The Significance and Practice of Good Governance in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Good governance is a broad reform strategy that makes public administrators to be more open, responsive, accountable and democratic. It also strengthen the multi-actors of governance, such as, the government it self, citizens, cooperatives, NGOS, Research institutions, Religious leaders, Finance institutions, Political parties, the Civil societies, Armed forces, Individual self-help groups, Community based organizations and so on. Good governance appears to be the heart of democratic values and principles which includes participation, effectiveness and efficiency, transparency, accountability and rule of law. In Ethiopian context good governance encompasses representativeness, constituently transparency, responsiveness and accountability. The study of this project work focused on the Significance and Practice of Good Governance in Addis Ababa City the case of Bole sub-city administration. As it has been stated in the revised charter of Addis Ababa city Administration, both the sub-city and warada power and functions rely on allocation function only. In other words, hierarchies, the sub-city and warada do not have the power to make policies and laws which implies that their responsibilities rely on budget allocation to enhance public services and goods as well as implement the city administration policies based on observation. In this project work, the lack of good governance in Bole sub-city administration emanates due to the capacity and ill commitment tends to reduce the effectiveness of those institutions. Inadequate educational qualification of both political and non-political echelons, poor service facilities, poor management and limited budget are some of the major causes for the prevalence of poor governance in the sub-city. Under Bole sub-city there are 14 waradas (districts). All waradas (districts) have been established with the consideration of geographical and socio-economic factors to provide the municipal and other services to the public at large. Instruments for data collections, such as, questionnaires, interviews and observation have been held at the sub-city and warada levels. Questionnaires are distributed to the sub-city office servants, residents, public servants teacher and professionals. The general assessment and findings reveal that the power and function of the sub-city rely on resource allocation function to deliver public goods and services. The findings indicated that there is poor accountability, absence of transparency, ill commitment both at the sub-city and warada level. The poor capacity and absence of high skilled personnel resulted poor service delivery. The magnitude of the problem is more prescribed at warada level. In sum, the type and the quality of service being provided by the sub-city and waradas are not satisfactory. In order to tackle these problems and to enhance the quality of services, upgrading the skill of employees, installing information technology tools implementing BPR and BSC to create the sustainable and conducive atmosphere, developing public /private/ partnership, establishing the ethical office at the sub-city level are some of the major recommendations