Local Government and Sustainable Development in Santa Municipality, Cameroon:1968-2020

The study examines the evolution of local governance in Cameroon using the Santa Municipality of the North west Region of Cameroon as a topical example. The focus is on the manner in which it has been adopted, as well as its effectiveness in local developmental service delivery through infrastructure provision and the implications towards sustainable development. Focusing on the objectives of local governance in Cameroon, the paper argues that local government has not been able to provide the basic requirements of the masses in the municipalities such as; public lighting, refuse collection, water supply, construction and rehabilitation of municipal roads, installation of roads signs, town planning services, and building of markets among others. The provision of these basic needs has largely been inadequate and inefficient due to locally lacking preconditions for successful decentralization and the prevailing institutional constraints against it. Findings depicts that the local government institutions were and remains instrumental in identifying and executing development projects. However, during the execution phase of the projects, the process in some cases is too slow that the terms of different mayors need to elapse before certain projects are completed. If local governance must be a positive instrument of sustainable development in Santa and Cameroon as a whole, its current form and character must be redressed through adequate social inclusion, fiscal-administrative-political devolution. Put differently, the need for devolved political-administrative powers and resources to the local authorities without the interference of state driven agents, to attract international unsustainable foreign funding in urgently necessary.

Keywords: Local Government, Municipality, Sustainable Development, Santa