Governance and Organizational Performance in the Era of Local and Regional Authorities in Sub-Saharan Africa: the Case of Cameroonian Municipalities

Abstract

The aim of this study is specially to evaluate the effect of the governance structures, the functioning of governance bodies, the characteristics of non-conventional governance actors and the non-conventional regulatory body at play in the municipalities on the organisational performance in the context of decentralisation. To test those four hypotheses, the study employs a quantitative analysis using the feasible generalised least squares method panel data from the "GUICHET-Performance- PNDP" were cross-tabulated with the primary data relating to the independent variables, collected by questionnaire. The results show that, unlike non-conventional practices, structural and conventional (regulatory) local governance practices have no effect on the performance of organisations. These results, serve as a reminder to political leaders for the urgent need for good practices and transparency in other to strengthen organisational performance at local levels. The results of this research also confirm the importance of institutional bodies establishing a vigorous policy in support of decentralisation. Such a policy would contribute to improving decentralisation at all levels in Cameroon.

Keywords

• governance
• performance
• decentralisation
• Guichet-Performance-PND