The Minister of State, Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization presided at the Third Ordinary session of the Steering Committee of the Local Development and Decentralization Support Programme (PADDL) on Thursday, 8 April 2010 at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel.  In attendance were all the Steering Committee members.

In his introductory statement, Minister MARAFA HAMIDOU YAYA congratulated Mrs BARBARA HÄMING upon her promotion since 2009 to the position of PADDL coordinator in lieu of Mrs SABINE DIALLO, who was appointed Director of the GTZ Regional Bureau for Benin. He also noted the special context of the deliberations of the PADDL Steering Committee Meeting. This context is marked by the implementation of the first transfers of powers and resources of the State to the Regional and Local Authorities.

This is why the chairperson of PADDL Steering Committee sought for support from all development partners in general and GTZ in particular, to ensure the successful implementation of decentralization in our country.

Minister MARAFA HAMIDOU YAYA went ahead to underscore that GTZ, through PADDL, has always responded positively to the Cameroon Government request for support for decentralization. And he wanted to particularly emphasize this fact. Therefore he counts much on the furtherance of this co-operation.

After reviewing the various points on the agenda, the Committee Members noted, with satisfaction, that PADDL was being implemented smoothly, in spite of some unavoidable obstacles inherent to this type of programme. Finally, they adopted the major priority areas of PADDL contributions in 2010