 | For a long time, Cameroon was known as a success story in the context of Africa’s development. However, the economic crises of the 1980s and early 90s caused the failure of the development and industrialisation strategies that had been pursued until then. This was accompanied by a severe deterioriation of the social infrastructure and the erosion of public services, especially in rural areas.
In response to this severe economic and political crisis, the Cameroonian Government initiated a reform programme that focused on reorganising the public finance system, liberalising foreign trade and abolishing the national controlled pricing system. In the late 1990s, these measures began to result in an economic recovery that led to an average GDP increase of around 4 percent in 2002 and 2003.
Despite the leading role Cameroon occupies by virtue of the fact that it generates 50 percent of the region’s GDP, and despite a structural reform that is gradually showing some effect, the country faces grave socio-economic problems. According to the budget survey ECAM II, in 2001 40 percent of the rural and 12 percent of the urban population were living below the poverty line. The situation in the three northern provinces of the country is especially severe. Even though the food situation is satisfactory compared to neighbouring countries, malnutrition amongst women and children is still very common. In addition, the lack of capacity in the healthcare system means that mother and infant mortality is high. At 12.8 percent, the AIDS infection rate has become a considerable health risk.
The admission of Cameroon to the HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) debt reduction initiative in April 2006 brought the country to an important development goal. The obligation to use the funds that are freed as a result to reduce poverty, provides an opportunity to achieve a sustainable improvement in living conditions as well as a significant reduction in poverty. However, due to the hesitant release of HIPC funds and the sluggish compliance with other requirements, the Cameroonian Government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) has not yet the anticipated results.
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 | GTZ has been operating in Cameroon for 30 years. It has aligned its technical cooperation activities with the priorities of the Cameroonian Government, focusing especially on the following areas:
-Decentralisation
-Natural Ressources
-Health
Work in these priority areas was restructured in 2002 by consolidating numerous individual measures into three major programmes. The aim was to accelerate the achievement of the goals contained in the priority strategy papers. In the health field, the cooperation project Health/HIV/AIDS was continued. Two new elements were added: a decentralisation and local development support programme and a programme for sustainable natural resource management. By consolidating the measures of all German organisations operating in Cameroon, we are now providing “joined-up” Development Cooperation.
In the health field, this has led to a joint financial and technical cooperation project that in future will also be supported by the German Development Service (DED) and InWEnt. Technical cooperation projects are implemented in the priority areas “Sustainable use of natural resources” and “Decentralisation, participatory development and governance”. Joint approaches with DED, InWEnt and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation have also been agreed and implemented.
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