On September 20, the General Director of Africa Central Region and Country Manager of Cameroun, Mr. Serge N’GUESSAN led a consultative meeting with different civil society organizations of Cameroon at their headquarters in Yaoundé. The purpose of this important meeting was to present the Country Diagnostic Note (CDN), discuss it, and get in touch with civil society organizations. This Country Diagnostic Note is a review of activities realized by the bank according to the Country Strategy Paper (CSP) of Cameroon, which covered the 2015-2020 period. The CSP was extended to 2022 due to the Covid pandemic.

Approved by the Bank Group’s Boards of Directors in July 2015, the CSP, which defines the Bank’s intervention strategy in the country, was based on the following two pillars: (i) strengthening infrastructure for inclusive and sustainable growth; and (ii) building sector governance for effective and sustainable transformative investments. The CSP was aligned with the focus areas of the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper (GESP) 2010-2020, which was the Government’s ten-year strategic development framework for achieving economic emergence in 2035. A new national development strategy for 2020-2030 (SND 30) was validated by the Government in November 2020 and took over from the GESP

The different Civil Society Organizations present share their view on the seven strategic priorities identified by the Bank for the next Country Strategy Paper. The bank promised to work more closely with the CSO in the future and invited them to register on their website. From October 8 to 9, the Bank will organize a CSO forum in Abidjan. CSOs present were invited to take part in it remotely.