Open Government Partnership : Advocacy For Cameroon To Join Initiative

Cameroon’s National Programme on Governance and the Association for Integrated Development and Interactive Solidarity (ADISI-Cameroon) are currently leading an advocacy for the country to adhere to the Open Government Partnership (OGP). It is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from national and subnational governments to promote open government, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.
The two institutions with the firm commitment to ensure that Cameroon adheres to the OGP, created a working group that is comprised of parliamentarians, public institutions, private sector, civil society and the media whose mission is to examine key areas of governance in the country and see what needs to be improved upon in order to the pave the way for Cameroon’s eligibility into the Open Government Partnership. The attainment of the objective therefore justified the capacity building workshop for members of the working group that took place at the head office of the United Councils and Cities of Cameroon at the Bastos neighbourhood in Yaounde on July 17, 2019.
The Coordinator of the National Programme on Governance, Professor Bernard Momo said during the opening ceremony of the workshop that Cameroon’s adhesion to the partnership through commitments taken, would accelerate ongoing efforts to transform the quality of public governance in the country. It would also ensure the effective and efficient use of the potential and different resources which are the key challenges for government to attain emergence by 2035. For Cameroon to be admitted, the country has to fulfil some minimum eligibility criteria. The working group is subdivided into four thematic commissions following the OGP assessment criteria that include access to information, budgetary and fiscal transparency, integrity/declaration of assert and property to elected officials and senior officials in government and participation of citizens.
France that is now a key frontline member of the Open Government Partnership only joined it in 2014, three years after its launching on September 20, 2011. The Cooperation Attaché at the French Embassy in Yaounde, Mathieu Sette said France was supporting mostly French-speaking countries in Africa to join the partnership. That explains why the French Embassy supported the organisation of the workshop.