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Share this book Facebook. October 17, History. An edition of The Practice of local government planning Written in English — pages. Subjects City planning. Libraries near you: WorldCat. The Practice of local government planning First published in Subjects City planning. Edition Notes Bibliography: p. Series Municipal management series Other Titles Principles and practice of urban planning. The Physical Object Pagination p. Community Reviews 0 Feedback? Nevertheless, Ethiopia has a rich history and an amazing diversity of people, climates, land features, and ecosystems.
Human history may have begun in or around where now Ethiopia [2] is, which has never been colonized in history. And the country recorded impressive economic growth over the last decade and is ranked among the ten fastest growing economies in Africa [4] and among the world fastest movers of human development United Nations Development Programme [5].
The Aksumite Empire rose during the first century B. According to [7], from around , a plodding centralization of power was initiated in the country.
Until , Ethiopia had an unbroken line of kings and emperors dating back to biblical times [2]. The process of centralization reached its peak during the Derg government [7].
As a result, the Regional States have established lower administrative levels such as zones, and Woredas and Kebeles are found necessary. Consequently, Woredas and urban administrations, have primary responsibility in allocation of resources, decision making, management and delivery of basic services. Kebeles and municipalities are placed under the Woreda administration and are accountable to the Woreda Council. Local Government is an agency organized to provide and supervise administrative, fiscal, and other services to the people who reside within its territorial boundaries [10].
It is a sub-unit of government controlled by a local council which is authorized by the central government to pass ordinances having a local application, levy taxes or exact labour and to vary centrally decided policy to apply it locally within limit specified by the central government [11]. Therefore, the crucial part of the definition of local government is that it is a democratically elected authority that exercises political choices within denoted boundaries, though of course, local governments co-operate across boundaries and ally in quasi-federal bodies, such as urban communities [12].
The legal status of local governments varies across countries [13, 14]. Nevertheless, in countries like China, the executive order of the central government creates local governments [13, 14]. The functions mainly include garbage collection, cleaning the streets, education, health, policing, water and sanitation, and elders and vulnerable care [15, 16]. Whereas, some researchers like in [14] argued that local governments vary in their responsibilities across countries, especially developing countries.
He further explained that: In developing countries, in China for instance, local governments are responsible for social security primarily pensions and unemployment allowances in addition to traditional local and municipal services. They have a much larger role in local economic development than local governments in other countries. In India and South Africa their functions are limited to delivering local services and largely focused on delivery of municipal services.
In other countries like Kazakhstan, all local services are shared central-local responsibilities; local governments do not have independent budgets and have no fiscal autonomy.
Concerning the local government expenditure related to the services, nearly half of local government expenditures in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Poland, and Uganda allocated to education and health. In Uganda, education alone accounts for about 40 percent of local expenditures. In India and South Africa, municipal services e. In China, education, municipal administration, justice, and police account for nearly half of local expenditures.
Nevertheless, [12] argued that except for a few countries, a number of functions of local government across Europe are similar. Local government tends to provide the public goods, such as parks, but the extent that it provides private goods or welfare services varies.
His comparative analysis shows that local government in the Denmark, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK systems tends to provide the welfare services whereas the regional or central governments provide those in Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. However, while this distinction would have been very clear twenty years ago, the transfer of functions to sub-national authorities lessens the contrast. He further argued that Denmark, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK tends to have few levels of government, smaller numbers of local authorities, and larger average size of local authority, and these differences are quite large if the averages of each group are considered.
This requires that local governments have authority, that is, a set of functions, powers, and resources of their own.
But many studies have shown that local governments in Ethiopia are devoid of this authority. Hence, this study aims at assessing the extent to which the local government practices the responsibilities given by the constitutions and the challenges faced during implementation.
Accordingly, the study employed descriptive approach. It could have been better if it were supported by data collected through questionnaire and interview. But due to its nature; it is confined to literature survey, including federal constitution, regional constitutions and other laws.
Besides, different textbooks, articles, journals, government policies and websites are consulted. Regional constitutions transfer power to local authorities. A general survey of local government in the country made by [18] would, however, reveal that a multilayered local government is established across the country.
The regional states are divided into zones. The powers and functions of zones vary from regions to regions. The two cities administrative councils are also further divided in-to sub-cities and woredas. Currently, it is estimated that there are eight hundred woredas and about urban and 10, rural kebeles [19].
The local government structure and their numbers in the country are depicted in the following Figure. Federal Government 1 9 Regional Governments and 2 City administrative councils 26 Zones as 54 Zones as oversight bodies of Woredas intermediaries Woredas and city administrations Kebeles -both urban and rural Fig.
And the Kebele Administration, while being the lowest hierarchy of the Regional State, is accountable to its embracing urban and or Woreda Administration, as the case may require.
The Kebele administration shall have the principal organs include the Kebele council, the Kebele administrative council and the social court.
Nevertheless, nationality zones that established as institutions of self- government, for regional ethnic minority groups that occupy a territorial area cover a number of Woredas. A liyu Woreda special district , in contrast, is a subdivision of regions which in terms of territorial and population size is comparable to a Woreda administration.
It is established for the particular ethnic groups that inhabits in the area. Hence, the Bank ranked the country the 12th fastest growing economy in the world in Correspondingly, United Nations Development Programme [5] in its Human Development Report of ranked the country first in Sub-Saharan Africa and 11th in the world based on the progress achieved in the areas of primary education, primary health care, agricultural extension services and the like.
Ethiopia launched a massive decentralization program to Regions and subsequently to Woreda administration during those years of development progress. These improvements happened at a time of massive decentralization in Ethiopia first from the federal to region, and subsequently into Woredas districts. As a result of decentralization, Woredas are in a position to provide services like health and education in the most efficient and effective way.
Hence, [21] work provides evidence to the observation that the devolution of power and resources from the federal and regional governments to the woredas contributes to the improvements in the delivery of basic services particularly in education.
Similarly, UNDP evidences that the access and provision of public goods have been increased due to local mechanisms [5]. Increasing crop production is crucial for attaining food security, providing inputs for the industrial sector, and boosting export earnings [23]. On the other hand, it means that the number of agriculture extension service beneficiaries increases by more than 10 percent per year. According to the ministry, the improvement has been achieved to the advancement of agricultural extension service.
Figuratively, the total number of smallholder farmers, pastoralists and semi-pastoralists who have benefited from agricultural extension service reached Of the total beneficiaries, 30 percent are women while 10 percent are youth [23]. Even though remarkable achievement has been made in agriculture sector, yet there are problems in enhancing the skills of farmers and institutions to strengthen the overall structure of the sector.
Moreover, participation of the private sector plays significant roles to agricultural development in particular and economic growth in general. So far, massive efforts have been put to boost the export of flowers, vegetables, fruits and herbs through identifying and cultivating suitable land [23]. These efforts can be supported by local governments by maintaining peace and security and protecting and guarantying property rights for local investors.
Yet, the limitation of local governments especially in the areas of human resource inhibits them properly to perform as expected. Considerable performances also achieved in relation to natural resource conservation and utilization, such as water and soil conservation activities, infrastructure development, and afforestation programs by participating farmers.
The encouragement of local community participation demonstrates the change in the mindset of people towards development in the country. Agricultural Development Led Industrialization is the fundamental building block of industrial development in Ethiopia. To support the key policy, the development of micro and small scale enterprises MSEs play a significant role in achieving this strategy.
This directly contributes to reducing poverty, the overall economic growth, and job opportunities, especially in urban areas. For instance, according to MoFED report, temporary and permanent job opportunities were created for more than a million citizens in , among which 40 percent are women [23]. Various documents show the progress made in this concern.
Consequently, MSEs are also promoted to support industrial development. This directly contributes to the overall economic growth as well as job opportunities, especially in urban areas. For instance, according to MoFED report, temporary and permanent job opportunities have been created for more than a million citizens in , among which 40 percent are women [23].
The Role of Local Government in Service Delivery Ethiopia has opted to deliver services such as basic education, primary health care, agricultural extension advice, water, and rural roads through a highly decentralized system [24]. The country primarily manages the delivery of basic services at the Woreda level. Woredas sub-districts play key roles in prioritizing the provision of public services since they are elected government of local units [25].
Since then, many achievements have been registered. With respect to health service, there has been massive expansion of health services, especially primary health services, over the past two decades [26]. It has been evidenced that Ethiopia has made substantial progress in improving health outcomes during the last decade and is on track to achieve some of the health Millennium Development Goals. The coverage of basic health care services contributes to the achievements of the nation as well.
The Health Extension Program HEP remains the core of such innovations and provides a model for countries struggling to improve health outcomes in a resource-constrained setting [27]. The Health Extension Program HEP emphasizes on the expansion of basic health infrastructure and local human resources with required skills to scale-up delivery of high-impact interventions focusing on improving the supply of and enhancing demand for a well-defined package of essential promotive, preventive, and curative health services [27].
As a result, particular improvement has been observed on child health and malaria in recent years. These improvements can be attributed to strong government commitment towards health results, reflected in a number of notable policies and programs related to Human Resources for Health HRH , in particular the health extension worker program.
However, indicators related to maternal health remain problematic [28]. The study made by [29] also revealed that the construction of health posts and health centres at rural Kebele administrations and the hiring of nurses and health extension workers at grassroots level have increased for the last six years.
Consequently, it becomes clear that there is a progress of health services in the Woreda at the grassroots level and communities are getting moderate health services.
However, there are limitations in supplying of medical equipments for each health post and health centre. Moreover, the number of nurses and health extension workers are not enough to address adequate health services for each sub-Kebeles Gott especially in far off Kebeles at the Woreda town [29]. Over the same period, health centers increased in numbers from to 2,, and hospitals increased from 87 to [26].
Ethiopian government realized that education is a key for development and believed that every human being has the right to get basic education.
The reason is that primary education is very crucial to national development since it provides the highest average public return to the investment of the state as well as the foundation of education and economic growth. In Ethiopia, primary education grade is divided in to two cycles, the first cycle and the second cycle [31]. The country has made huge strides in increasing access to education.
For instance, the enrolment at the primary level grade 1 over the decade has been increased from less than 5 million to over In , nearly 75 percent of children enrolled in primary schools, as the result of an impressive 9 percent annual growth in enrolment since [21].
In , the national enrolment of primary education increased by 2. In Somali, Afar and Gambella, the enrolments rates are However, the average annual growth rate of Harari, Amhara and Addis Ababa has slightly decreased. This progress is attained through sustainable investment, and strong commitment in reducing poverty. As a result, schools become closer to the children and the Alternative Basic Education has been introduced [32]. This shows that the commitment of local government can determine the accessibility and equity of education among citizens.
The percentage of Ethiopians with access to clean water rose from 19 percent in to 36 percent in [21]. It even increased to access 92 percent in [33]. Whereas, the sustainability of water service in some of urban areas is under question. Hence, government expected to give equal emphasis to the quality of services like to the expansion of coverage.
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