Intense imbroglios: Experiences in Cameroon. Key note speech at the book launch '' Cameroon's predicaments'' Peter Tse Angwafo

1. Intense imbroglios:
Experiences in Cameroon
Dr. Verina Ingram
Key note speech
Book launch - Peter Tse Angwafo - Cameroon's predicaments
21 November 2014, ASC, Leiden,
The Netherlands

2. A walk and talk...
touching on
governance, development, poverty, and
waiting in Cameroon

3. Cameroon
Africa in miniature
Population 19.5-22 million
Lower middle income
country
High forest cover (67%)
Stable democracy
Real GDP growth est. 5.1%
in 2014 - rising oil output and
public investment

4. Where?
German
British Cameroons
French
United Republic
of Cameroon
2 June 1972 -
date

5. Problems
 Youth 40% population >14
 44% population >$2 day
 75% workforce underemployed, >5% formally
employed
 Average life expectancy 55
 Lower middle income
 52% rural population access to improved water
 Dependence on natural resources (oil, timber,
cocoa beans, aluminium, coffee and cotton)
 Structural and policy weaknesses expected to
prevent faster growth
 Ranked 146th/180 on corruption
 Governance ranking in Africa 25th/ 48
 Gini inequality measure 44th/182
 168th/183 ease of doing business
 Increasing annual rates degradation & deforestation
0.03% and 0.07%
(
See Ingram 2014 for full sources)

6. But....
• Movements towards
prosperity
World Bank 2014

7. Angwafo: “political and economic
elites control the wealth of the nation
at the expense of a majority who
wallow in abject poverty and misery”.
• Mirrors global debates
on trends in rising wealth
inequality, with rises in
the share of total income
going to the very highest
earners

8. Governance....
Way a society organises its
self
• Rules of the game
(formal & informal)
• Boundaries
• Umpires
• Supporters
• Winners and losers

9. Government
1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
Republic Federal Republic United Republic
Ahmadou Ahidjo Paul Biya
1 1991-1995 UN Public Administration Country Profile2004

10. Angwafo: “corruption as the main
instrument of governance”

11. A tale of trees, old men’s
problems, money, and
governance
Despite laws, international
conventions & projects,
strong customary rule,
Overcome by corruption and
the mix of governance
arrangements
Also due to high value &
demand
Result: Unsustainable, good
chop for a few, no chop for
many

12. New laws +
Strong customs, collective action
market-based governance
High value product & growing
demand
Sustainable

13. Angwafo: “Faced with the difficult economic and political
situation, most youth and the intelligentsia...travel to
affluent Western countries, the consequences
notwithstanding. Brain drain is often the outcome”.
Creative entrepreneurs
Committed elites
Engaging bricoleurs!

14. Ineffective laws & customs
Strong union governance
High corruption
High value & demand
Not sustainable

15. nkukuma big man
and
waithood syndrome
Guyer 1993, Hydén, Göran. 2006. African politics in comparative perspective: Cambridge Univ PressDaloz, Jean-Pascal. 2003. " Big Men" in Sub-Saharan Africa: How Elites Accumulate Positions
and Resources. International Studies In Sociology And Social Anthropology:271-285., Takougang, Joseph. 2003. The 2002 legislative election in Cameroon: A retrospective on Cameroon's stalled
democracy movement. The Journal of Modern African Studies 41 (03):421-435.

16. Reflections
itte 1999, Bloom 1998, Brautigam 2009, Collier 2007, Crawford & Hartmann 2008, Dietz 2011, Fields & Pfeffermann 2003, Moyo 2009, Sachs et al. 2004
y

17. Thank you!
verina.ingram@wur.nl