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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:International ecumenical community development aid in bad hands: the case of the Bu health centre project of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon
Author:Lang, Michael Kpughe
Year:2013
Periodical:Lagos Historical Review (ISSN 1596-5031)
Volume:13
Pages:107-128
Language:English
Geographic term:Cameroon
Subjects:Bulu
health aid
ecumenism
Presbyterian church
community development
Abstract:The Bu Health Centre Project was initiated by the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC) and the Bu people, and was adequately funded by 'Bread for the World' (BW), a Christian aid organization. It was a community development initiative aimed at improving the health of the Bu people. But the foreign ecumenical health aid, as evidenced by the final phase and attainments of the project, did not result in community development, due to implementation constraints. This paper, based on primary and secondary data, provides evidence of the misuse of foreign ecumenical community development aid, showing that recipient churches engulfed by corrupt practices are more likely to administer such funds improperly. The Bu Health Centre Project in northwest Cameroon is used as a case study to examine the issue. The paper begins with a conceptualization of international ecumenical aid and community development given their importance to the study. This is followed by a theoretical framework embedded in the current aid debate whose insight can shed light on why foreign aid fails to deliver. The paper goes on to discuss PCC-BW partnership in service provision in Cameroon, and pays attention to the PCC's presence in Bu. It further lays bare the genesis and execution of the Bu Health Centre Project, and rounds up with an analytical discourse to understand why the project failed. The study sustains the argument that the failure to transmit the international ecumenical aid set aside for the Bu Health Centre Project into beneficial outcomes rests on the attitude of the donor agency, the recipient institution, as well as the traditional and civil authorities of the recipient community. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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