Tubah Mayor Tanjong Martin Meshongong has urged councillors, neighbourhood committees, and local elite to collaborate effectively in selecting projects for their villages.
This call to action occurred during the Budget Orientation Debate held on November 20, 2024, in Bambili, where stakeholders gathered to discuss priority projects for 2025.
Mayor Tanjong highlighted the importance of broad consultations among neighbourhood committees before submitting project proposals to the council. He emphasized that committees should attach an attendance sheet to their submissions to ensure community involvement. “Return to your communities, gather input, and let everyone sign off on the projects. This way, we can be sure they are making informed decisions,” he stated.
The Budget Orientation Debate was organized in partnership with Interfaith Vision Cameroon, IVFCAM, and the National Endowment for Democracy, reflecting a commitment to fostering collaborative governance in Tubah. The population of Tubah is keen to reap from the mayor's push for inclusivity and development initiatives.
Speaking on behalf of Interfaith Vision Cameroon, IVFCam, Clarkson Nuyit Fonzinka, the Project Officer who doubles as the Project Assistant for this current project on promoting youth inclusion in local governance insisted that their main goal is to advocate for total inclusion and implementation of these processes.
While taking into consideration the 2019 law on Regional and Local Authorities, the Project Assistant explained that IVFCam is there to ensure a smooth organization and functioning of the budget orientation debates, the organization and running of public consultation sessions and the creation and installation of village and neighbourhood committees.
According to him, all these structures are platforms that have been put in place by the new decentralization laws to promote citizen participation in local governance.
"This time around, the government has changed the approach to be community-centred towards local development, which simply means that the communities are the ones to give their priority projects to their councils for them to consider and budget for the execution", he said.
He further explained that the work does not end at this level, to him, the citizens, too, are allowed to ensure the execution, the monetary, and to be convinced that what they provided as projects are taken into consideration and executed.
The Divisional Officer for Tubah, Metouge Narcisse, echoed the mayor's sentiments, insisting that village committees must engage all vital development forces within the communities for truly inclusive progress.
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