Diagnosing Corruption in Ethiopia - Ethiomedia

298 Diagnosing Corruption in Ethiopia
Urban Land
There is no common system to administer land in urban areas. In Addis
Ababa, a Land Development and Management Authority (with about 46
staff members) reports to the city manager. There is also a land administration
unit (with about 45 staff members) in each of the 10 subcities in
Addis Ababa.
Large informal sector. Urban land is provided through (a) a lease system,
with terms ranging up to 99 years; (b) a perpetual permit system for
urban land outside the lease system; and (c) legislation for condominiums.
However, the level of informality is high, with some estimates of
the informal sector as high as 90 percent of housing units. In part, there
is a historical basis for informality in Addis Ababa, which was developed
under a feudal tenure system, but informal settlement has increased in
recent years (including the recent phenomenon of land grabbing, or
Yechereka Bet: building houses at night under lunar light).
Informal settlements do not house only those of low to moderate
income; some estimate that 70–80 percent of informal settlement in
Addis Ababa is occupied by those who are relatively well-off. A substantial
part of the commercial building stock is also informal, and many large
buildings in Addis Ababa have been built without lease rights or building
permits. There is no process to regularize informal dwellings and little to
discourage future informal settlement.
Context for measurable corruption risk. The legal framework has some
serious gaps: a reliance on unpublished, easily changed directives and no
real system to record rights and restrictions. The master plan plays little
role in the development of Addis Ababa. This dysfunctional context has
led to increasing corruption in the country’s land sector. (However,
Oromia recently announced the intention to form an independent land
institution that will be responsible for land administration in both urban
and rural areas in the region.)
The LGAF was a key tool in gathering data for this study. As previously
documented in box 7.2, the LGAF is structured into five thematic areas,
21 indicators, and 80 dimensions and is implemented in three key steps:
Expert analysis, which is undertaken in about half the 80 dimensions to
gather existing data and information
Five expert panels to review a subset of the 80 dimensions and rank the
country into one of four precoded situations (ranking from A to D