Paul Tasong,President of the steering committee of the Presidential Plan for Reconstruction and Development (PPRD) held a working session with stakeholders on September 17 in Bamenda where he explained the new strategies brought in. He said unlike the former policy that relied on the United Nations Development Program as the principal partner for the execution of projects, the new policy would welcome several partners for the execution of development projects.
The new policy was established by the office of the Prime Minister on July 30, July 2024 as order no 075/CAB/PM. It is more extensive compared to the initially established one in 2020. This policy extends to Municipal and Regional Councils, realizing them as partners for project execution in their jurisdiction. With this approach, the state would play the role to ensure efficiency. “As of today, the PPRD has the possibility of going into partnership with many other implementing partners. Now the PPRD can and should be able to incorporate in its role the work that is being done in the construction of the kumbo – Nkambe section of the ring road” the PPRD President elaborated.
Paul Tasong explained that the plan that has been in existence since 2020 focused largely on the recovery phase. The fruits include the equipping of farmers with stocks of agricultural inputs, rehabilitation of schools, hospitals and water supply. Speaking during the session the President of the North West follow-up committee, Governor Adolphe Lele Lafrique revealed that 258 projects have been completed, 38 projects are in progress and 2 were suspended. Relevant projects due completion include the Bamenda urban bypass, the Bamenda-Babadjou road and the ring road among others.
The entire PPRD operates on 2500 billion FCFA as budget for the complete transformation of the North West and South West Regions. The aim is to rebuild the destroyed and obsolete infrastructure in the crisis Northwest and Southwest Regions under the phrase “building back better” Mr Tasong explained that building back better requires an expansion of the infrastructure “if we move to a school for instance, our aim will not be to build the classrooms only but to add water and ensure that there is electricity and other social amenities” he said.
The safe settlement of Internally Displaced Persons and IDPs is also factored in the facilities being reconstructed. Still under the plan, in order to guarantee social peace, more psycho social aid would be be provided to the returning persons who fled conflicts. The outlined projects for the first phase would proceed with the revamping of the second phase projects like the agro-industry in the North West and South West Regions. In this view are the CDC, PAMOL and UNVDA to be revamped.
The main challenge of the PPRD since it started on 2020, has been the raising of funds to carryout the project. The envisaged budget was 150 billion francs but just 50 billion francs was raised. The new approach to work with multiple partners is hoped to initiate a greater degree of practical decentralization and bring greater development that would in addition to the existing population, favour the return of IDPs.
By Mildred Wung
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