Cameroon: UN begins support for coherent climate, land, water and energy strategies

Abstract

New models and tools to help government services pre-empt unproductive competition between food, water, energy and climate change policies and strategies are being introduced in Cameroon thanks to joint efforts of United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In response to a request from Cameroon’s Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development (MINEPAT), the three UN bodies have convened a two-day workshop to support the Government in transitioning from sectoral to integrated policy-making in Climate, Land, Energy and Water systems (CLEWs), which started this morning in Yaounde. Speaking on behalf of the Cameroon’s Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Dr Saïdou Hamadou underscored the importance of integrated planning for development. He said this joint UN project is timely because it would contribute ideas to be fed into the successor of Cameroon’s Growth and Employment Strategy Paper which expires at the end of 2019, to make way for a new planning instrument within the framework of the country’s 2035 emergence vision. After the workshop, the UN team facilitating the project will conduct bilateral meetings with the different counterparts to follow-up on specific issues and challenges for implementing the project, notably the data challenge from across administrative services that inform the analytical tools and collaborative policy synergies being developed.