Cameroon's Citizen's Exchange Program April 21, 2005 The AiC was hired by the State Departments Office of Citizen's Exchange's to organize meetings for Cameroon's Citizen's Exchange Program. The AiC organized and coordinated meetings with th The University of South Florida Institute on Black Life and Center for Africa and the Diaspora propose to bring 15 elected and government officials from Cameroon, Africa to the US as part of the State Department's International Visitors program to enhance the capacity of municipalities in assuming responsibilities that heretofore has been vested in the national government. Such responsibilities include: waste removal, urban transportation, good governance, rural electrification and electricity, and city planning. The Institute on Black Life is working directly with the United States Embassy in Yaoundé, Cameroon to select the elected and government officials who will participate in the project and to develop the specific training sessions that will be provided. Cameroon has begun an aggressive program to decentralize governmental functions and control. As a result, local administrators are assuming many responsibilities traditionally held by the national government, particularly municipal administrators. Thus, the specific focus of the proposed project is to support the efforts towards decentralizing the national government. For the decentralization program to achieve long-term success, it is imperative that local administrators develop the expertise needed to carry out these newly assigned functions. They must also develop leadership skills and be capable of operating ethically in an environment predicated on the traditions of democratic governance. The project will include a visit to the US by elected officials and a visit to Cameroon by USF professors with expertise in the area of urban and city planning, public administration, Geographic Information system, and engineering.