Programme description

Title: Urban governance and decentralisation programme
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Ethiopia
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Urban Development and Construction (MUDC)
Overall term: 2005 to 2012

Context

Ethiopia has begun a process of urbanisation, some three decades later than most countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Today, Ethiopia’s urban population growth is among the highest in the world. It is accompanied by high urban unemployment, low governance capacities, weak infrastructure and poor management of municipal finance.

At the same time, because of its comprehensive decentralisation process, Ethiopia is devolving more responsibilities to the urban centres. Despite these challenges, urbanisation offers huge opportunities as cities are engines of economic and social development. Well managed, they can play a significant role in reducing poverty by offering employment opportunities and improved services.

Objective

Selected cities are adhering to principles of good governance and provide better, demand-oriented services to their citizens.

Approach

The Urban governance and decentralisation programme (UGDP) supports the Ethiopian Government in tackling the challenges of Ethiopia’s rapid urbanisation. It contributes to the ongoing decentralisation process, the improvement of urban service delivery, and the strengthening of good governance at the local level.

The programme is being implemented jointly by the Ethiopian Ministry of Urban Development and Construction, eight regional administrations and twelve municipalities. They are supported by GIZ, KfW and CIM, which are working on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The programme operates at the federal, regional and municipal levels. In the field of urban financial management it also works closely with the German consulting firm GOPA Consultants.

Until mid 2010, UGDP supported a number of pilot municipalities in the four most advanced regions. For the current phase, by way of scaling up the experiences, activities have been extended to urban centres in all eight Ethiopian regions, including the four remoter, less developed regions.

The programme comprises the following components:

• Improving urban financial management
• Improving urban planning
• Improving urban infrastructure provision and management
• Enhancing knowledge management and the exchange of experiences between municipalities.

The programme is implemented jointly by GIZ, KfW and CIM and is coordinated well with the activities of the World Bank and other development organisations.

Results achieved so far

• In line with its decentralisation policy, Ethiopia has shifted power and responsibilities for services to regional and local levels.
• Citizens are now being consulted on matters of spatial and financial planning as well as the prioritization of investments.
• Citizens' satisfaction with municipal service delivery has increased by 20 % since 2007.
• Eight supported municipalities report a revenue increase of more than 25 % compared to 2009.
• 92,000 jobs have already been created through road-building and drainage projects, more than 30% of which have been filled by women.
• The Ethiopian Cities Association has been established. This is a platform where the 23 member municipalities can share experiences and partake in collective learning.
• 42 towns and cities participated in the first Ethiopian Cities Day 2009; 80 have registered for the same event in 2010.
• In the new project regions, municipal administrations are being built up from scratch.
• All partner towns and cities have been able to access grants from KfW and the World Bank to fund investments in infrastructure.