The challenges and prospects of civil service reform and good governance in Ethiopia

Abstract

The major purpose of this study is to assess the challenges and prospects of good governance and civil service reform in Ethiopia. A descriptive survey method was employed to conduct the research: questionnaire, interview, document analysis and focus group discussion were used as data gathering tools. Purposive and random sampling methods were used to select the sample of respondents. The finding of the study revealed that good governance and civil service reform in Ethiopia experience some challenges: Incompatibility of people’s attitude and change requirements; unable to set a clear roadmap for the reform programme; holistic and similar approach to all sectors at the time without considering contexts; lack of expertise in the area of reform; lack of communication strategy to address all stakeholders; people’s resistance to reform due to job insecurity; inability to coordinate political leadership with civil servants’ roles; and a weak monitoring and evaluation system were some of the challenges observed in the civil service reform programme of Ethiopia. Parallel to these challenges there are some prospects for good governance in Ethiopia: leadership commitment; education and training programme; customer service orientation opportunities for benchmarking; and donors’ support for the programme were most important prospects for good governance and civil service reform. In the process ensuring governance and civil service reform the key learning points were: Reform should have a clear roadmap; political leadership commitment and competency communication strategy; capacity development programme; contextualisation; strong monitoring and evaluation system of its efficiency and effectiveness; and finally good governance and civil service processes play key roles for overall development of the country.