Corruption and bad governance are some of the most cited human related problems faced by African countries today, and directly tied to the backdrop of challenges highlighted above.
"Good governance is the solution to Africa’s problems" - Prof. Eddy Maloka
Professor Eddy Maloka is the CEO of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), an organ set up by the African Union to monitor governance processes within African member countries.
He made the above quoted statement in an interview with Zipporah Musau published in the "August - November 2018" publication of Africa Renewal Magazine, a publication of the United Nations Department of Global Communications.
Good governance is Good Leadership
While the Government of every African country has the primary role to play in ensuring good governance, it does not carry the sole responsibility. To express this in simple terms: governance is leadership. Good governance is Good Leadership. Governance is not just about systems. Effective systems are designed and put in place by people. Effective systems are implemented overseen, and controlled by people: "Leaders".
The right leaders will invariably take the necessary steps towards implementing effective and lasting systems/solutions that should include established components of Good Governance.
The founders of CIMEA strongly believe that a Unified Christian (Christ-based) approach to finding and implementing solutions to present day African challenges is essential to reversing the problems of corruption, poverty, hunger, education, immorality, and many other crucial problems faced by Africans today. Christian Leaders therefore have a crucial role to play in setting Africa back on the right path.
Once more, citing the 2019 Transparency International report on corruption, the least corrupt institutions in Africa are religious institutions with a corruption rate of 16%.
The right orientation of leaders and potential leaders with core and actively practiced Christian values will therefore go a long way to improve governance issues in Africa. This approach has a high potential of being successful in promoting effective leadership that translates into good governance, especially in African countries like Cameroon with a high percentage of Christians.
In line with Goal 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals which advocates for the use of international cooperation as vital component in the search for solutions to a combination of social challenges like poverty, hunger, education, water and sanitation, etc, and which also advocates for the utilisation of "multi-stakeholder partnerships to share knowledge, expertise, technology, and financial support..." , CFAU has forged key international partnerships to cooperate within the framework of CIMEA, designed to take the form of an annual conference with the aim of using Christian and Academic approaches to finding lasting solutions to African challenges relevant to the SDG goals.
