Recruitment and Promotion Practices in the Ethiopian Civil Service

Abstract

The aim of this research is to scrutinize the meritocracy of the civil service in terms of merit principles. To this end, the research question is: to "what extent is the civil service characterized by meritocratic recruitment and offer predictable, rewarding long-term careers; and what factors influence meritocratic recruitments and career developments in Ethiopian civil service?" In this context, meritocracy, and politics - bureaucracy relationship, and neutrality of the bureaucracy are important factors that determine the professionalization of the bureaucracy; hence discussed in detail.The research approach is basically qualitative case study. The actual data collection has covered three ministries. The instruments that have been used for collecting data are in-depth interview with key informants; focus group discussions; and document analysis.Given the findings of this research, though series of reforms were introduced to modernize and professionalize the bureaucracy since 1990s, a little has been done on consolidation of meritocratic system in the process of recruitment, training and promotion of the administrative machine. Hence, one of the key challenges that are hindering the Ethiopian federal civil service from being professional is lack of institutionalizing and safeguarding the merit principle of recruitment and promotion. The other is the lack of development of a professional and politically neutral civil service.

Keywords: Ethiopian civil service, recruitment, promotion