo said development partners remained committed to working alongside the government to advance both the NDS30 and the Sustainable Development Goals. He argued that the value of the new mechanism would lie in its ability to turn dialogue into coordinated action and produce tangible improvements for the population.

Sanogo also stressed that no institution could respond alone to the development challenges facing the country, particularly as global crises and tighter resources continue to place pressure on humanitarian and development programs. Closer coordination, he said, would therefore be necessary to make the best use of the support available and translate individual initiatives into broader results.

The process involves institutions including the World Bank, German Cooperation, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations Development Programme and UNICEF. Their participation gives the government a common platform through which it can organize external support around the NDS30, rather than relying on a series of separately managed interventions.

Adopted in 2020, the NDS30 is Cameroon’s main economic and social policy framework for the decade and forms part of the country’s longer-term Vision 2035. The current discussions are not aimed at revising its priorities, but at improving the way the government and its partners work together to implement them.

Mercy Fosoh