Stakeholders in the local administration drive of the Cameroon government under training at the National School of Local Administration (NASLA), have been schooled on the National Development Strategy within the Decentralization and Local Development Context.
Held under the theme, “National Development Strategy within the Decentralization and Local Development context”, the conference that held last Thursday, February 8, was moderated by Minister Delegate to the Minister of Economy Planning and Regional Development In charge of Planning, Minister Paul Tasong as special guest.
The hundreds of participants included stakeholders from the South West Regional Assembly, the Governor of the Southwest Region Bernard Okalia Bilia, the Public Independence Conciliator for the SW, The Divisional Officer of Buea, Delegates of the related fields, the Mayor of Buea, Students of the Institution etc who were drilled on the priority of the National Development Strategy for 2030 and the Regional Development Master Plan.
The aim of the conference, according to Minister Paul Tasong was particularly to help upgrade students of NASLA which has as objective to drill the staff and students on the priority of the strategy especially in the light of Decentralization and Local Development.
Acknowledging the challenge of the public service in the face of decentralization, the Minister noted that, it was NASLA’s place to strike a balance in cultivating planning in the local administration stakeholders under training.
“Setting up of this prestigious school to enable the staff and student understand that planning is not reserved for the central administration but that there is need for planning at the level of the regions.” He explained.
Minister Paul Tasong’s Lesson on decentralization and local development was that the Local administrators should build a local economy, use the opportunities provided by the natural environment to drive and sustain their own development, as additional resources from Yaoundé are only to accompany their own actions in their natural environment.
The Head of Division for Prospective and Strategic planning, Mr Nnanga Ernest in a PowerPoint presentation, presented the National Development Strategy 30 NDS30, while the Director of Regional Development gave a presentation of Regional Development Master Plan.
Talking to the Press, Minister Paul Tasong said “we came here today to drill students and staff of the National School of Local Administrators on the National development strategy. Given that it’s a specific school whose mission is to train senior staff of the Regional and Local administration, our target was particularly to help them understand the strategy in the light of Decentralization and Local Development”.
“So far so good, we are on the right footing because during the question and answer session, we opted to ask the students to evaluate the conference by telling us what they understood and the few who took the floor remarked that they understood the stakes and to a large extent the responsibility which is theirs as the future Local, regional Administrators of the public service”.
The Conference ended up with a tour of the Minister led by the Director General of NASLA, Tanyitiku Enohachuo Bayee on the construction of new offices and classrooms that are almost 90% completed.
Created by a Presidential degree in 2020, NASLA is designed for local administration of local councils, regions, establishments, trade, trade unions and other decentralized entities.