Yaounde — Cameroonian authorities have once more saluted the efforts made by the Economic Commission for Africa, ECA, to accompany the country and her neighbours in the Central African sub-region in crafting development policies for the structural transformation of their economies.
This was during the course of the maiden working visit of the Commission's Deputy Executive Secretary in Charge of Knowledge Delivery - Ms Giovanie Biha - to Cameroon, a country which happens to host ECA's Sub-Regional Office for Central Africa. The visit ended today on note reinforced cooperation ties between Cameroon and the ECA.
High moments of the visit included talks with members of Government and many top officials of ministries and institutions working in the area of economic and social development.
One of the issues that underpinned discussions between the Deputy Executive Secretary and Cameroonian authorities was a the result of a recent project funded to the tune of 212,518 dollars by ECA to enable the National Institute of Statistics (NIS) acquire android tablets with the application known as CAPI, to facilitate the collection of data on prices of agricultural products in the country's 10 regions. To execute the project, NIS also benefited from the partnership of Cameroon's National Advanced School of Engineering and the collaboration of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry and the Sub-Regional Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics. NIS is now about to extend the use of the same mobile technology to other sectors of the Cameroonian economy. Ms. Biha was elated at the success already recorded by the project and requested for Cameroon to help in sharing the experience with other countries of Central Africa.
As part of the reliable collection and analysis of data for better economic decision-making, the Deputy Executive Secretary briefed her hosts about a forthcoming series to be published by ECA called Country Profiles.
Also on the discussion table with Cameroonian officials, were: the current state of affairs of the Central Africa Consensual Transport Master Plan (PDCT-AC, in French), the work of the Steering Committee for the Restructuring of Regional Economic Communities in Central Africa (COPIL/CER-AC, in French), as well as on Cameroon's appropriation of the African Social Development Index (ASDI) developed by ECA to measure the degree of social exclusion on the continent in order to address it by elaborating more inclusive policies.
There were further exchanges between the ECA Senior Official and host-country authorities on the kind of technical support the Commission could give to Cameroon in the implementation of an e-Employment project to help young Cameroonians to effectively search for jobs online as well as on and on pressing issues of the day such as energy deficits of the countries of Central Africa, climate change and third generation agriculture.
It should be noted that during her stay in Cameroon, ECA's Deputy Executive Secretary in Charge of Knowledge Delivery was received by the Minister of External Relations - Mr Lejeune Mbella Mbella, the Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development - Mr. Louis Paul Motaze, the Minister of Public Works - Mr. Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, the Minister of Social Affairs - Ms Pauline Irène Nguene Kendeck, the Secretary General in the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training - Ms Jeanne Aimée Ngobo Ekotto and the Director of the National Institute of Statistics - Mr. Joseph Tedou.
Published by:
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
Sub-Regional Office for Central Africa
P.O. Box 14935 Yaoundé, Cameroon
Tel: +237 2 22231461
E-mail: sroca@uneca.org
Media Contact person:
Abel Akara Ticha, Communication Officer
Tel: +237 2 22231461
