The Diplomatic and Political Capital of Africa - Addis Abeba Capacity Building to Foster Urban Governance - RL Vol II No 115 MMVI

Addis Abeba

Capacity Building to Foster Urban Governance

The Diplomatic and Political Capital of Africa –

Addis Abeba Mayor’s Office, 2006

Public Lecture Respublica Litereria - RL Vol II No 115 MMVI

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Former Chairperson of the AU Anti-Corruption Advisory Board

Professor of Public Policy & Sustainable Institutional Reforms

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Abstract

Addis Abeba has witnessed a sea change in the recent-past stemming from the appointment of a new leadership and staging enabling policies that have been set in motion by the Government. In short, Addis is much cleaner, has one of the highest growth rates in terms of urban reconstruction in the continent and the road grid has seen an overhaul unprecedented in its one century old history. The condos that are under completion have given hopes to the emerging ‘middle class’. Finally, there is hope to own a roof above one’s head even in Addis, where real estate prices have gone grotesquely strange. Addis is faced with (unemployment, pollution, water stress, sewerage facilities, gender-based violence, housing, road infrastructure, schools, health facilities…) that the Cabinet needs to sort out what can be done in terms of Urban Governance. Indubitably, this will herald the transition from urban government to urban governance: two diametrically opposite approaches in urban administration and decision–making systems.

Urban Government comprises city management on official state authorities. Urban governance, on the contrary, is a process based on the interaction between official organisations and authorities, which lead city development and of the civil society or the public domain. As we move to another administration that will be concocted soon by the legislature, and in advancing the necessity for continuity, Addis Abeba as a political capital of Africa, must portend the imperative to front-load reasoned strategies to provide hospitable conditions to its ‘citizenry’. The bottom line is we must launch Urban Governance - a process based on the interaction between official organisations and authorities, which lead city development on the one hand, and of the civil society or the public domain on the other.

Key words: Addis Abeba, civil society, urban administration, urban government, urban governance, :  policy, strategy, structure, process, participation, partnership

See paper here or https://www.academia.edu/39589687/Addis_Abeba_-_the_Diplomatic_and_Political_Capital_of_Africa_-_Capacity_Building_to_Foster_Urban_Governance_RL_Vol_II_No_115_MMVI