The Steering Committee of Phase III of PADDL held in Yaounde on April 25, 2014. Members of the Steering Committee of Phase III of the Support Programme for Decentralization and Local Development, PADDL during their first meeting in Yaounde on April 25, 2014 defined the broad guidelines of the strategic orientations, as well as validated its programming for the coming 20 months as the phase 111 of the programme ends in December 2015.

The Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, René Emmanuel Sadi who is the chairperson of the Steering Committee of Phase III of PADDL presided at the opening of the meeting at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel. He called on members to propose and facilitate the putting in place of strategic alliances of the programme, formulate pertinent recommendations on the management of interfaces and subsequent sources of blockages and to envisage the future of the programme beyond the December 2015 expiry period.

The Support Programme for Decentralisation and Local Development was put in place with the mission to accompany the Cameroon public authorities at the national, regional and local levels to put in place the decentralization process with the objective to promote the local populations participate in the management of public affairs at the local level as well as have access to basic services.

Talking about the success of the programme, Anja Heuft, the Coordinator of PADDL said they have been able to give a push on strengthening services at local and regional levels and stated that the way forward will be to consolidate achievements and explore other ways of cooperation in accompanying the decentralization process.

By Emmanuel KENDEMEH