Analyzing the Industrial Policy Formulation Practices in Adisabeba City Administration: Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

Ethiopia's government has been attempting to promote economic growth and development by developing comprehensive national industrial policies and strategies. Accordingly, the purpose of the study is to analyze the industrial policy formulation practices in Adisabeba city administration: challenges and prospects. Under this applied research, a mixed research method has been employed to investigate the practices, challenge, and prospects of industrial policy formulation. The researcher has employed questionnaires, observations, and document review to collect data from key informants. A thematic content analysis has employed to systematically describe and categorize the meaning and content of qualitative data. Furthermore a descriptive method of analysis has been utilized for the quantitative aspect of the data.  Employing such designs, the study shows that the city administration has good experience in adopting and industrial policies, and development strategies, pursuing a top-down policy-making approach under the ideological and policy direction of the central government. It has developed long experience of designing and executing development plans, master plans, and structural plans in general development policies and programmes. In addition, the city administration has experience of introducing economic and administrative reforms and development programs. Recently, the city administration has developed a lot of legal and intuitional procedures, regulations, and standards that help policy designing and enforcing concerning the city's development. The city administration has recorded rapid economic and intuitional development after the dawn fall of the Derg regime. Public institutions and bureaucratic apparatus that public policies can be developed have been instituted and expanded. All these recent intuitional and bureaucratic developments are the prospects for a better policy making process. However, lack of a comprehensive industrial strategy, corrupt practices and a rent-seeking conscience, poor oversight and accountability mechanisms, and weak institutional set-up to monitor and evaluate the policy process are some of the barriers still existed. Finally, the researcher advised the city administration to introduce institutional reform, an institutional framework that prevents the misconduct and rent-seeking behaviour, expansion of private financial institutions and highly professionalized bureaucratic system, a legal framework that prevents party political intervention in policy making process, mechanisms for good coordination and communication, strong policy control, and evaluation system, institutional capacity building, an institutional mechanism and  to accommodate multiple values and interests in policy process.

Keywords: industrial policy, formulation, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, thematic content analysis, a descriptive method of analysis, top-down policy-making approach

DOI: 10.7176/JESD/13-21-02

Publication date: November 30^th 2022