Local-Level Decentralization in Ethiopia: A Case Study of Tigray Regional State

Abstract

This article is an investigation into the degree of autonomy that local government enjoys in Ethiopia’s Tigray Regional State. At a formal level, local governments are autonomous units with certain defined mandates, including the power to decide on policy issues; in reality, they function more as deconcentrated than autonomous units, with their autonomy curtailed by higher-level governments and ruling-party structures that turn them into little more than extension arms of the regional state. Institutions such as elected councils, mayors and executive bodies do exist at local level, but the lines of accountability are more vertical than horizontal in nature, weakening the influence of communities on local decision-making. Decentralization, in other words, has not resulted in popular control of local governance and in local-level development, since the interests of the ruling party and the local political elite prevail over popular interests. The article, based on two rounds of fieldwork covering nine districts, calls fora rethinking of the way local government is designed; in particular, decision-making needs to be shifted from higher levels of governance to local ones, thereby constituting communities as stakeholders exercising control over local government.