Launching the competition last Thursday, April 28 during a press conference at the Yaounde City Hall, Cia Sjetnan of the World Bank office in Cameroon, said the objective of the competition is to offer an opportunity for innovative ideas on strengthening community participation for better local governance in the fields of education, health and forest resources. Justifying the focus on local governance and three other sectors chosen, she said governance is at the heart of the World Bank’s country-specific objectives for Cameroon while the ongoing decentralisation process gives priority to health, education and forest management; three domains that have known reforms geared towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals, but where problems still persist. “The Development Marketplace will assemble projects in the three sectors, expose them and fund them,” she said.
Explaining requirements for eligibility to the Development Marketplace Fund estimated at FCFA 145 million, Justin Bedoume of the Catholic Relief Services said registered associations; non-governmental organisations and common initiative groups, will be expected to propose projects that can increase community participation and transparency in the management of local educational and hospital institutions as well as forest resources. The applicants will complete application forms available online at www.CameroonDM.org and submit before May 31. The project proposals will be evaluated by a panel of experts based on criteria including innovation, potential for being replicated elsewhere, impact on the community, results and sustainability. Selected projects will start implementation on July 25 this year and end on July 24, 2012. On September 26, 2012 the achievements of the projects will be presented during a public event.
