Challenges

According to the United Nations E-government Development Index 2020, Cameroon ranked 144th in the e-government development ranking among 190 United Nations Member States. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a widespread digital transformation. At this critical juncture, Cameroon has established a National Development Strategy 2020-2030 to modernize its public services. According to this strategy, it intends to pursue digitalization by fostering innovation and establishing an appropriate infrastructure in the ICT field. The Cameroonian Government intends to implement e-government reform to carry out this plan.

Despite its intentions, e-government reforms have been delayed. The main reason is the different understanding for the need of e-government reform within the country. There is insufficient understanding of e-government reform needs even within the government. The lack of digital infrastructure and appropriate learning materials for e-government reform also hinders the quality training for responsible government officials who lead the comprehensive digitalization process at the national level.

Toward a Solution

To address this challenge, KOICA implemented a triangular cooperation project with Cameroon, entitled “Project for Enhancing Awareness and Building E-Government Capacity in Cameroon”. This project offers a capacity-building and awareness-raising programme for Cameroon’s government officials, with the aim of laying the groundwork for shifting toward national digital government. In the alignment of its overall goal, the project is composed of two activities: developing an online learning platform with quality learning contents and a concrete instruction on e-government. With these two elements, the project aims to instruct 1,000 government officials per year.  

This Triangular Cooperation is comprised of KOICA as facilitating partner, the Nigeria e-Government Training Centre(eGTC) and the relevant e-government ministry as pivotal partners, and nine government officials from the e-government-related ministry in Cameroon as the beneficiary partner. The main activities were the invitation training in Nigeria for raising awareness and capacity-building in e-government and drawing up of an Action Plan which will be a reference point for KOICA’s bilateral project in Cameroon.

KOICA had implemented a similar bilateral project in Nigeria, entitled “Project Capacity-Building of e-Government for Nigeria”, which shares similar activities with the bilateral project in Cameroon. Through this project, the Nigeria e-Government Training Centre (eGTC) was established to deliver continuous instruction for government officials, and a masterplan was set for the e-Government policy-wise. Knowledge, experiences and lessons learned from their Nigerian counterparts were shared with Cameroon.  

KOICA, as facilitating partner, especially its overseas office in Nigeria and Cameroon, communicated closely with the related actors within the respective countries to provide a solid foundation, financial support for triangular cooperation and detailed consultations on overall triangular cooperation. Nigeria was a pivotal partner providing lectures, workshops and field trips during the training to beneficiary partners, according to tangible results from the KOICA’s bilateral project completed in 2019. Cameroon, as a beneficiary partner of this triangular cooperation, selected government officials for the training course.

The triangular cooperation project gave Cameroon the opportunity to observe how Nigeria, its neighbour, operates an African e-government programme with the establishment of an e-government training centre and benchmarks to measure the spread of the e-government agenda across the government. It directly contributes to SDG 16 (Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels) and SDG 17 (Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development).

On the Cameroon side, nine officials from the President’s Office, including the Deputy Minister and the Director of the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reforms, participated in the triangular cooperation. From Nigeria, the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy, which leads Nigeria’s e-government agenda and institutions affiliated with the e-government committee, provided the contents for the training.

This training within the triangular cooperation consisted of learning about the curriculum and instructor training methods of the Nigeria E-Government Training Centre (eGTC), the Nigerian e-government governance system, the masterplan implementation status of the Nigerian e-government and best practices for e-government services.

During the training in Nigeria, participants visited the e-Government Training Centre(eGTC), which is one of the major outcomes of KOICA’s similar bilateral project. The participants were provided with the opportunity to learn directly about the eGTC’s operation plans, about measures for instructor training, education, a training strategy and curriculum development. The workshops and discussions were also held to provide an opportunity to design ways to increase awareness about e-government in Cameroon.

Based on this exchange, an Action Plan containing strategies and steps for Cameroon’s e-government reform was drawn up by the participants with KOICA’s close consultation and advice. These were given to the senior officials in the Cameroonian Government. The Action Plan contains an analysis of problems, the gap between goals and reality, and strategies and institutional frameworks to realize the e-government reform. In addition, the Action Plan is used for the Project for Enhancing Awareness and Building-Capacity on E-Government in Cameroon (2022-2026/US$8 mn) to be implemented through KOICA, ensuring continuity and becoming the driving force for e-government reform.