Decentralized Urban Land Management in Ethiopian Federal System: Case study of Ambo town

Abstract

In Ethiopia, after a long year’s institution of centralized government, decentralized form of government has been adopted since 1991 with different layers of government structures. It is widely accepted that urban land is a scarce natural resource that needs to be properly managed in order to optimize the benefits through minimizing environmental and social problems caused due to its mismanagement. One mechanism that helps to effectively and efficiently manage urban land is through the practice of decentralization of power to local governments. Based on this, this study tried to assess the effective management of urban land management under Ethiopian decentralized federal political system. Methodologically, the study used both qualitative and quantitative approach. The finding of this study shows that the current and past experiences have shown that urban land management system at the local government of Ethiopia is not development responsive. There are various factors which are cited in this work. It suggests that effective, democratic and efficient urban land management measures are required to bring sustainable socio-economic development of the towns otherwise recentralization of urban land management would be imperative.