Local Government In Ethiopia

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The Status and Structure of Local Government in Ethiopia in the Post 1991 There are different reasons that force countries to adopt federal system. Among the other thing, countries like Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico are becoming a federal country in order to strengthen their democratization process, whereas Belgium, Ethiopia, and Spain which formerly unitary countries have become federal so as to accommodate diversity. Accordingly, in 1991 Ethiopia, which is a formerly centralized unitary state, became a federal state after the downfall of the military junta (Derg) that held power since 1974 by ignoring the principle of self-determination. At that moment, the Ethiopia transitional government was established by a charter called the Transitional…show more content…
The local government units exercise powers and functions that actually fit the purposes for which they are established. Depending on whether they are rural Woredas or cities, the regular local government units take different forms and structures and exercise appropriate powers and functions. Tsegaye Regassa argued that, the 1995 regional constitutions created at regional level what calls ‘a unitary structure’ within which Woredas, but Liyu Woredas, were merely de-concentrated units of the regional states and nationality zones, not autonomous local government units. This was continued for several years, even after the promulgation of the 1995 federal Constitution. Moreover, in all nine regional states the regular local administration had almost identical structure consisting of three tiers: Kebele, Woreda and zonal administrations. Cities remained as sub-units of Woreda administrations, not autonomous units in their own…show more content…
The regional states are divided into zones. The powers and functions of zones vary from regions to regions. Mainly in SNNP and Amhara regional states, zones play intermediary roles, whereas zones in other regional states have the role of over sighting only. However, the status of a zonal level of administration remains unclear and varies from one region to another. Formally zonal levels of the administration come in between regional governments and Wereda administrations and considered coordinating and supervisory authorities over Wereda administrations, lacking legal authority of their own, zones in most regions do not have councils, executive administrations or any other constitutional mandate to quality as self-governing authorities in most regions of Ethiopia. But, zonal administrations enjoy a unique status in SNNPR. The existence of diverse ethnic and linguistic groups in SNNPR has made it necessary to organize zonal administrations as self-governing entities with elected councils and executive

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