The Challenges of the Civil Service Reform in Ethiopia: Initial Observations

Abstract

Ethiopia, as part of its general political and economic restructuring program, is currently reforming its civil service. Using qualitative data, the study analyses the contents and processes of the civil service reform program. It emerges from the study that the reform measures have deficiencies in tackling the major problems confronting the Ethiopian civil service. This has been due, inter alia, to faulty diagnosis of the problems underlying the weaknesses of the civil service. It is also found that the reform measures lack the necessary preconditions to be adequately put into practice. The paper concludes by arguing that the reform measures must be contextualised and executed incrementally by identifying priority areas, while taking into consideration capacity to implement the measures proposed.




Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review (EASSRR) Vol. XVII No. 1 January 2001, pp. 79-102