Abstract

Foreign financing is a viable way of solving the problem of most local government inabilities to finance projects in their municipality because of insufficient funds. Despite the flow of foreign finances in the Municipality for development projects, no scientific research has been carried out to evaluate the impact of these funds on the lives of the people. As such, this work serves as the first of its kind.

This research used three social development components (Health, pipe borne water and education) in measuring development. The Dependency and Modernization theories served as the theoretical frameworks of the study. The study used the case study approach as its research design and simple random sampling technique. Interview guide and questionnaires were used as the main instruments of data collection. Findings of the research revealed that, foreign financing has a positive role on education, health and supply of pipe borne water within the Tombel Municipality.

This results further reveals that foreign donors provided enough finances for projects evaluated within the Municipality and these finances were judiciously managed by the Tombel council administration. However, foreign funds alone are not enough to bring meaningful development within the Municipality. Consequently, it is recommended that the council should intensify the fight against corruption and ensure a greater accountability of council funds.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

Before 1960, most if not all African States were not so concerned on issues of development since most of them were involved with the struggle for liberation from their respective colonial masters (Manyi 2007:30). Upon obtaining independence in the 60s, most African countries including Cameroon resorted to a “Five Year Development Plans” that set targets to be -achieved in each sector of the economy.

However, the result of this policy yielded little fruits as far as development was concerned. This was evident in the near absence of some basic facilities in most rural communities such as schools, good road networks, health centers, and portable water supply. In order to achieve a balanced regional development, many of these governments felt that substantial state intervention was required to realize greater equity and poverty alleviation in rural areas (Potter; 2004).

Existing literature shows that most central governments in Africa in the past took decisions, designed and implemented developmental policies without consulting the locals who were affected by such policies (Top-Bottom Approach). This greatly failed more or less because of the absence of basic freedoms of the local people, the exclusion of the grass root people from decision-making and failure to incorporate local cultures in developmental architecture {Manyi; 2007). The failure of the top-down approach has popularized the bottom-up approach in an effort to speed up citizens’ participation in development agendas.

On account of the failures of the Top-Bottom Approach, most centralized States have lost a great deal of legitimacy, and decentralization is widely believed to promise a range of benefits. It is often suggested as a way of reducing the role of the state in general, by fragmenting central authority and introducing more intergovernmental competition and checks and balances. It is viewed as a way to make government more responsive and efficient (Bardhan; 2002). In order to limit state powers in development processes and empower local communities within developing countries, Rodrik (2000) proposes the use of democratized political institutions.

According to him, these institutions matter in rural socio-economic development because of the propensity of democratic practices to moderate social conflict and induce compromise. One approach to realize this `Rodrikian’ perspective can be through decentralization.

Institutional reforms in African countries in recent years have been marked by trials of various forms of decentralization. In general, centralized governments have initiated a reform agenda with the aim of transferring some powers, tasks and resources to regional governments and local authorities. Cameroon is one of these countries (Cheka; 2007). Sawadogo (2001) is of the view that decentralization is a policy for treating diverse  problems:   good  governance,  development,  democracy,  poverty   alleviation  and administrative reforms.

Cameroon has about 21,535,762 inhabitants (MlNATD; 2014), two official languages, more than two hundred local languages, all within a territory of 475,000 square kilometers. This makes it very difficult if not impossible for developmental policies to be efficient when implemented solely at the helm (central administration) to the different regions.

As such, the government of Cameroon undertook some political, administrative and economic reforms. One of these reforms was the democratization of political Life; through the introduction of political pluralism in 1990. The government of Cameroon which had enacted law No. 74-23 of 5 December 1974 resorted to the policy of decentralization by creating councils. Powers were devolved by the central government to these decentralized units to champion the planning and implementation of rural development (Manyi; 2004). The decentralization mode implemented should therefore enable each group to choose a poverty reduction strategy, in participatory approach, taking into account its specificities, environment, potential, culture and constraints.

Decentralization in Cameroon is rooted in the constitution of the land. Article 1(2) of the constitution stipulates that Cameroon is a decentralized unitary state. Art 55 (2) states that regional and local authorities shall have administrative and financial autonomy and freely administered by elected officials. Local governments also known in Cameroon as councils are a product of decentralization and are covered by the constitution, Law No 2004/017 of 22nd July 204 on the orientation of decentralization and Law no 2004/018 of 22nd July 1_l 2004 to lay down principles applicable to councils.

With this, the 360 Councils and 14 city councils which represent local government institutions in Cameroon have a responsibility to champion socio economic development in their respective communities. However, judging from what is on the field, one might be tempted to say most of these councils have failed to meet up to expectation as far as the developments of their communities are concern. This is due to the numerous challenges facing them in the present context of decentralization in Cameroon.

These challenges range from financial constraints on local authorities and limited capacities of the actors and beneficiary of devolved powers (Cheka; 2007), lack of autonomy (Ogezi; 2016, Akinbosade; 2016), corruption and mismanagement (Akinbosade; 2016, Aluko; 2006, Aina; 2006), ill-definition of decentralized functions not distinct from `deconcentrated’ operations of the central government leading to lack of an effective strategy and an operational plan for decentralization (World Bank, 2012). Most Local Governments in developing countries are unable to raise revenue and self-finance their activities. As such, they tend to depend more on intergovernmental transfers from their central governments. The limited financial resources by central governments in most of these countries makes it difficult for to effectively and sustainably finance local government activities (Zhou and Alouis; 2013). As such, there is therefore a need for Local Governments to develop alternative sources of revenue of which foreign financing is one of them.

The modern concept of foreign financing or assistance from mainly rich industrialized countries to less economically developed countries, has its roots in the post Second World war reconstruction era (Stevenson; 2006). Todaro. (1977) also submitted that since the era of the Marshall Plan, the aid system has remained a subsisting phenomenon of the global economic arrangement. This view has been corroborated by Tarp (2012) who said that after the success of the Marshall  plan,  the  attention  of industrialized nations turned to the developing countries, many of which became independent during the 1960s.

With regards to the need for foreign financing, rich countries of the world especially the members of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), as noted by Zimmerman (2007) recognized that, “more than half of the global citizens live on less than 2$ per day or less, purchasing power parity, many of them do not have access to clean drinking water, good healthcare or schools for their children. Therefore, scholars opined that an attempt to assist poor countries to develop and end poverty has been the subsisting reason to initiate foreign financing policy.

The instrumental role of foreign financing on socio-economic development in developing countries has always been a topical subject of debate among scholars, intellectuals, social scientists and developmentalists respectively. While some schools of thought hold that, foreign financing has a positive impact on the development of developing countries; other schools have a contrary view as they hold the opinion that foreign financing is not a developmental tool for developing countries (Mukarutes, 2011).  However, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (IMF-WB, 2002) recommend that one way of realizing development in developing countries is by providing aid to these countries by developed Nations. Foreign intervention has been seen and described as a panacea to the plight of developing world by developed countries. That is why the stated goal of foreign financing is a rather large one; to end extreme world poverty and achieve development in poor countries (Adetayo, Olawale et Al; 20016).

Foreign finance to local governments in Cameroon has been coming from various quarters, chief among them are the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), World Bank, Germany, France, Canada, the European Union, the Dutch and the Swiss governments with the primary objective to eradicate poverty at grass root (Cheka; 2007). Moreover, it is important to note that, this is in line with the Millennium Development Goal of September 2000. To be precise, goal number one aimed at eradicating poverty and hunger in the world. As such, national policies and programs aimed at promoting economic growth, social welfare and political change have been heavily influenced by external actors.

This  was  characterized  by  foreign  technical assistance  to  boost  weak  internal  capacities  within  government  institutions  with  policy consultants and advisers flying in and out of African capital cities to help with the preparation of policy papers evaluations, a sizable community of expatriates and workers were present throughout most of these African countries all to enhance sustainable development in these countries and eradicate poverty at grass root (Herman; 2005). All these necessitate the need to evaluate the far-reaching impact of foreign financing on the development of local governments which are charged with the responsibility to drive developmental changes and eradicate poverty in their respective communities. As such, this study intends to find out from Tombel council personnel and the general public the impact of foreign financing on the development of Tombel municipality.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Local government in modern life are responsible for carrying out socio-economic development in their respective municipalities in a faster, easier and more efficient manner (Pradeep; 2011). The government of Cameroon has introduced several initiatives and developed partnerships with different actors such as the World Bank, United Nations system, Germany, France, Canada, European Union, the Dutch and Swiss Government (Cheka;2007)  all  to  improve  local government administration in the country. Most local government in developing countries are poor and unable to self-finance their activities to propel socio-economic development and with regards to the possible and viable ways of eradicating this problem of insufficient funds by local government.

To this effect, foreign financing has been proposed as an ultimate solution that can in turn propel socio-economic development in rural areas (Mukarutes; 2011). This justifies why industrialized countries and international developmental agencies in the past years have channeled their resources in developing countries in the form of foreign financing to enhance socio-economic development in these host countries in the domains of electricity, provision of didactic materials to schools, provision of portable water, good medical health care, opening of farm to market roads all to eradicate poverty at the grassroots.

Tombel council under period of study (2004-2019) has received foreign funding from the world Bank,  French  Debt  Cancellation  Program (C2D),  European  Union  through  the  National Community Driven Development Programme (PNDP) in the construction of a block of two classroom in Government Nursery school Ngab, a block of two classroom in Government Nursery school Ngombuku, extension of a water supply system and construction of a stand tap at Government Nursery school Ngap, purchase and installation of 40 benches, 02 teacher’s chairs, 02 teacher’s tables and 02 cupboards at Government School Peng, Purchase and installation of 40  benches, 01 teacher’s chair, 01 teacher’s table and 01 cupboard at Government School Nyasoso, purchase and installation of 40 benches, 01 teacher’s chairs, 01 teacher’s table and 01 cupboard at Government School Ngusi, supply of medical equipment and drugs to Buba 1 medical health center, supply of medical equipment and drugs to Nyandong medical health center, council management,  construction  of  the  borehole  at  Buba 3(Archives  of  PNDP)  South  West Coordination unit).

Records in Tombel council and PNDP South West Coordination unit show that between 2004 to 2019, the municipality has received foreign funding in the domain of education, health care and water supply. With all these foreign financed projects in the municipality, one would expect an improvement in health care, educational and water supply conditions in the municipality. However, judging from what obtains on ground, one realizes that the people continue to suffer from water scarcity, poor educational infrastructures and poor medical care.

Thus the study seeks to answer the question as to whether or not foreign financing has contributed to the social development of Tombel municipality, narrowing its scope to the period, 2004-2019. In addition to the question above, this work will also focus on if foreign finances are sufficient or not to address the development of the community. Is it that these foreign sponsored projects were poorly executed? Or are foreign finances meant for development projects were poorly managed by the Tombel council administration? This study seeks to address all these questions.

Despite the presence of foreign financed projects in the municipality, no scientific study has been carried out to assess the role of these projects in the development of the community. As such, the study fills this knowledge gap by looking at the role of foreign-financed projects in the social development of the community and the lives of the people in the municipality.

1.3 Research Questions

The study seeks to answer or address the following key research questions

1. To what extent do foreign donors provide enough financing for development projects in Tombel?
2. What role does foreign financing have in promoting education, health care and water supply in Tombel municipality?
3. Has Tombel Council judiciously managed finances gotten from foreign donors?

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