Good Governance

Abstract

The report discusses the factors contributing to precarious and problematic governance from multidisciplinary perspectives, and demonstrates the extent to which such inadequacies impede positive social change. To promote effective development, the authors argue for the implementation of a good governance strategy that comprises, inter alia: adopting appropriate development strategies; decentralizing administration to make for popular participation and ensure accountability; taking the necessary steps to fight corruption; and ensuring the enforcement of property and cultural rights.

Table of Content

CHAPTER ONE4

INTRODUCTION4

The National Good Governance Programme6

The Anti-Corruption Strategy8

CHAPTER TWO10

LITERATURE REVIEW10

CHAPTER THREE19

METHODOLOGY19

Literature Selection Criteria19

Search Technique20

Definition of Qualitative Research20

CHAPTER FOUR22

DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS22

Cameroon's Good Governance Rategy32

The National Governance Programme (NPG)33

CHAPTER FIVE38

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS38

Anti-Corruption Strategy38

REFERENCES45

Chapter One

Introduction

Cameroon is a country situated in the middle of Central Africa with a population of about 14 million inhabitants and has English and French as its official languages. Its diverse peoples and varied geography make it indeed a microcosm of Africa. Cameroon's annual growth rate at present stands at roughly 5%, with agriculture being the mainstay of its development. Like several other third-world countries, Cameroon has over the last few years embarked on an extensive reform programme geared towards adapting it to the new conditions of modem society. At the economic level, Cameroon has embarked on an unprecedented process to restructure, privatize and rehabilitate State-owned corporations and undertakings. In this regard, it has signed many agreements with the Bretton Woods Institutions. (Agere, 2000, 216)

At the political level, legislative and statutory instruments on individual and collective public freedoms (the freedom of thought, the freedom of association as well as political and trade union freedoms) were passed in order to strengthen the rule of law. A National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms comprising all the active forces and various socio-professional brackets was set up to better advance and protect the rights and freedoms of citizens. At the administrative level, Government equally carried out a reorganization of ministries in order to better adapt them to their missions and to ensure a more rational organisation and functioning of their structures. This spate of reforms peaked in 1996 with the adoption of the new Constitution which further changed Cameroon's institutional landscape by establishing an Executive headed by a President of the Republic and a Prime Minister, Head of Government, (Agere, 2000, 216) a bicameral Parliament, a Constitutional Council and an independent judicial power.

The 1996 Constitutional reform affirmed the decentralised nature of the State and instituted the Region, which is a new form of local government. In addition, the Constitution re-affirms Cameroon's attachment to the basic freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Charter, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and the related international conventions.

Government will effectively and gradually establish the various bodies enshrined in the Constitution. Furthermore, Cameroon has adopted and is currently implementing a poverty alleviation strategy which essentially aims at considerably and sustainable reducing the proportion of the population living below the poverty line as defined by FAO. The strategy focuses on the following actions:

• The ...