CI-NEWS

“Priority should be channeled towards improving health infrastructure” - Alamine Ousmane Mey, Chai

2020-08-19

No: 523

“Priority should be channeled towards improving health infrastructure”

Alamine Ousmane Mey, Chairperson, African Caucus Meeting, 2020.
Can you situate the African Caucus meeting for us?

Cameroon has hosted the Caucus meeting after Egypt and Ghana in 2018 and 2019. This important event was placed under the high patronage of the President of the Republic, HE Paul Biya. We were also blessed by the presence of the Prime Minister and Head of Government who delivered a very compelling message to the governors in this new context. The Covid-19 pandemic has imposed on us a virtual conference, if not we would have physically welcomed governors of the IMF and the World Bank Group in Yaounde. I am pleased to indicate that the Caucus meeting dates as far back as 1963. It is a platform for governors of the 54-member countries to meet and exchange on the economic and financial situation which is of common interest to the continent. At such meetings, members present their worries, challenges and suggestions to the two Bretton Woods institutions. Last year, we met and discussed on the theme: “Africa Beyond Aid.” It was a theme that met the realities at the time. The present context imposes a new theme, around human capital in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. This year’s theme focuses on preserving the human capital, as well as saving lives and the economy.

Mr. Minister, with you as chairman and Cameroon as host, what upshots do we expect?

We have come up with a strong recommendation that will be presented to the World Bank and IMF Managing Directors. We focus on strengthening our external support and need to scale up the health system, our educational system and access to social services. And Cameroon will benefit if the recommendations we will present are implemented.

Mr. Chairman, what are the main points of the memorandum you have just adopted?

Let me first of all, commend the fact that our country had the privilege to host the African Caucus meeting which brings together Governors of the IMF and the World Bank Continent. We had the privilege to share the measures taken by the countries to preserve lives and to prevent the spread of this pandemic. We also dissected the ways our countries can continue to protect the population and also so that growth can come back as quick as possible. Growth should be inclusive as quick as possible. Jobs should be created as quickly as possible.

We therefore worked on five important memorandums of this recommendation to be shared with the Bretton Woods institutions in November, during the annual meeting. The first one is:
Extending the capacity of institutions towards countries’ beneficiary of their support. It is about mobilizing resources. We do think it is important to scale up the resources needed to face this pandemic.
Second, the priority should be channeled towards improving infrastructure in health service supply and in services such as education, water, electricity supply and protecting the most vulnerable people through social safety nets operations, for instance.
The third one is how to be able to comply in critical environments such as the one we are going through. This can happen through macro projects management and governance in such a situation where resources are scarce, economic activities are disrupted and production is going down.
The fourth aspect is about our markets. We need to protect our markets. We need to strengthen our private sector and protect jobs. This is important for our economy and we want to believe that for Africa to improve in terms of growth, we have to work hard and make the private sector be the engine of our growth and also, the engine of job creation.
When you think of the Bretton Woods institutions, it is the entire world which is represented. And the African continent is also represented. We want to make an advocacy for a better representation of our continent in the staff of the institutions. We are proud to say that we have two vice presidents for the sub-Saharan Africa now and we also have a Deputy Managing Director at the IMF. This is very encouraging and we want to continue to promote African representation in the two institutions. Cameroon has shown its capacity to host the event virtually. But we want to stress on the necessity to transform our economy through diversification and integration because the future is for those who come together and create big markets. Cameroon is going to play an important role in line with the expectations of the Head of State, President Paul Biya.
Interview culled from Cameroon Insider

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“Priority should be channeled towards improving health infrastructure” - Alamine Ousmane Mey, Chai