The Government of Cameroon have been stepping up measures to make decentralization a governance priority. The Government which since the early 2000 kick start the decentralization process has since 2018 embarked on actions to make decentralization a reality in the country. One of the things the Government of Cameroon has been doing includes the putting in place of an institutional framework to mastermind the implementation of reforms already engaged in the early 2000’s. Structures that have been created since then include the the Senate in 2013, and the Ministry of Decentralization and Local Development created in March 2018.
Since the organization of the Major National Dialogue in 2019 as part of measures to solve the Anglophone crises rogueing the country since 2016, the implementation of reforms to boost the decentralization process has taken a full swing. As a major outcome of the National Dialogue, the Government has undertaken a series of action. On December 24 2019, a law on the General Code on Regional and Local Authorities became enacted. This law introduced important innovation amongst which the prominent features include the granting of a special status to the two English Speaking Regions of the North West and South West, the reduction of the authority of the State on Local Councils, the creation of a Common Decentralization to finance decentralization by the allocation of a budget of 36 billion to be devolved to 360 local council, increase in the number of municipal councils and councillors and the scrabbing of the position of Goverment Delegate criticized to be a control mechanism of Government over local councils and the increase in competencies and resources to be administered and managed by local councils. Elsewhere the Government has created the National School of Local Administration (NASLA) to train locally elected officials and staffs of local councils to better managed local development.
Regional elections slated for December 06 2020 will be a milestone to complete the process of setting up regional councils enshrined by the constitution of January 1996.
