Land Governance and Corruption Study

Project Narrative

This is a governance assessment and measurement initiative on corruption in the land sector in Ethiopia. This provides an in depth analysis of the land sector and will contribute to an overall Economic Sector Work publication on Corruption in Ethiopia produced by the World Bank. The publication is designed to help develop a strategic anti-corruption strategy for Ethiopia and fill the knowledge gap required by donors and the Government of Ethiopia on this issue. In Ethiopia, a number of existing measures of governance are inconsistent and inaccurate and therefore little information exists in the public domain. Therefore, one of the key goals of this project is to expand the literature base on corruption in Ethiopia, to tell the story accurately and to put the information in the public domain. This publication will unpack sector level corruption, assessing in this study the nature and extent of land sector corruption. The three key objectives are to: (1) map the different forms, types, linkages and scope of corruption in this field; (ii) identify particular areas within the sector vulnerable to poor governance, reveal weaknesses and practices at different levels through empirical quantitative and qualitative evidence; and (iii) work with stakeholders to propose a way forward in efforts to tackle corruption in the land administration sector.

Key services provided

Under guidance and field visit instructions by the lead consultant, the in-country coordinator conducted this study through the implementation of the Land Governance Assessment Framework methodology which provides a comprehensive overview of governance within the land sector in Ethiopia. Detailed expert investigations were conducted to gather background information on five key thematic areas of land sector governance. This information was then used to inform and facilitate discussion at five multi-stakeholder workshops on the corresponding themes. During the workshops, all panel members formed consensus to rank subset of the 79 dimensions from the Land Governance Assessment Framework. Further empirical field studies were conducted to gather data in support of the dimension rankings, and to gather anecdotal information on corruption in the land sector. A final stakeholder workshop was organized to present final corruption study results such that both donors and the Government of Ethiopia took ownership and acceptance of the results and proposed recommendations.