From right to left, His Excellency Mr. MOUHAMADOU YOUSSIFOU, Ambassador of Cameroon in Rabat, and Dr. Coffi Dieudonné ASSOUVI, Director General of CAFRAD

In africa, most elders are inexhaustible sources of wisdom and reference. Aware of this, the new Director General of CAFRAD, Dr. Coffi Dieudonné ASSOUVI, who has just been appointed in this position in, undertook a tour of the embassies of the Member States. This journey took him to his Excellency, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Cameroon, and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Rabat. The Dean welcomed this approach with these words: “the eyes lead you to see what you do not want to see, but the feet always lead you where you want to go. » and the very cordial exchanges between the Dean and the new Director General took place in the form of an initiation rite.

The tour of the embassies of the Member States continues, and the CAFRAD delegation, led by the new Director Dr. Coffi Dieudonné ASSOUVI, had the honor of being received on Wednesday October 30, 2024 at the Chancellery of the Embassy of the Republic of Cameroon in Morocco by His Excellency Mr. Mouhamadou YOUSSIFOU, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Cameroon to the Kingdom of Morocco, and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Morocco.

His Excellency Mr. YOUSSIFOU first expressed his warm congratulations to the new Director General of CAFRAD, Dr. ASSOUVI, for his election by the Board of the Pan-African Organization and his taking office. Then, he gave advice, such as the importance of listening to Member States and proposing attractive activities, responding to the developing concerns of member countries in the hope of remobilizing them to the cause of CAFRAD. Dr. ASSOUVI, attentive to his interlocutor, responded with his sincere gratitude to His Excellency, as well as to the Cameroonian Government for their permanent support to the Institution, and for their support of his candidacy. At the same time, he sent his congratulations to the Cameroonian Government for being up to date with the payment of its contributions to CAFRAD, which is a clear proof of Cameroon’s attachment to the Pan-African Institution. It is also worth mentioning that CAFRAD has been directed from July 2014 to July 2024 by a Cameroonian, Prof. Stéphane Monney MOUANDJO.

The Director General expressed his willingness and availability to collaborate with Cameroon as with all member countries in the establishment of programs meeting their needs and requirements in terms of training senior officials of the Public Administrations and territorial communities, aiming to tackle postmodern issues of public administration.

From right to left, His Excellency Mr. MOUHAMADOU YOUSSIFOU, Ambassador of Cameroon in Rabat, and Dr. Coffi Dieudonné ASSOUVI, Director General of CAFRAD

His Excellency affirmed the importance for the Director General to be well equipped and to remobilize Member States and partners to succeed in the large-scale strategy that he intends to implement. He specified that, civil servants being the backbone of governments, any institution which works to strengthen the talents of senior public administration executives is equally essential to succeed in the challenges of administrative reform.

The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Rabat particularly insisted on the new challenges of Member States, in particular cyber security, cybercrime, electronic fraud, generative artificial intelligence, quantum computing, the proliferation of false diplomas, the rational management of paradoxes (each new innovation or creation while creating new opportunities, causes other challenges and problems), collaboration with schools and institutes of administrative and diplomatic training, without forgetting the development of intelligent infrastructures, sustainable agriculture, fight against climate change and migration. All of these are issues that concern member states and on which CAFRAD must position itself to retain member states and be more useful and more attractive.

In any case, the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps wants the activities of CAFRAD to align with the challenges of modernizing public administration and innovation, such as the sudden introduction of artificial intelligence, or even on the verification of the authenticity of digital authentications of administrative documents, taking into account the sometimes harmful use of new technologies. The importance is to direct reflection towards the new challenges generated by industrial revolutions and unprecedented technological development and towards how to maximize the benefits while mitigating the harms.

Taking note of the advice of the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Rabat, the CAFRAD delegation considered that the courtesy visit to the Embassies is bearing its fruits, namely collecting the expectations of Member States and remobilizing them to the new dynamic in course.