The 39th ordinary session held yesterday in Yaounde.

The 23 Francophone African countries who are member States of the Institute for Training and Population Research, IFORD, headquartered in Yaounde have been challenged to sustain the outfit financially and materially.

The call came from the Board Chair of the institution, Cameroonian-born, Alioum Abdoulaye. He was speaking on April 5, 2016 in Yaounde as he chaired the 39th Ordinary Board Session of IFORD.

Many decisions and recommendations have been taken in preceding sessions, yet their implementation, according to the Board Chair, is below expectation. Only three member states met their financial commitments, paying their arrears, statutory contributions and debts accrued for training.

Alioum Abdoulaye noted that the session was amongst other issues, to seek ways to improve the financial situation of IFORD and to remind governments to fulfil the funding pledges they had earlier made.

The school's management and partners noted that its financial situation was not so good. A consultant is working on the issue, besides plans to construct a campus for the institution and the hosting of a meeting of IFORD Partners – an advisory body of the Executive Director.

These files are more, are expected to be submitted to the Council of Ministers expected to hold anytime in the year.

After 40 years of existence, IFORD prides itself among centres of excellence and reference on population studies on the African continent, said the Senegalese Ambassador to Cameroon, His Excellency Vincent Badji.

He referred to the institution as a development partner and a tool for sub-regional integration. The institution for 23 Francophone African countries was founded in 1971.

It became an inter-state institute on January 1, 2000, but continued to be managed like during the era it was under the oversight of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

In 2014, IFORD’s Board and the Ministers’ Council approved new governing texts for the institution, staff and Internal Rules and Regulations for the Board.