Calls for governments, development partners, and the private sector to step-up efforts in achieving Africa’s transformative agenda is reverberating. In particular, the adoption of the African Union Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the same year, 2015, have been widely praised for having the ‘special powers’ to take Africa to the promise land of zero poverty and hunger, highly skilled human capital, and better infrastructure.
The Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV) of the African Development Bank has undertaken an evaluation of the Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF), a ten-year program established in 2008. The CBFF aims at alleviating poverty and mitigating climate change by reducing the rate of deforestation in the Congo Basin through the efficient management of its forest resources.
This review of Bank assistance to the social sector in Cameroon covers the 1996-2004 period. The review seeks to evaluate the Bank’s products and services, which involves an analysis of the main elements of the Bank’s assistance programme, namely the CSPs, lending operations and non-lending assistance, including sector studies and aid coordination. The evaluation also covers the outputs of Bank assistance to the social sector and its contribution to the development of Cameroon. It also examines the impact of the outputs on cross-cutting issues, namely: gender, the environment, regional integration, the private sector and community participation. Lastly, the contribution of various partners to the outputs of the Bank’s assistance programme is also evaluated.
The study mainly covers the whole ARD sector portfolio approved between 1996 and 2004. Operations initiated before 1996 were implemented and completed during the period under consideration. Their performance is also considered because of their relationship with the projects of the period.
In accordance with Bank directives, this evaluation was conducted on the strategies of assistance to the Transport sector (3 CSP over the period) and on the outcomes and impacts of the financed operations. The evaluation criteria used are: (i) relevance; (ii) quality at entry; (iii) effectiveness; (iv) efficiency; (v) impact of this sectoral assistance on the institutional organization; (vi) sustainability; (vii) cross-cutting impacts; (viii) performance of the borrower; (ix) contribution of the other donors; and (x) exogenous factors having an impact on the performance of the assistance.
The study provides an overall review of Bank operations in macroeconomic stabilization, institutional reforms (including good governance), adjustment and capacity building in Cameroon between 1996 and 2004. It is limited to SAP II (1997/98-1999/2000) and SAP III (2000/01/2000/04), which have been closed, and to the Bank-financed Governance Reform Support Program (PAPNG), which is currently underway. Only a preliminary evaluation is provided for the PAPNG, which saw no activity until 2004. The evaluation focused on the level of implementation of agreed activities (policies, institutional change, etc.), respect of deadlines and disbursement adequacy, key design factors that may have had a positive or negative impact on the operation, their efficiency, the sustainability of outputs, their impact on institutional development, and their economic impact.
This evaluation examines the Bank Group’s assistance to Cameroon over the 2004–2013 period as well as its contribution to the country’s development. Its aim is to draw relevant lessons to help improve future strategy and operations.
The evaluation is based on a document review, sector evaluations and discussions with stakeholders. It focuses on transport, energy, water and sanitation and governance, the priorities of the Country Strategy Papers (CSPs).
A recent evaluation conducted by the Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV) department of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has revealed that the Bank’s substantial investment in road infrastructure in Cameroon from 2004 to 2013 resulted in time savings and a 40-percent drop in transportation costs.
