Cameroon: From proclaimed decentralisation to measured decentralisation, the state embarks on a new phase
There are moments when public action moves beyond rhetoric and enters the silent yet decisive machinery of tangible instruments. The signing, on January 6, 2026 in Yaoundé, of the cooperation protocol between the Ministry of Decentralization and Local Development and the National Institute of Statistics belongs to this category of structural acts discrete in form yet profound in their political significance.
Through data, the Cameroonian state chooses to illuminate its own progress, to bring order to decentralization, and to anchor local development in measurement, accountability, and impact.
This choice is neither accidental nor temporary. It aligns with the vision patiently constructed by President Paul Biya for a strategic and stable state; one aware that lasting peace is nurtured by strong institutions and public policies that are clear to citizens.
By establishing statistics as the compass for local performance, Cameroon asserts that decentralization is not a dilution of authority, but an intelligent redistribution of efficiency.
Henceforth, decentralized local authorities are called to operate within a framework defined by precise, comparable, and transparent indicators.
Administrative and financial governance, access to water, sanitation, local health services, road infrastructure, and civil registration become observable, measurable, and improvable realities.
The performance-based subsidy, linked to the Prolog project, acts as a lever: it rewards effort, stimulates rigor, and anchors local action in a logic of concrete results for the population.
Within this framework, the National Institute of Statistics plays the role of a technical watchdog, ensuring the credibility of the process.
Yet beyond statistical engineering, a new culture is taking root: one where local administration is called to account, to compare, and to progress.
A culture that strengthens trust, calms regional tensions, and consolidates national unity through equity and justice in resource allocation.
The environmental impact of this orientation is far from marginal. By measuring the quality of essential services and the management of basic infrastructure, the state creates the conditions for sustainable local development; attentive to ecological balance and community resilience.
Here again, the presidential vision proves forward-looking: conceiving the territory as a living organism, where every well-governed municipality strengthens the stability of the whole.
Through this agreement, Cameroon advances without rupture, with method and consistency, faithful to a political line in which stability is never stagnation, but the very condition of measured progress.
And when data becomes the language of the state, the promise of development ceases to be mere aspiration and becomes a measurable, accountable, and sovereign trajectory.
Gilbert FOTSO
