Good Governance in Land Administration from Below: The Case of Naeder Adet Woreda, Ethiopia

Abstract

It is true that good land governance has a viable role in ensuring sustainable local development. This study dealt with the performance of good land governance pertaining to accountability in Naeder Adet woreda of Tigiray Regional State. The study was conducted by using 182 household heads that were selected via convenience sampling. Furthermore, focused group discussion, interview, secondary data was used to gather relevant data. The study finding indicates that the performance good governance in the woreda land administration pertaining to accountability is sluggish where much is left to be done. The woreda land administration has installed both formal and informal accountability mechanisms where administrative accountability could be ensured. In spite of that, the practicability of these accountability mechanisms is in its early stage. There is the dearth of downward accountability. In this regard, the prime factors that inhibit the good governance in the land administration were found, among others, corruption, weak public education, weak monitoring and evaluation system, and coordination among stake holders and low incentives. Thus, if accountability is to be ensured, the woreda should work on tackling the above bottlenecks by setting clear guidelines and service standards, empowering civic engagement on service delivery process, providing adequate trainings and incentives to local councils and setting code of conduct to the land administrators.

Keywords: Good land governance, accountability, land administration committees, woreda