Members of the Steering Committee of the European Union sponsored Civil Society Strengthening Programme, PASC, met in Buea on November 10 and made recommendations aimed at ensuring that PASC projects attain greater success.

The programme was established in 2011 to last five years, hence it is expected to end in July 2015 (if not renewed).

PASC (Programme d’Appui à la société Civile), was established by the 10th European Union Development Fund, EDF, and is a funding scheme agreed upon between Cameroon and the European Union totaling some FCFA 4.5 billion.

The PASC Programme is aimed at enhancing “the contribution of civil society organisations in favour of a transparent, fair and efficient governance system that contributes to the improvements of the living conditions of the populations.”

According to the Representative of the European Union Delegation in Cameroon, Stephanie Gantzer Houzel, the Buea gathering (which brought together over 30 participants) “… was crucial so as to identify some lessons learnt since the beginning of the programme but, also and especially, to plan the final stage of implementation of the programme that will end in July 2015,” she explained.

“To date, 123 actions have been financially supported since the beginning of the Programme in February, 2011,” stated an information sheet about the success of PASC this far.

“Thirty-six contracts under the first call for proposals (AP1): FCFA 550 million; 30 contracts under the second call for proposals (AP2): FCFA 500 million and so on,” stated part of PASC’s balance sheet since 2011.

The information sheet further stated that “there are about forty new actions (projects) under FAIR and direct supports that will be financed (by PASC) in the coming weeks.”

In essence, the PASC which has the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Louis-Paul Motaze, as the Authorising Officer or Overseer of its success, is out to “strengthen the role of CSOs in governance initiatives at the national and regional levels” with the wholesome view of ensuring the sustainability of these actions in the field.

The PASC is also out to “contribute to the building of the organisational, technical and institutional capacities of CSOs working in the field of governance.”

In order that the above goals are better met before July 2015, the Steering Committee members, in Buea, came up with a series of recommendations aimed achieving greater success.

They called on the Programme Management Unit, PMU, to step up monitoring of activities in the field, especially by getting the Relay Organisations (Ors) or call it focal point CSOs, involved in the monitoring process.

The Buea meeting also added that there was a high need for PASC to “scale up the consistency of communication between all its stakeholders: CSOs, PMU, Ors and the Steering Committee in a bid to guarantee transparency.

Meantime, the Ors were advised to up the involvement of public authorities in their activities in order to encourage more dialogue between the CSOs and the public authorities.

The Buea gathering suggested that the EU Delegation, MINEPAT and CAON “follow up and facilitate the effective implementation of the recommendations of the third PASC Steering Committee meeting.”

They observed that if the recommendations are met, PASC will be on the road to greater success following its mission of making the livelihoods of many Cameroonians better through its multi-billion FCFAs support to the CSOs.

“Indeed, we think that the Civil Society has a key role to play in the development of the country. They have the role to play in helping the population understand how Government policy is implemented and so on,” said the EU Representative.

Gantzer was, thus, happy with what the civil societies they have assisted this far has been able to achieve.

On behalf of the Minister of the Economy, the Minister Delegate in the Ministry, Yaouba Abdoulaye thanked the EU for their support to the project. “PASC is the result of the fruitful collaboration between the Cameroon Government and the European Union,” Minister Abdoulaye said.

The Steering Committee Members, on November 11, visited two PASC assisted CSOs in Limbe: the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Foundation, LUKMEF, run by Christian Tanyi and the Snails For Life NGO headed by Pauline Ndenge.