Published on : 3/05/21 2:59 AM
From 28 to 30 October 2020, a workshop was held in the town of Mbankomo to share and upgrade the actors of the steering and monitoring of sector budget support (SBS) of the 3rd C2D Debt Reduction and Development Contract. This workshop comes within the framework of the additional bilateral debt cancellation effort of France, through the Debt Reduction and Development Contracts (C2D), Cameroon and France signed, on 30 June 2016, a 3rd Contract worth €611M (≈ CFAF 400bn) covering the period 2017-2025. The contract sets aside €185.5m (≈ CFAF 121bn) for a sector budget support (SBS) envelope to be provided in the form of three-year grants, and intended to support Cameroon’s growth and sustainable development policies.
As indicated in the C2D Contract, the SBS are primarily aimed at financing social sector activities in the most fragile regions of Cameroon. They pursue both sector objectives, as set out in the national strategies, and objectives in terms of governance in public finance management and appropriation of the provisions of the renewed State financial regime. Finally, this support is also complementary to C2D project aid.
Under allocation agreement No. CCM 1577 01 U, signed on 11 March 2020, new sector budget support of CFAF 103.4 million (i.e. 67,825,953,800 CFA francs) has been set up for the 2020-2022 triennium. In line with the general guidelines for the SBS of the 3rd C2D, this operation aims to reduce inequalities in access to basic services by supporting a more effective and equitable budgetary policy. More specifically, this financing has the following objectives
The Ministry of Finance is responsible for the overall management and coordination of this operation. It is within this framework that the Committee in charge of monitoring the budgetary support of the 3rd C2D for the period 2020-2022 was set up by order N°00000673/MINFI of 15 June 2020. The composition of the said Committee was established on 21 September 2020. An Individual Consultant in charge of supporting the coordination and the technical and financial monitoring of the sector budgetary support of the 3rd C2D 2020-2022 has been recruited.
In order to enable all the actors involved in this process to understand the implementation procedures and to appropriate the philosophy, spirit, interest and stakes in accordance with the canons of the SBS procedures manual, and to edify the officials of the public bodies benefiting from support on the actions to be carried out, the Minister of Finance authorized the holding of a workshop for sharing and upgrading the actors.
To achieve this objective, eight presentations were made:
The first was made by Mrs. Sophie BOUMSONG, Head of the Budget Reform Division at the Ministry of Finance, who is also the Coordinator of the Technical Secretariat of the Committee in charge of monitoring budgetary support for the 3rd C2D. Her presentation focused on the background, objectives, challenges and principles of the 3rd C2D SBS.
The second presentation was made by Mrs. ELOMBAT Chantal, Director of the Industrial Upgrading and Modenization Office (BMN). This presentation focused on the general presentation of the BMN and the contribution of the ABS 3rd C2D to the achievement of the missions assigned to this entity.
Mr. NJOH Michelin and Mr. BILOUNGA Patrick, respectively Coordinator of the Management Unit of the Social Safety Net Programme (PFS) and Head of Information Systems within the said programme, developed the third theme of the workshop, which dealt with the general presentation of the PFS and the contribution of the SBA 3rd C2D to the achievement of its objectives.
Mr. DOKO EDJANE Mathieu Alain, Director of Financial Resources at the Ministry of Basic Education gave a presentation on the programmes “universalization of the primary cycle” and “governance and institutional support of the basic education sub-sector” supported by the SBS: state of play, expected sector results for the SBS 2020-2022, indicators and their level of achievement.
The health voucher mechanism set up at MINSANTE and supported by the SBS of the 3rd C2D was the subject of the fifth presentation of this workshop. This presentation was made by Dr OKALLA ABODO Raphaël Thérèse, Coordinator of the joint MINSANTE/AFD/KFW programme.
The sixth presentation was made by Mr. ETEME NDJOMO of the Technical Secretariat for the Implementation of the C2D (STADE C2D). It dealt with the terms and conditions for the disbursement of C2D funds: the conditions for the use of the C2D grant, the terms and conditions for disbursement, the specific commitments that Cameroon must implement throughout the programme, and the conditions precedent that must be lifted at each disbursement.
The organisation and functioning of the Monitoring Committee responsible for monitoring the 3rd C2D budgetary support for the period 2020-2022 was discussed in seventh place. This link in the workshop was presented by Mr BEKONO BEKONO Marc Désiré, Unit Head for Monitoring the Implementation of the Partnership for Reforms – DREF/DGB-MINFI.
The eighth communication of the workshop was developed by Mr. NTSAMA OYONO Christian, Technical Assistant in charge of coordination, technical and financial monitoring of the sector budget support of the 3rd C2D 2020-2022. This last communication of the workshop focused on reporting tools and methods to achieve the objectives assigned to each programme.
At the end of this workshop, the initial objectives of which were largely achieved, all the actors in charge of steering and implementing the sector budget support of the 3rd C2D 2020-2022 made a firm commitment to contribute and ensure the success of this operation./-
