Social Accountability in Ethiopia is a comprehensive guidebook with numerous examples on the use of social accountability-a process by which citizens, communities, policymakers, and government officials are engaged in constructive dialogue about justifications for policies and actions, among other elements. It offers detailed and thorough discussion of how social accountability tools are used to objectively assess government service delivery performance and the mechanisms used for addressing service delivery deficits in constructive and collaborative processes between citizens and government actors. It also discusses how the social accountability practice can be sustained, regularized and mainstreamed in government service delivery decisions. It also enables citizens to voice their needs and concerns and work collaboratively to enhance the access, quality, and equity of the public services they use.

The primary business of government is to develop, implement, and strengthen the conditions that enhance the quality of life of all citizens. Taxation is required to fund government operations to produce and deliver the essential public goods and services that enhance and strengthen citizens’ quality of life and standard of living. Countries like Ethiopia that are not endowed with natural resources such as oil, minerals, and precious metals rely heavily on tax revenues collected from citizens, residents, and businesses. To effectively achieve this goal, government policymakers must understand: · What matters for quality of life? · What must be done to enhance citizens’ quality of life? · How would the government fund the programs designed to improve citizens’ living standards over the next ten years? And · How must the government collaborate with citizens, businesses, residents, and development partners to implement and manage programs that tangibly improve citizens’ quality of life? Citizens’ quality of life and living standards are inextricably linked to the quantity, quality, and access to education, healthcare services, clean water, sanitation, agriculture and nutritious food supplies, peace, justice and security, transport, and communication infrastructures, including roads, bridges, telecommunications, and internet connectivity, among others. Quality of life and citizens’ living standards are also conditional on citizens’ income-generating abilities, productivity, and overall national income equality. Developing and strengthening the conditions that enhance citizens’ standard of living require massive amounts of investments. A primary source of funds is tax revenue collected from citizens, businesses, and residents. Taxes are imposed by law. This book links taxation with citizens’ prosperity and well-being. It identifies how a tax policy should be formulated and how effectively, equitably, and efficiently taxes should be collected.

Ethiopia’s model for delivering basic services appears to be succeeding and to confirm that services improve when service providers are more accountable to citizens. The approach chosen in Ethiopia is pro-poor with the bottom 40 percent benefiting relatively more. The approach is also reducing other disparities including gender and historic.

Opening the Black Box: Contextual Drivers of Social Accountability fills an important knowledge gap by providing guidance on how to assess contextual drivers of social accountability effectiveness. This publication aims to more strategically support citizen engagement at the country level and for a specific issue or problem. The report proposes a novel framing of social accountability as the interplay of constitutive elements: citizen action and state action, supported by three enabling levers: civic mobilization, interface and information. For each of these constitutive elements, the report identifies 'drivers' of contextual effectiveness which take into account a broad range of contextual factors (e.g., social, political and intervention-based, including information and communication technologies). Opening the Black Box offers detailed guidance on how to assess each driver. It also applies the framework at two levels. At the country level, the report looks at 'archetypes' of challenging country contexts, such as regimes with no formal space or full support for citizen-state engagement and fragile and conflict-affected situations. The report also illustrates the use of the framework to analyze specific social accountability interventions through four case studies: Sierra Leone, Pakistan, Yemen, and the Kyrgyz Republic.

Faguet identifies the factors that determine the outcomes of national decentralization on the local level

Social Accountability in Africa: Practitioners Experiences and Lessons is a collection of case studies from Africa on social accountability. This collection attempts to build a consolidated body of knowledge on social accountability efforts across the continent. The case studies are diverse and present unique approaches to how social accountability strategies and interventions are implemented within different countries. The book is written by practitioners, for practitioners, providing first hand experience of designing and implementing social accountability initiatives and the challenges, methods and successes each one presents.

Building an effective, inclusive, and accountable public administration has become a major point of attention for policymakers and academics in Ethiopia who want to realise sustainable development. This first handbook on Ethiopian Public Administration is written by Ethiopian academics and practitioner-academics and builds on PhD studies and conference papers, including studies presented at the meetings of the Ethiopian Public Administration Association (EPAA), established in 2016. Public Administration in Ethiopia presents a wide range of timely issues in four thematic parts: Governance, Human Resources, Performance and Quality, and Governance of Policies. Each of the individual chapters in this volume contributes in a different way to the overarching research questions: How can we describe and explain the contexts, the processes and the results of the post-1990 politico-administrative reforms in Ethiopia? And what are the implications for sustainable development? This book is essential for students, practitioners, and theorists interested in public administration, public policy, and sustainable development. Moreover, the volume is a valuable stepping stone for PA teaching and PA research in Ethiopia.