International Ecumenical Community Development Aid in Bad Hands: The Case of the Bu Health Centre Project of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon

The Bu Health Centre Project was initiated by the Presbyterian Church inCameroon (PCC) and the Bu people and adequately funded by ‘Bread forthe World’ (BW), a Christian aid organisation. It was a community development initiative aimed at improving the health of the Bu people. Butthe foreign ecumenical health aid, as evidenced by the final phase andattainments of the project, did not result in community development due toimplementation constraints. This paper, based on primary and secondarydata, provides evidence of the misuse of foreign ecumenical communitydevelopment aid, showing that recipient churches engulfed by corrupt practices are more likely to improperly administer such funds. The BuHealth Centre Project in northwest Cameroon is used as a case study forexamining the issue. The paper begins with a conceptualization of international ecumenical aid and community development given theircentrality to the study. This is followed by a theoretical framework embedded in the current aid debate whose insight can shed light on whyforeign aid fails to deliver. The paper goes on to discuss PCC-BW partnership in service provision in Cameroon, and pays attention to PCC’spresence in Bu. It further lays bare the genesis and execution of the BuHealth Centre Project, and rounds up with an analytical discourse forunderstanding why the project failed. The study sustains the argument thatthe failure to transmit the international ecumenical aid set aside for the BuHealth Centre Project into beneficial outcomes rests on the attitude of thedonor agency, the recipient institution, and the traditional and civilauthorities of the recipient community.Keywords: Ecumenical Aid, Community Development, Recipient Institution, Health Care, Misappropriation, Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, Bread for the Worl