Ethiopian Journal of the Social Sciences and Humanities

Local Community Assets to Promote Community Policing in Ethiopia

Ermias Kebede — 2024-05-24

Community policing is a recent strategy in Ethiopia that calls for partnership with communities to address crime problems. Few studies in Ethiopia have examined how community assets can support and work in partnership with community policing. This study explored how community assets could be used to strengthen community policing services in the Gorf Aswogaj community in Addis Ababa. We employed a qualitative research method with a case study design. Thirteen participants (11 community members and 2 police officers) participated in interviews. The findings uncovered numerous social assets including community based associations, strong culture of mutual support, and deep rooted habits of attending community based social events. Further, the study revealed existing multiple sources of income such as remittance, small and petty businesses, and renting house, which can be used as economic back-up for community policing. The study also found existing public and private institutions that can be exploited to advance community policing services in the study area. The study concludes that a community strength perspective can be integrated with community policing programs in an effort to build more peaceful and harmonious community as suggested by Asset Based Community Development Model and Normative Sponsorship Theory.

The The Economic Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Market Vendors in Kampala City in Uganda

James Kizza — 2024-05-24

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic struck Uganda, much emphasis by the policy makers and researchers were on the health effects of the pandemic at the expense of the economic effects hence creating a research gap. The cardinal aim of this study was to examine the economic effects of the pandemic on the wellbeing of the market vendors in Kampala city. The specific objectives of this study were; examining how the COVID-19 pandemic economically affected the market vendors in Kampala city, and determining if the pandemic was a demand or supply side shock. The study employed the Blinder-Oaxaca (B-O) decomposition technique, which was originally used in labor economics to decompose earnings gaps and to estimate the level of discrimination. This decomposition method analyses changes in a given variable over time. Descriptive statistics such as means, frequencies, and percentages were generated to gain insights into the data. Consumption and Sales were used as proxies for demand whereas the proxy for supply was production. The decomposition results from the Oaxaca estimates show that consumption, sales, and production reduced after the introduction of the COVID-19 restriction. The pandemic affected the market vendors economically through reduced consumption, sales, and disruption of the supply chain. It is recommended that the government provide appropriate support in form of income support, access to low credit and building the digital capacity of market vendors. This study contributes to the understanding of the economic effects of the pandemic on vulnerable groups-the market vendors.

Factors Influencing Job Motivation and Performance

Dagne Mekuria — 2024-09-18

Motivation is one of the factors playing a significant role in increasing the capacity of human performance and productivity. Among the various components of the criminal justice system, the police play a vital role in meeting the public demand for justice. Motivating police officers is, thus, crucial to increase efficiency in combating crime. This study aimed to investigate and understand the motivational factors and their contributions to motivating police officers. The study employed a quantitative research method as a strategy. Three hundred six participants were selected using a stratified sampling technique. Of those, three hundred respondents filled out and returned the questionnaires. Data was collected using intrinsic and extrinsic motivational scale measures. The study found that the predictive validity of intrinsic (recognition, promotion, achievement, job satisfaction, and responsibilities) and extrinsic motivational factors (payment, leadership, work environment, interpersonal relations, and job security) are decisive in motivating the officers to do more work. The findings show that positive relationships between intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors determine the police officer's motivation to enforce the law. In addition, regression analysis revealed that job satisfaction, payment, work environment, and job security are the most significant predictors of job performance. The study reminds police officials and others to revisit human resource management policies and develop new ones informed by empirically supported research findings.

Rethinking the Role of the Hatata of Zera Yaecob and the Hatata of Welda Heywat in Ethiopian Philosophy

Fasil Merawi — 2024-10-30

The attempt to situate the Hatata as a foundation of Ethiopian philosophy is part and parcel of a politicised debate that is more informed by nationalism and decolonial efforts rather than a quest to find the existence of a philosophical form of criticism in the Ethiopian soil. A critical examination of the different attempts that were made so far to position the treatises as a foundation of Ethiopian philosophy shows that there are three interrelated schools that see the Hatata of Zera Yaecob and the Hatata of Welda Heywat as the cornerstone of Ethiopian philosophy. These schools are represented by those who see the texts as hosting a Cartesian form of subjectivity, the ones who situate the texts as a foundation of an indigenous Ethiopian philosophy, and others who see the authors of the texts as laying the foundations for an Ethiopian modernization. Through a critical engagement with these three defences of the treatises, the paper argues that such three articulations of the texts failed to properly examine the colonial world of knowledge production and religious reformation that animated the texts in the first place. With such recognition, a new foundation of Ethiopian philosophy that is founded on the nation’s complex historical and cultural heritage needs to be pursued.