African Ministers in charge of Decentralisation and Local Development since last September 30 have a revised judicial framework that permits them to consult and dialogue in order to promote the development of Local Governments and the progress of the entire continent. The extraordinary session of the All Africa Ministerial Conference on Decentralisation and Local Development (AMCOD), that took place in Yaounde, Cameroon last Thursday was sanctioned by a historic declaration. The outgoing AMCOD chairman, Cameroon’s Minister of State for Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, Marafa Hamidou Yaya chaired deliberations.
AMCOD which is a technical Committee of the African Union on matters of decentralisation, is now a permanent structure as its revised status were adopted during last September 30 extraordinary session and it went into force the same day. The Ministers who worked on proposals prepared by the Committee of Directors between September 28 and 29, adopted Yaounde, Cameroon as the headquarters of the Permanent Executive Secretariat of AMCOD. The President of AMCOD with the assistance of the Committee of Directors will within six months from September 30, 2010, recruit the Permanent Executive Secretary of the organisation . While waiting for contribution rates to be adopted for each member country, AMCOD members will each contribute 30,000 US Dollars in 2011.
Between 2010 and 2015, the All Africa Ministerial Conference on Decentralisation and Local Development will put in place strategic orientations for its effective functioning adopted at the Yaounde extraordinary session. Among the strategic actions, the Permanent Executive Secretariat under the supervision of the bureau, will promote and cause decentralisation and local development policies in Africa, put in place all institutional framework, lobby with different development partners, support organisations of local elected officials and make AMCOD deep-rooted in the governance structure of the African Union. Work will be made easy thanks to AMCOD website and logo adopted in Yaounde. The next ordinary session of AMCOD will take place in Cote d’Ivoire in March 2011.
Cameroon’s Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Jean Nkuete who chaired the opening and closing ceremonies of AMCOD extraordinary session on behalf of the Prime Minister, Philemon Yang, enjoined the Ministers to work relentlessly so that Africa can progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. He pledged Cameroon’s necessary support to facilitate the acquisition of a befitting head office for the organisation and the work of its staff.
The President of the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA), Tarayia Ole Kores, speaking during the occasion, expressed the wish of the African local governments to work hand in hand with the ministers for local governments. “With the establishment of both AMCOD and UCLGA, the decentralisation policy can now walk on its two legs: the central government leg through AMCOD and the local government leg through UCLGA”, he concluded.
