This document discusses federalism and ethnic diversity in Ethiopia. It notes that Ethiopia has 84 ethnic groups, with the Oromo and Amhara being the largest. While Ethiopia attempted cultural homogenization in the past, it transitioned to an ethnic federal system in the 1990s, establishing regional states along ethnic lines with self-governance powers. The 1995 constitution established this federal system and enshrined principles like ethnic self-determination, equality, and equity in development.

1. FEDERALISM IN
ETHIOPIA

2. ETHNIC DIVERSITY IN ETHIOPIA.
• Ethiopia is known for its ethnic
diversity, with 84 different groups.
• The two major ethnic groups are
the Oromo and Amhara.
• Each group has its own language.
• The main religion practiced in
Ethiopia is Christianity.
• There are rumors that Ethiopia has
existed bout 3000 years ago.

3. Continued..
• In the last quarter of the 19th century,
Ethiopia has evolved as a non-colonial
empire state, through conquest and
incorporation of adjoining kingdoms,
principalities and sultanates.
• Modern Ethiopian governments
attempted to forge cultural
homogenization through state
centralization and one-language policy
during most of the 20th century.

4. • Some of the ethno-nationalist
…..
groups are Tigray Peoples
Liberation Front (TPLF), Oromo
Liberation Front (OLF), and Afar
Liberation Front (ALF); minor
organizations included Islamic
Oromo Liberation Front (IOLF),
Western Somali Liberation Front
(WSLF), Ogadeni National
Liberation Front (ONLF).

5. EVOLUTION OF ETHNIC FEDERALISM
NATASHA NDUMBI

6. • National conference in July 1991.
• Transitional charter.
• The regional/national proclamation 7/1992
• The regional/national proclamation 7/1992
was to give effect to the nations,
nationalities and peoples self-determination
and to ensure the
preservation and promotion of the
languages, culture and histories.

7. • Adjacent nations, nationalities and
peoples.
• National/regional self-governments were
vested with legislative, executive and
judicial powers within their geographic
areas in all matters not expressly assigned
to the central government.

8. • The structure of the regional governments
was:
 A council
 Executive committee
 Judicial administration office
 Public prosecution office
 Audit and control office
 Police and security office
 Service and development committee

9. • The basic unit in the national/ regional self-government
is the woreda self-government.
• The newly established self-governing units
remained subordinate to, and financially
dependent upon the central government
throughout the transitional period.
• The transitional period was significant not only
because the century old-centralized and
unitary state system that Ethiopia had
experienced was legally de-constructed, but
also because the process of charting and
implementing the structural framework was
introduced for reorganizing and reconstructing
the Ethiopian state on the basis of ensuring
equality of the ethno-linguistic communities

10. • The effects of the charter and
Proclamation No 7/1992 and No 33/1992
were significant for the devolution of state
power in Ethiopia.
• The establishment of a full-fledged federal
system whereby the federal and regional
governments are each, within their
respective constitutionally allocated
spheres, sovereign and independent, was
delayed until the second stage of the
devolution process, which culminated with
the adoption of the new constitution.

11. • the transitional government established
the constitutional Drafting Commission and
the subsequent process leading to the
adoption of the 1995 constitution.
• The Commission involved two interlinked
phases, a civic education phase and a public
consultation phase.

12. MAJOR CHALLENGES FACED BY
THE TRANSITIONAL
GOVERNMENT
1) Ethiopia was on the verge of state
collapse.
2) Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, police
and security officers were left jobless.
3) Eritrea achieved its de facto
independence from Ethiopia
4) The country was in economic shambles
5) Maintaining peace and order was difficult
because of the collapsed government
structure.

13. SOLUTIONS
a) First the government helped to establish peace
and stability committees for the purpose of
providing administrative and policing services.
b) Pursuant to proclamation No 8/1992, the
transitional government accepted and deployed
the EPRDF army to serve as the Ethiopian
Defense Force, and set up a system of policing
for the transitional period.
c) With regard to ex-soldiers, security officers, and
other operatives of the military regime, the
proclamation provided for the disarmament and
encampment of the members of the former
military regimes political party (known as
‘Workers Party of Ethiopia’), military, security and
other operatives.

14. d) With regard to the ‘armies of other
organizations’, the proclamation required
the encampment of each of the armies of
these organizations in designated areas,
and provided that the central transitional
government would cover their
expenditures for education, training and
other necessary logistical expenses.
e) Government adopted a stabilization and
structural adjustment program, and
investment proclamation No 15/1992,
which aimed to eliminate restrictions on
investment and bureaucratic bottlenecks.

15. • In order to address the scarcity of skilled
personnel in all regional states, and to
build the capacity of both the federal and
regional governments, the Ethiopian Civil
Service College (ECSC) was established
as an autonomous higher education
institution in 1995.

16. THE 1995 CONSTITUTION OF THE
FEDERAL DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF
ETHIOPIA

18. • All levels of government except zones have a tripartite
structure:
1. an elected council,
2. an executive organ,
3. an independent judiciary.

19. THE FOUR MAIN PRINCIPLES OF
FEDERALISM AND DEVOLUTION IN ETHIOPIA
Principle 1: Right to self determination
•The Nations, Nationalities and peoples (henceforth
referred to as NNP) have the unconditional right to
self-determination.
•This is found in the Preamble of the Ethiopian
constitution which states that;
Strongly committed, in full and free exercise of our
right to self-determination, to building a political
community founded on the rule of law and capable of
ensuring a lasting peace, guaranteeing a democratic
order, and advancing our economic and social
development;

20. • Article 39(1) of the Ethiopian
constitution states that: Every
nation, nationality or people in
Ethiopia shall have the unrestricted
right to self determination up to
secession.

21. Principle 2; Sovereignty of the NNP
the Preamble states that:
Strongly committed, in full and free exercise of
our right to self-determination, to building a
political community founded on the rule of law
and capable of ensuring a lasting peace,
guaranteeing a democratic order, and advancing
our economic and social development;

22. Article 8 of the Ethiopian constitution states
that;
(1.) Sovereignty resides in the nations,
nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia.
(2.) This Constitution is an expression of their
sovereignty.
(3.) Sovereignty shall be expressed through
the peoples' representatives, elected by them
in accordance with this Constitution, and
through their direct democratic participation.

23. Lastly, article 39(3.)
Every nation, nationality or people in Ethiopia
shall have the unrestricted right to administer
itself; and this shall include the right to
establish government institutions within the
territory it inhabits and the right to fair
representation in the federal and state
governments

24. Principle 3; Equality
Equality of all persons before the law; article 25.
All persons shall be equal before the law and shall be entitled to equal
protection of the law without any discrimination whatsoever. All persons
shall be entitled to equal and adequate guarantees without distinction
of any kind such as race, nation, nationality, colour, sex, language,
religion, political or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Discrimination prohibited; (Preamble)
Firmly convinced that the fulfillment of this objective requires full
respect of individual and people’s fundamental freedoms and rights, to
live together on the basis of equality and without any sexual, religious
or cultural discrimination;
•

25. Special notion to equal rights of women; article 7.
Provisions of this Constitution set out in the masculine
gender shall also apply to the feminine gender. (article
35(1) ) Women shall have equal rights with men in the
enjoyment of the rights and protections guaranteed by this
Constitution to all Ethiopians.
Equal rights to services; article 41(3.)
Every Ethiopian citizen shall have the right to equal access
to social services run with state funds.

26. Equal statues of religions; 41(2)
The national emblem on the flag shall reflect
the hope of the Nations, Nationalities,
Peoples as well as religious communities of
Ethiopia to live together in equality and unity

27. Principle 4: Equity
refers to development –
• special assistance to previously least
advantaged NNP (such as the women
(article 7) )
• every individual having the right to the
same services

28. The Ethiopian polity consists of nine regional
states which;
1.) Follow ethnic settlement patterns
2.) Are not completely correspondent
regarding their ethnicity
3.) Under the Ethiopian constitution have
been assigned mandates under article 52

29. 4.) Enjoy the freedom of self-governance
5.) Finance their mandates through levying
taxes such as income taxes, land use fees
and taxes of state-owned companies. (article
97)

30. Devolution under the 1995
Constitution.
We the Nations, Nationalities
and People of the Federal
Democratic of Ethiopia

31. • It establishes a federal and state structure.
Each has its own legislative, executive and
judicial branch.

32. Federal Govt functions(Art 51)
• administering national bank,
• Transport system and telecommunication
services linking states,
• foreign policy,
• set standard and criteria for public services
like health,
• utilization and conservation of land

33. State Govt functions (Art 52)
• state administration,
• enact state laws,
• Administer land according to federal laws
• establish state police force
• execute social
• economic and development policies,
• levy and collect taxes

34. Matters of concurrent
competence
• Policies
• Education, culture and history
• Land laws
• Judicial authority

35. Federal Parliament

36. House of peoples representatives
• Constituted of a maximum of 550 elected
members, 20 reserved for minority’s
• Legislates over labor law, criminal law and
commercial law.(art 55(1)
• Can summon and question federal officers
including prime minister

37. House of Federation
• Each nation, nationality and people is
represented by at least one member, and by
one additional member for each one million of
its population (art 61(2))..
• Competencies of the house are related to the
need of preserving the constitutional compact
between the regional state
• It interprets the Constitution, has authority to
solve Constitutional disputes(Art 83(1) while
being assisted by the Council of Constitutional
Inquiry..
• Constitution Guardian
• Proportionately divides the revenue between
federal and regional governments.

38. Federal Executive
• The political party or coalition of political
parties that has the greatest number of
seats in the House of Peoples
Representatives assumes the power of the
federal state (Art 73(2))..
• While the prime minister is elected from
among members of the House of Peoples
Representatives, the members of the
Council of Ministers are selected by the
prime minister and appointed by the
House of Peoples Representatives..

39. The Judiciary

40. • Article 78 establishes the Federal
supreme court
• The Federal High court and first Instance
courts are established by the House of
People’s Representatives by a 2/3rd
majority vote. The jurisdiction of this courts
are delegated to the State Courts.

41. • Article 78 (4) there shall be no
establishment of special or ad hoc courts.
• Article 34(5) the House of People’s
Representatives and State Councils can
establish or give official recognition to
religious and customary courts

42. The structures
Federal Supreme
Court
Federal High court and
First Instance courts

43. State Supreme Court
State High Court (zonal
courts)
First Instance
Court(Woreda courts)

44. Municipal Courts
First Instance
courts
Appellate
Courts

45. Other courts
Sharia courts
Customary
courts

46. KEY MEASURES
TAKEN TO ENTRENCH
DEVOLUTION

47. • The process of devolution of power in
Ethiopia has been supported and facilitated
by a number of crucial national and
regional economic and development
strategies, policies and programs
47

48. Agricultural Development Led
Industrialization
• Since 1995
• Eradicate poverty
• 85% people live on subsistence.
48

49. DisTINCT FEATURES
• commercialization of smallholder
agriculture through product
diversification;
• a shift to higher-value crops
• promotion of niche higher-value
export crops
49

50. Sustainable Development and
Poverty Reduction Program
•Sustainable poverty reduction while
maintaining a macro economic stability within
decentralized democratic setting
•Key areas;
• Agriculture
• Empowering the private sector
• Rapid export growth through production of
high value agricultural products
• Major investment in education
• Deepening as well as strengthening the
decentralization process to shift decision-making
closer to the grass-roots
50

51. Successes
• Primary school enrollment up by 91%
• Infant mortality has fallen from 123 per cent
in 1990 to 77 per cent by the end of 2005
• Access to clean water had more than
doubled from 19 per cent to 52.4 per cent by
the end of 2006/07
51

52. National Capacity Building
Strategy
• Sustainable development while
strengthening democracy, it establishes the
ministry of capacity;
 studying and identifying capacity building
gaps
 Following up on the design and
implementation of programs
 Launching systems for monitoring the
reform programs
 Creating programs for capacity building
52

53. Woreda (district) Level
Decentralization Program..
• Deepen the process of devolution by
empowering the lower tiers of the
regional governments, the woreda
administrative units.
• Required local constitutions to be
ammended to empower the woreda’s
administratively …
• 1st phase limited to 4
states.(Oromia,S.N.N.P.R,
Tigray,Amhara)
• Involved reassignment of civil
employees and block grants
53

54. Civil service reform program..
• In depth evaluation of civil service
• Revealed serious H.R problems
• The CSRP aims at building a fair,
transparent, efficient, effective, and ethical
civil service.
• It seeks to realize these objectives by
creating enabling legislation, developing
operating systems ,and training staff.
54

55. • Key Areas;
• expenditure control
• H.R management
• Executive management systems
• Service delivery
• Ethics
55

56. Successess
• New civil service law
• A code of ethics
• A financial management
proclamation
• Complaints handling procedures
• Service delivery policy.
56

57. SUCCESSES OF FEDERALISM

58. • 1. Development in the Education sector
• Federalism resulted in a 100% increase of
children attending primary school between
1974 and 1986
• By 2011, primary schools were available in
every kebele.
• The government has set up the Education
Sector Development Plan (ESDP) in order
to improve access and quality. The plan is
currently in its fourth phase now

59. • During the years 2000-2005 is when there
was the highest increment in growth of
enrolments. In between these years is
when decentralization took place.
• The number of primary schools has tripled
within 15 years from almost 9,670 to
28,349 schools in 2010, of which almost
10,000 were built between 2005 and 2010

60. • 2. Agriculture
Some of the proposed measures in the
agricultural sector were taken into
consideration during the transition to
federalism.
This was done under a program called The
Extension Package Program. A few of
these measures included;

61. • Expansion of the borrowers’ coverage of micro financing
institutions.
• Establishment of an institute for diploma- level training of
extension agents and expand agricultural education
training.
• Measures for the improved functioning of markets for
agricultural inputs and outputs.
• Agricultural research, water harvesting and small – scale
irrigation

62. • Agriculture accounted for 46.3% of GDP,
83.9% of exports, and 80% of the labor
force in 2006/2007, compared to 44.9%,
76.9% and 80% in 2002/2003

63. 3.) Health services
Health Extension Package is a new initiative which is an
innovative community-based health care delivery system.
Its main objective is to;
•Improve access and equity through kebele based health
services
•Focus on sustained preventive health actions and
increased awareness on issues dealing with heath
•Focus on women/mothers health at kebele level

64. • 75% of the trained workers consisted of
females, who are deployed utmost two in
each kebele and are accountable to health
centers in their areas.
• In terms of physical health facilities, the
improvements have been the construction
of additional 3,135 New Health Posts
reaching 2899 in 2003.
• The number of hospitals increased from 87
in 1996 to 126 in 2003.

65. • Health service coverage increased from
52% in 2001 to 65% in 2005 which marked
the end of the Program period.
• The put special effort into dealing with
HIV/AIDS within the population.

66. So far they achieved to;
• Reduce the level of transmission of the disease
• Strengthen the secretariat offices at the regional, zonal
and woreda levels to be able to provide appropriate
treatment for STDs and extend support to people living with
HIV/AIDS
• Define work programs to facilitate the functioning of
woreda councils
• Increase the number of clinics providing voluntary
counseling and testing
• Reduce the level of HIV transmission by 25%

67. • 4. Roads
• The federal government set up the Road Sector
Development Program which aimed at upgrading and
rehabilitating the existing road network.
• As a result of this program, as of 2002 Ethiopia has a
total of 33,297 km of road, both paved and gravel.
• The share of federally managed roads in good quality
improved from 14% in 1995 to 31% in 2002 and to 89%
in 2009
• The road density increased from 21km per 1000km2 in
1995 to 889km in 2009.
• According to the Government of Ethiopia, it has spent
over 600 billion birr (USD $50 billion, €30 billion) in
infrastructure since 1990.

68. • 5. Water and Sanitation
• During 2002 – 2005 water supply
coverage of urban, rural and country level
reached 82.5%, 31.4% and 39.4%
respectively.
• With respect to urban sewerage, coverage
increased annually by 3.5% from 7%.
• Access to clean water doubled from 19%
to 52.4% by the year 2007.

69. Failures Of Ethnic Federalism in
Africa.
• 1.) Unsupported Liberal democracy- the
lack of a democratic political culture in
Ethiopia.
• 2.) Lack of Capacity- Both federal and
regional governments suffer from serious
lack of education and skilled personnel,
lack of financial and material resources
and inadequate technological facilities.

70. • Poor Federal Institutional Setting -
inadequate accommodation of cultural and
regional identities. The consolidation of an
irregular arrangement which privileged the
federal government with excessive power.
• Lack of Identity accommodation- the
government of Ethiopia is reluctant to
accommodate more cultural and regional
identities.

71. Prospects

72. Dominant ethnic parties within
EPRDF openly tolerate competing
political parties in their regional areas

73. • EPRDF to agree to other ethnic or multi-ethnic
parties to join membership in
coalition
• Concentration on the four building blocks

74. Minimizing dependency on
foreign aid

75. • Iram Concludes with a table