Executive Summary

The Decentralisation process has attributed additional responsibilities to Councils as well as some means to orientate some actions that address the development aspirations of the Council area. This is same for Bamenda III Council which is one of the Councils that make up the Bamenda City Council found in Mezam Division of the North West Region. Its population is estimated to be about 234,579 inhabitants. Before April 2007, the present day Bamenda III Sub Divisional Council area was a part of the Bamenda Urban Council. Through a presidential decree N^o. 2007/115 of 13^th April 2007 it was made an autonomous Council and went operational by 28^th of September it went operational.

The objective of the Bamenda III CDP is to review these development aspirations and capture them in a reference document that projects the Council’s vision. To achieve this task, the Council needs to understand its strengths, weaknesses as well as the direction to take the Municipality in order to chart a way to reach the desired future. The process used to elaborate the Bamenda III CDP is participatory. Bamenda III Council signed a convention with PNDP-NW which involved recruiting the services of a Local Support Organisation Solid Foundation International (SOFI) to accompany the Council in the elaboration of this very important document.

The elaboration process involved seven stages starting with the preparation of the whole process. There was a National and Regional preparation. The National preparation started with a National Capacity building workshop organised by PNDP in Bertoua from the 21^st-28^th of October 2018. This brought together trainers and LSOs from the Ten Regions retained to carry out the task of elaborating the Sub Divisional CDPs. Another training at the Regional level brought together the staff of the LSOs and Steering Committee members for the three Councils of Bamenda City from the 21^st-24^th of November 2018. After the capacity building of staff of SOFI by PNDP, a restitution of the training took place at the Bamenda III Council for members of the Steering Committee and all the team of SOFI. 

Two launching processes were organised with the intention of sensitising both the administrative heads of the Region (Regional Delegates, Government Delegate, Heads of parastatals like CAMWATER, ENEO, CAMTEL etc) as well as the population of Bamenda III Municipality on the importance of the exercise. The first launching organised was the Technical launching which was presided over by the Governor of the Region. The purpose was to bring together all the sector heads (Divisional and Regioanal Delegates) who would at different levels be called upon to assist in the elaboration of the CDP document. Their input will assist with the collection of data for baseline as well as review and correction of the logical frameworks for each of their sectors that form part of the CDP. The second launching was at the level of the Sub Division and was presided over by the D.O for Bamenda III on the 27^th of December 2018.  

The preparatory process was followed by the elaboration of the Council Institutional Diagnosis. The objective of the CID is to collect, analyse and document information related to administrative and financial situation of the Council, its human resources, structure and mode of functioning of its various organs, its relations with its development partners, strengths and weaknesses as an institution and management of its assets. The CID ended with the capacity building axes that will assist the Council institution function well as well as perform its role of orientating development. This is one of the key outcomes of the CID.

This was followed by the CUSD whose objective was to orientate strategies of the development of the Council’s urban space taking into consideration the Town Planning Law N°2004/017 of 22/07/2004. This was done with the intension of aligning the CDP to the Master Plan of Bamenda City and the Bamenda III Land Use Plan. The elaboration of the CUSD involved the review of documents starting with the previous MP and LUP OF 1985, 2012 AND 2014. 54 PQDs were elaborated for the quarters carved out as the Bamenda III urban space in which developmental problems were identified; the causes and effects analysed and in a bid to come up with solutions for the problems. The solutions were of two kind; Local and external solutions. The local solutions were those to be implemented by the population and a follow up mechanism was put in place for these. Due consideration was given to the population, housing and land use and social development, public/communal facilities, network, infrastructure and transport (roads, drainages, parking, sidewalks, traffic lighting systems, water e.t.c), the economic base of the Municipality as well as environment and nature protection. 

 Cartographic mapping data was obtained through the use of a GPS and satellite images (Google earth) by the GIS Technician. The data collected was analysed and presented as maps. The CUSD ended with logical frameworks which are a coherent summary of solutions to address the identified problems within each of the sectors within the Municipality.

63 participatory quarter diagnoses were elaborated with the populations of the different quarters of Bamenda III. The purpose was to identify the different problems faced by the inhabitants in their day to day activities. The findings in the PQDs were summarised in the Consolidation Report of diagnosis which which also summarised the following reports; The Baseline, CID, CUSD and PQDs were used to guide the development of the log frames. These are projects ideas developed to carry the solutions to the different problems identified. A total of 33 log frames were developed (28 for the different sectors, and one for energy, HIV/AIDS, Governance and Local Economy). These log frames were reviewed and corrected by the Dector Heads and the Steering Committee of the Council.

The 3 ^rd, 4th and 5^th stages of the process (Planning, Programming and Resource Mobilisation) were done simultaneously, and in a workshop held on the 26^th-27^th of August 2021. The workshop objectives was to develop a planning strategy that will emanate from the logical frameworks, prepare a MITEF for 2021-2023 as well as prepare a simplified environmental management plan in the implementation of the AIP. Planning seeks to align the Bamenda III CDP to the program budget as specified by the Prime Minister’s circular n°003/PM of the 27th September 2016. The cost estimate for investment for the Bamenda III CDP stands at One Hundred and Twenty billion, Four Hundred and Thirty Five Million, Eight Hundred and Twenty Three Thousand, Two Hundred and Seventy Four Francs (120,435,823,274).    

Resource mobilisation was done on the 2^nd of September 2020 with the objective of identifying avialable resources for programming as well priority investment actions. A draft programming was done which was reviewed by the Steering Committee. A strategic plan for Bamenda III was elaborated with the vision “Seek to improve the livelihood and transform the environment through participatory inclusive development for the people of Bamenda III Municipality”. The cost estimate for the short term plan (2021-2025) for Bamenda III stands at 8,741,538,767 and distributed as follows:

Program 1:  Improvement of Basic Social Services 1,305,656,213 FCFA representing (14.94 %)

Program 2: Promotion of economic development and environmental protection  7,180,344,002 FCFA representing (82.14%)

Program 3:  Promotion of Citizenship, Culture, Sports and support to Youths 124,000,000 CFA representing (1.42%)

Program 4: Governance and Local Administration 131,538,552 FCFA representing (.1.50%)

The cost investment for the AIP for 2021 stands at 6,798,964,195. This is distributed as follows: Program 1: 607,008,745 representing 8.93%, Program 2: 6,033,416,898 representing 88.74%, Program 3:90,000,000 representing 1.32% and program 4: 68,538,552 representing 1.01%

A monitoring and evalaluation mechanism has been put in place to oversee the implementation of the CDP both at the Council as well as the quarter leve.s. A communication plan is also elaborated in order to inform partners and funders on the CDP to enlist their support in its implementation. 

The aspect of inter-communal projects is highlighted since the Council is linked to other Councils around it. There are six projects between Bamenda II and Bamenda III, 1 project between Bamenda I and III, 1 between Tubah and Bamenda III and 3 between Bafut and Bamenda III Councils

The CDP elaboration attempts to assist the Bamenda III Council assist its population towards the attainment of the SDGs. The programmed projects are geared towards the attainment of SDGS like: no hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, sustainable cities and communities and climate actions. 

The elaboration of the Bamenda III CDP started without COVID 19 epidemic but within the elaboration of the CDP, the pandemic broke out and disrupted life within the Municipality as well as the activities of the CDP process. The Council in a bit to factor the disease in its activities developed a plan to sensitise the population as well as enable it live with the disease for as long as it will take. Different stakeholders like heads of primary schools, principles, health institutions, quarter heads and development actors were brought on board. There is however need to continuously sensitise the population of the Municipality on issues of COVID-19 because there is so much propaganda surrounding the disease.