After the defeat of the socialist Derg regime in 1991, the Peasant Associations were dissolving rapidly. However, the government announced the continuation of the land policy of the Derg regime. When Ethiopia in 1995 became the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia the new constitution approved and confirmed the state ownership of land. Even today, “[l]and policy, the real source of power in imperial and contemporary Ethiopia, remains at the center of a controversial political debate.” (Crewett, Bogale, & Korf, 2008)
The government has decentralized the implementation of land management to the Regional States in 1997. In 2002 the government delegated even greater legislative powers to the Regional States in matters related to land. To implement the land management, the Regional States have taken their own actions:
“Some regional governments have established structures that will be responsible to manage land administration, such as the Environmental Protection Land Use and Administration Authority (EPLAUA) in the Amhara regional state (established in 2000). Tigray also established an EPLAUA in 2004. In Amhara, the new structures for land administration also extend to woreda levels where land administration desks are formed. In the regions where land registration and title certification programmes have begun, like Amhara, kebele and sub-kebele land administration committees have been established.” (Adenew & Abdi, 2005)
That’s it for now, next post I will discuss the decentralized way in which these Land use and Administration Committees (LAC) are working currently.
[...] my previous post I mentioned the Land use and Administration Committees (LACs). The LACs are playing a major role in [...]
[...] when describing locations (Wikipedia: Administrative divisions of Ethiopia). As I described in a previous post, the government has decentralized the implementation of land management to the Regional States in [...]