Growth and development of PAID (1965 - 1995)

From 1964 to 1995, PAID grew considerably. The School administrators felt the need for advice from people outside the Institute. The Board of Directors (now Governing Council) accepted the suggestion to establish a Management Committee and a study Council (now Scientific and Pedagogic Council). M. Joseph SACK, Director of the Douala section of the Central Bank was nominated President of the Management Committee, this status being President of “Ecole de Cadres de Douala”. The following were then Member of the Management Committee:

The Study Council’s (Scientific and Pedagogic Council):

Soon as the project (Pan African Institute for Development) was fully established, its intentions were to extend its activities to the English-speaking countries and become a meeting place for African with different cultural background. Africans were deeply affected by two very different systems of colonization and education. So PAID decides to integrate Anglophone and Bilingualism. It was necessary to expand activities to Anglophone world and create a meeting place of Africans with different cultures. The extension of PAID activities, led to the creation of a unit in“Ecole de Cadres de Douala” responsible for organizing external seminars. This unit was to constantly organize seminars and workshops to retrain the middle staff of African organizations and governments based on the local needs identified and share among them. The founders of PAID had always thought that the project (Pan African Institute for Development) has to be Africanized (manage by Africans themselves). Also, an intensification of the policy of “Africanization” (transferring the management of PAID to Africans) of the faculty of “Ecole de Cadres de Douala” led to the appointment of a number of Africans in 1967 firstly Cosme DIKOUME a Cameroonian sociologist  then later on Mathieu GRACIA an Angolese economist and Louis BISSEK a Cameroonian economist.  Finally, the project (Pan African Institute for Development) witnessed the regionalization of “Ecole de Cadres de Douala”. Indeed, at its creation, “Ecole de Cadres de Douala” welcomes and train students from all Francophone African countries. By regionalization PAID established four regional institutes that are:

1. “Ecole de Cadres de Douala” in 1965 that became l’Institute panafricain pour le développement  Afrique Centrale (IPD-AC) covering the following countries: Angola, Burundi, Cameroon (Francophone), Central African Republic, Congo (Brazzaville), Gabon, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Seychelles, Sao Tome and Principe and Chad.

2.  Du Sautoy College in 1969 that became Pan African Institute for Development - West Africa (PAID-WA) established in Buea- Cameroon covering the following countries: Cameroon (Anglophone), Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
       
3. l’Institute panafricain pour le développement –Afrique de l’Ouest et Sahel (IPD-AOS), in 1977 in Ouagadougou-Burkina Faso covering the following countries: Benin Republic, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Mali,  Niger, Senegal and Togo.
       

4. Pan African Institute for Development - East and Southern Africa (PAID-ESA) in1979 in Kabwe –Zambia, covering the following countries: South Africa, Botswana, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Uganda, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
      

In addition to four Regional Institutes (R-PAIDs) mentioned above, Douala hosts the Research Center (1972) and the Center for Project Management which was a post graduate course in management (1973). By 1995, over twelve thousands (12 000) development staff were already trained by PAID.
The development of the activities of the Association and its training institutes had great impacts on African development. This success led PAID to develop relations with inter-African and international institutions and to be more open to the world. Thus the PAID became a preferred partner for inter-African organizations.