The Case for a Data Bank at the Ministry of External Relations - Cameroon

General Conclusion

This paper has dealt more with professional efficiency than with political will. However, it has been noted, as an underlying factor, that the creation of this bank on the one hand and it usage on the other hand, depends on the will of the makers of Cameroon's foreign policy. It is one thing for a bank to exist and another for it to be efficiently exploited. But the simple existence is a mark of a strong political will to place Cameroonians in IOs. From this perspective, we must say that if the decision of the Head of State to create a CMU in MINREX's GS with the particular tool of a databank is loadable, it requires yet another stronger political decision to put it into place and manage it. The age of transformational diplomacy corroborates with the placing of nationals in IOs. The policy of placing is fast becoming one of the most vibrant wings of state politics at the international level, especially the weak states. Several governments are optimizing existing databanks in this domain. Several others are in the creation process. This work is a contribution to that process in the Cameroonian context. There is no doubt that when it goes operational, many other countries will copy the «Cameroonian model». The use of a databank as a decision-making tool is neither exclusive to MINREX nor limited to career management nor the placing of nationals in IOs. As we have seen, several administrations around the world have created databanks for various purposes. In the US, the nature and function of databases in government services have increased rapidly in the last few years. A global management strategy for databanks has been put in place through the Data Base Advisory Committee Meeting, which brings together representatives of different administrations running databases. At this point, it is worth mentioning two bodies that provide data to the general public. The first, database corner which is a knowledge - based website about the database industry, database software, database management systems, database application development, data warehouse, data mining, business intelligence, OLAP, database administration, database design, data modelling, data integration, database security^30(*). After the construction of this bank, Cameroonian authorities should look forward to transforming it into an online databank accessible to Cameroonians everywhere and at all times. This measure should be envisaged for the reasons that the process of globalization is intensifying unstoppably. Several countries have set up on - line databases for the purpose of placing nationals in IOs. Cameroon has the right and the duty to look in that direction.

WORKS CONSULTED

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2. Alougou, Many Germain, La Problématique du Placement des Camerounais dans les Organisations Internationales par le Ministère des Relations Extérieures (MINREX), Internship Report, Yaoundé: IRIC, 2005.

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Web search

1. Breaking Christian News at WWW.breakingchristiannews.com of Wed Oct 11 16:02:07 2006

2. www.mfaft.gov.jm/jod/JOD_Professional_by_Occupation.htm

3. http://www.careersjamaica.com/ , www.cwjamaica.com

4. http://www.systime.net/calibre-module.asp, www.systime.net/humansys.pdf

5. www.databasecorner.com

* ³⁰ See www.databasecorner.com