John Proposal
John Proposal
John Proposal
ADVISOR: MARGA D
FEB: 2016
MATTU: ETHIOPIA
Acronym
NEPAD New Partnership for African's Development
SAP Structural Adjustment Program
UNDP United Nation Development Program
WB World Bank
Acronym......................................................................................................................................................2
1. INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................................5
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY..................................................................................................5
1.2 Statement of the problem...................................................................................................................7
1.3 Objectives of the study......................................................................................................................7
1.3.1 General objective........................................................................................................................7
1.3.2 Specific objective........................................................................................................................8
1.4 Research question..............................................................................................................................8
1.5 Significance of the study..................................................................................................................8
1.6 Scope of the study..............................................................................................................................8
1.7 Organization of the study................................................................................................................9
2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND THEORETICAL.........................................................10
FRAMEWORK.........................................................................................................................................10
2.1 Introduction.....................................................................................................................................10
2.1 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK....................................................................................................10
2.1.1 Definition of Ethics and Values................................................................................................10
2.1.2 Definition of Ethical Values.....................................................................................................12
2.2 Approaches of Good Governance and Ethical practice................................................................14
2.2.1Definition of Good Governance.................................................................................................14
2.2.2 Overview of Good Governance in Africa...............................................................................17
2.2.3 Overview of Good Governance in Ethiopia............................................................................18
2.7 The Relationship between Good Governance and Ethical Values...................................................20
2.3. Challenge of Good Governance......................................................................................................21
3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................................................................22
3.1. Study area description.....................................................................................................................22
3.2 Source of data................................................................................................................................22
3.3 Sample design.................................................................................................................................22
Sample size; The researcher will select respondents for the sample from the current clients of Gesha
Town Municipality Office per year. From this sample, the researcher will prepare questionnaire for the
clients and interview questions for civil servant of the Municipality; and select civil servants from the
total of employees with the other left official.......................................................................................23
3.4 Data collection instrument...............................................................................................................23
3.5 Method of Data Analysis.................................................................................................................23
I. Time schedule....................................................................................................................................24
II. Cost Budget Schedule........................................................................................................................24
Reference...................................................................................................................................................25
1. INTRODUCTION
These values are a requirement for human life. It is our means of deciding a course of action.
Without those values; our actions would be random and aimless. There would be no way to work
towards a goal because of unable to pick between a limitless number of goals; even within
ethical standards can unable to pursue our goals with the possibility of success. To the degree
which a rational ethical standard is taken; we are able to correctly organize our goals and actions
to accomplish our most important values.
The 1995 constitution of Ethiopia instituted radical reform of governance structure including
devolution of significant resources and responsibilities from central agencies to nine regional
administrations. An explicit goal of the new constitution is to bring government closer to the
people through a process of decentralization intended to increase public participation and
responsiveness to the local needs. Municipality is one of local area with its own incorporated
government for local affairs and its governing officials. It is a political unit, such as a city, town,
or village and is a body of officials appointed to manage the affairs of local political unit.
Municipality also defined as a political subdivision of a state with in which a municipal
corporation has been established to provide general local government for a specific population
concentration in a defined area.
Good governance perceived as a normative principles of administrative law; which obliges the
state to perform its function that promote the values of efficiency; non-corruptibility and
responsiveness to civil societies. It also grounded on certain predicates in which citizens expect
the government to respond to their material and non-material needs through a process of
accountability and transparency. Good governance is epitomized by predictable ,open and
enlightened policy making, a bureaucracy imbued with a professional ethos; an executive arm of
government ; which are accountable for its actions; and a strong civil society participating in
public affairs ; and all having under the rule of law. It encompasses the role of public authorities
in establishing the environment in which economic operators function and in determining the
distribution of benefit and burdens as well as the relationship between the ruler and the ruled. It
also effective and equitable, participatory, transparent, accountable and promotes the rule of
law(Ibid).
Better governance promotes gender equality; sustains the environment; and provide tools to
reduce poverty, deprivation, fear and violence. In recognition of the imperative of good
governance for development; African countries have made remarkable strides and commitments
towards good governance in Africa. Evidence from the past decades; since the 1980s; showed
that in exception of few countries such as china, Malaysia and Singapore have made progress. In
the majority of countries in Africa, china and Latin America; have poor governance with a cause
of continuous poverty and underdevelopment (Ibid).
African countries have taken a number of necessary and bold initiatives on governance as one of
the essential elements for sustainable economic development for the alleviation of poverty, but
these initiatives are still constrained by a number of critical challenges that should be tackled to
enhance the prospects of good governance. Good governance and ethical values are highly
interdependent concepts. Good governance promoted through laws and codes of conduct.
Correspondingly unethical behavior and misconduct are considered as a challenge of good
governance. In general, ethical values are a crucial instrument for an individual by expressing
what is right and wrong action. Thus, good governance can be promoted through the
improvement of ethical values (Ibid).
1.2 Statement of the problem
Good governance guarantees political, social and economic priorities on the basis of the
aspiration of the public; and the most marginalized groups are given priority in decision making
over the distribution and provision of development resources. By generating and defending broad
commitment to the public welfare; a high quality democracy with good governance increases the
likelihood that public resources would be used to generate public goods that stimulate investment
and commerce and raise the quality of life.
There are several international charters, conventions, declarations, and decisions which African
countries struggle to implement good governance. In this endeavor, they are confronted with
various limitations in human and financial resources. In the way forwarded, there is a need for
reliable external resources to support all process of governance to make it sustainable. Even
though, there is an intensive focus on replacing bad governance with good, and on the reform of
political, economic, social and legal structures, it has been significant progress, but the way
ahead is potholed with challenges (Alphonse, 2005).
In Gesha Woreda municipality, the public administration is failure to promote sustainable human
development and to an atmosphere highly conductive to instability, and corruption affects its
management system. Also, accountability and good governance are promulgated in the absence
of complementary and supportive mechanisms aimed at embedding modes of governance in
societal and extra governmental structures. Overall, promoting good governance requires a
commitment to upholding ethical values such as transparency, integrity, fairness, responsibility,
and respect for the rule of law, participation, and conflict of interest avoidance. Failure to uphold
these values can undermine the effectiveness and legitimacy of governance systems.
FRAMEWORK
2.1 Introduction
This chapter deals with relevant literatures referring literature review from books and internet
sources. It is concerned with the conceptual definition of ethical values and good governance;
categories of values; components of ethical values; theoretical approach of good governance and
ethical practice and challenge of good governance are going to be discussed.
.Ethics is the study of what is right and wrong conduct in human behavior. Ethics dealing with
values pertaining to human conduct or considering the rightness and wrongness of actions and
the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions .It also refers to the well
founded standards of right and wrong actions that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in
terms of rights, obligations and benefits to society fairness or specific values and are the conduct
of a person in an organization or community. Ethics are learned throughout our lives as we
associate with others. During years of schooling, we learn ethics as we interact with teacher and
classmates and learn respect and mother skills. In the work place, we learn responsibility,
teamwork, punctuality and communication skills. When we understand why these ethical values
are necessary, because they are important in our success as well as our day to day lives. We use
these skills along with our knowledge of right from wrong as we go about various activities.
Because, good ethics make us honest and law binding citizens we contribute to the good of
society (Ibid).
Values are the foundation of life or national interest as dominating the behavior of people,
institutions, political parties in setting goals for administrative or development of any nation.
They are the rules which we make decisions about right and wrong; should and should not; good
and bad; that have significant role to trade off one value over another. Therefore, values denote
some degree of importance with the aim of determining what action is good and bad (Allen,
1998).
Values are universal, because of human beings have lived in community, they have had to
establish principles to guide their behavior towards others. In this sense, honesty, responsibility,
truth, solidarity, cooperation, tolerance, peace etc are considered in universal values. There are a
lot of values that have nothing to do with ethics, so it is important to differentiate ethical values
from non-ethical values as follows (Michiel, 2011);-
Personal values; are values, which are endorsed by an individual and considered as essential
principles on which we build our life and guide us to relate with other people. They are
performed by one's own individual ones in order to live or interact with others. Family values;
these are values with in family and considered as either good or bad. They are derived from the
fundamental beliefs of the parents, who use them to educate their children; and they are
manifested through our behavior within the family (Ibid).
Socio- cultural values; are prevailing values of societies, which change from time to time with
in family. They are constituted by complex mix of different values and contradict one another
from society to society. For example, if a certain work is not valued socially as a means of
personal fulfillment, then the society can label it as dishonesty. Spiritual values; refers to the
importance we give to non-material aspects in our lives. These values include beliefs in how we
should behave including caring of one another and do religious beliefs. Ethical/Moral values;
are the values; that help to determine what is right and wrong conduct. These values are
considered as important values for coexistence, order, and general well-being. Generally, values
are standards that enable us to identify the morally acceptable from morally unacceptable
behavior and which guide actions, people, things or situation. Honesty, justice, peace and beauty
are examples of values that people endorse (Ibid).
The study was highly focused on ethical values and dealt issues like, the meaning of ethical
values; which values are included under ethical values? ; How it is important for? ; And when
the values are used? are going to be discussed on this paper.
Ethics is important for the human social life of the society .Ethics is also an instrument for moral
problems, practices, and policies for; Satisfying basic human needs ; being fair, honest and
ethical are basic human needs. Every employee desires to be such himself and in the
organization; should work in fair and ethical manner in its practices. Creating credibility; Ethical
values have potential to create conducive environment among the workers and the business or
organization by providing guiding principles among them. For example, is perceived as an
organization for good corporate governance and social responsibility initiatives; this is held far
and wide even by those to know what the organization is into (Ibid).
Uniting people and leadership; an organization driven by values is revered by its employees also.
They are the common thread that brings the employees and the decision makers on a common
plat form. This goes a long way in aligning behaviors within the organization towards
achievements of one common goal or mission. Improving decision making ; A man's density is
the sum total of all the decisions that he /she takes in course of his/her life .The same holds true
for the organization, decisions are driven by values . For example, an organization does not have
competition; it will be fierce in its operations aiming to wipe out its competitors and established
monopoly in the market. Long term gains; When an organization are guided by ethics and
values ; they are profitable in the long run ; though in the short run they may seem to lose (Ibid).
Security of the society; Ethics often succeeds law in safeguarding the society. The law
machinery is often found acting us a mute spectator; unable to save the society and the
environment or technology. For example, is growing at such a fast pace by the time the law come
up with a regulation; we have a newer technology with new threats replacing the older one.
Lawyers and public interest litigations may not help a great deal but ethics can. Ethics also tries
to create a sense of right and wrong in the organizations and often when the law fails; ethics may
stop organizations from harming the society or environment (Ibid).
According to Civic and Ethical Education Textbook, there are different ethical values. Some of
these values are accountability and transparency, integrity, impartiality, confidentiality, honesty,
loyalty, serving the public interest, responsiveness, and exercising leadership. Public servants
shall be responsible for their actions or answerable for their actions and open about the decision
they made (accountability); shall dedicate to uphold the constitution and other laws; must move
decisions in a faire and equitable manner and trust to the public to keep something secrete.
Public servants also provide security of livelihoods; freedom from unlawful acts and considers
the rule of law in their implementation.
Generally, Ethical values are not designed for bad people; but for all people generally. The bad
person will not want to follow ethical values; while most people especially public servants
welcome to ethical guidance in difficult or unclear situations. Ethics can have a demonstrable
role on the behavior of bad people in the organization. When everyone clearly knows the ethical
standard of an organization ; they are more likely to recognize the right and wrong doing and
also people are hesitate to commit an ethical act ; if they believe that everyone else around them
(Singer, 2000).
2.2 Approaches of Good Governance and Ethical practice
Good governance comprises mechanisms , process and institutions , through which citizens and
groups articulate their interests ; exercise their legal rights ; meet their obligations and mediate
their differences .It is also described as engaging stakeholders and taking an active and planned
approach to dialogue with and answerable for their action or accountable to the public .The
concept of good governance also parallels a normative formulation ( rule setting ); which reflect
the degree to which it promulgates the universality of civil , cultural , economical , political and
social rights . It also preserves and promotes human right; promote economic growth by
lessening inequality; and increasing opportunities (Ibid).
Good governance also effective in people's participation; rule of law; accountable and
transparent process as well as impartial to the entire public .Different organizations have been
identified different dimension of good governance. For instance, United Nation Development
Program (UNDP) acknowledges the following characteristics of good governance as follows:
Transparency; the government must provide information about its actions; procedures;
strategies; and programs to the people. It allows that the government encourages the free flow of
information to the public and the active engagement of the people to provide the necessary
feedback to the government in order to address the common good of the society. Therefore ,
transparency limits corruption ; which tends to develop well in closed systems that are ridden
with ambiguity and discretion behavior ; and it also add force to the accessibility of information
in which the mechanisms and process which made by the government are open to the general
public ; in order to know the behavior of the government officials(Ibid).
Responsiveness; Public institutions and processes should have to serve all stake holders under
the principle of responsiveness. This encourages increasing activities of government officials to
the desires of the public and it also includes government agencies responsive to their appeal;
views; comments and recommendations of the people by changing the process or introducing the
best service delivery strategies. Consensus orientation and equity; Good governance reconciles
different conflicting interests to bring a common agreement on the policies, procedures, and
mechanisms that are taking place within the environment. Good governance also seeks to benefit
the people from the well operating social, economic, and political process to maintain their well-
being (Ibid)
Effectiveness and Efficiency; good governance achieve the expected goals by providing
different policies and strategies to the country. While efficient government also focus on the
usage of county's resource successfully to bring available development or the government take
into consideration that the state should produce and distribute resources to their people with a
cost effective means by reducing of information asymmetry. Participation; Refers to the
involvement of stakeholders and citizens at large in the making; monitoring; review and
termination of policies and decisions that affect their lives. It is about the creation and sustenance
of mechanisms by which individuals; the private sector and civil society can participate in their
own governance. Governmental policies stimulate human development only if they bring
policies into mainstream of society that involves participation in decision making at the regional
and local levels and legitimacy also goes hand in with participation (Ibid).
Strategic Vision; The society and the government should have an enduring stand point on sound
governance and individual development; besides with a view and knowledge of what is the
required for their prosperity. Their perspective should be grounded on their historical, cultural,
moral, political and social complexities. This also helps to develop one's own region based on a
clear vision and strategy; with participation of the citizenry in all the process of development.
Ethical values are more general and universal in nature; they provide the frame work for the
development of practical operational procedures that accord with good governance. They also
provide guideline on required behaviors within the service and prescribe required standards of
integrity and professional conduct; such codes relate directly to the conditions of employment
and legally enforceable regulations (Ibid).
Good governance could be ensured when code of ethics are implemented effectively, because of
ethical values define the professional right and responsibilities to whom it applies. There are
reasons; why code of ethics are important?. Among these the major ones are, it provides a clear
statement of values , roles and duties ; it serve as a guide line to identify what is acceptable and
un acceptable conduct at work place ; it help to resolve ethical barriers in an organization .
Ethical values also promote public trust and confidence in government through controlling
unethical behavior and corruption. It clarifies sanctions when there is breach of a code.
Therefore, ethical values are the basis for analyzing and making decision on certain issues and
problems in the organization and are instrumental for the development of good governance
(Ibid).
Bad governance was blamed for failures, such as, bureaucratic obstruction; weak judiciaries ;
political and administrative arbitrariness ; absence of rule of law ; corruption and rent seeking
among governors' ; were identified as distinguishing characteristics . It was claimed that good
governance would emerge through prescriptive and institutionalized programs for accountability
and transparency; predictability and rationality; and competency in government. Irrespective of
the political, social and cultural histories of individual nations involved, it is still believed that
democratic institutions and market based economies can be successfully transferred from north
to south; almost overnight in all circumstances (Ibid).
Good governance can mean social trust; security; hope; and well-being .For example, which are
essential for the buying of local people to any development project. Yet, there is essential
buying of local people to any development; there are currently no alternative normative political
theories that connect these concepts and others to the search for good governance in Africa.
African scholars made the argument that the aid, invasion, and international governance of the
1980s and the concurrent atrophy of local governance; undermined and weakened the social
contract in Africa; challenges for democratic consolidation were and still are about changing
state society relations as inseparable for development (Ibid).
There were Africa led initiatives for change, the logos plan of Action and the final act of logos
(1980s) set out a local vision centered on the indigenization of development policy; an attempt
by African leaders to harness political control of their own density and claw back the right to
exercise power. The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) was an attempt to
build a more constructive relationship with the global north .But; good governance cannot take
root on a continent mostly devoid of the necessary continent to make it a success (NEPAD,
2007)
.
The idea of good governance was initially introduced into international policy debates in the late
1980s; following the realization that getting the institutions right was as important as to the
success of policy reforms. But the meaning and scope of good governance is contestable and
diverse. Different authors and multinational organizations have defined the concept of good
governance in different ways. The European Commission defined as;" good governance is
transparent and accountable management of all a country's resources for its equitable and
sustainable economic and social development"(Ibid).
Good governance is established when public institutions act efficiently providing an enabling
environment for economic growth and development. It requires the improvement of
accountability and transparency of public sector agencies with effective fight against
corruption .The effective performance of democratic institutions; including legislatures are
central elements of good governance .The fundamental challenge of developing economies is
ensuring effective governance that provides an enabling environment that insures social and
economic prosperity (Joseph, 1999).
Despite endowed with resources that may bring about economic miracles in the region; due to
poor governance; the country Ethiopia is one of the lowest in any of the economic and social
indicators. Ethiopia's level of achieving good governance has been one of the lowest even by
Africa's context. Compared to many of African states; Ethiopia had embarked on the
establishment of modern administrative institutions. Despite the establishment of the first
modern ministers in 1907 was conducted and the shadow of traditional administrative system
that made the significance of the new institutions shape the measures that were undertaken by
Emperor Menelik and subsequently by Emperor Haile Selassie. He took the modernization
process of governance on step further when he declared the first constitution in 1931. Though the
constitution largely used to legitimate the traditional power of the emperor; the constitution was
also instrumental in terms of introducing institutions such as parliament and civil right of citizens
(Ibid).
In 1943 two imperial orders set up eleven ministers and office the prime minister and in 1966,
the Emperor assigned the prerogative to select ministers to the prime minister .The Emperor was
in particular instrumental in terms of expanding education from primary to territory education.
The 1995 revised constitution was also enacted in an effort to catch up with international and
national socio- political development. Beginning from the end of 1960s university students
began openly challenging the legitimacy of the monarchy and the repressive and tenure
system .Furthermore, the most destructive political practice discourse; since the revolution of
1974 is the obsession with destroying every government policy and structure of past regimes
(Andrew, 2004).
The fundamental measures undertaken by the dreg during its early stage had been instrumental in
terms of culminating the very essence of livelihood of the nobility and emerging middle
class .Unfortunately, the dreg legacy over control of land has not been changed after the second
revolution in 1991; still the government is using the land tenure system as tool of political
support in rural Ethiopia. Under the 1995 FDRE constitution principles of rule of law;
transparency; accountability; and other principles of good governance have been recognized.
Despite such rhetorical commitment to achieve good governance; the country's governance
suffers from a number of limitations (Ibid).
The concept of good governance refers to the entire gamut of political and economical
framework. It has primarily been constructed as an aid criterion and has consequently procedural
in nature. The governance framework is inter related with the application of ethical values ; like
transparency , accountability , access of information and responsiveness in the long run are assist
in the fulfillment ethical values in general . Therefore, ethical values encourage the application of
good governance framework as administration; which in return provides the request
infrastructure to realize the goal of good governance (Ari Salminen, 2011).
Both ethical values and good governance are interdependent .One cannot exist without the other.
Further, ethical values are inherent within the concept of good governance and widely tied to the
successful operation of its system. Therefore, ethical values need to be implemented in order to
justify the governance framework. From another direction, good governance can also be seen as
a set of ethical principles in the public administration as a whole. In that cases the basic
principles of good governance would appear as a broad and general ethical value in the public
administration. At present, ethical values are spoken agenda and prioritized nationally and
internationally as a key instrument for promoting good governance (Ibid).
Good governance meaning promoting values for the whole organization and demonstrating these
values through behavior (good governance flows from a shared ethos or culture as well as from
systems and structures. It cannot be reduced to a set of rules or achieved fully by compliance
with a set of requirement. This spirit or ethos of good governance can be expressed as values as
demonstrated in behavior (Ibid).
Good governance cannot be attained only through the efforts made by the government; civil
society organization; the entire public; institute of higher learning; the private sector and
religious organizations should be able to find their niche in contributing to the enhancement of
good governance. There are a number of challenges that obstacle to enhance good governance in
the country; and briefly discussed as follows:
Lack of accountability and transparency; The elected representatives and officials are not
responsible to their deeds and the actions and decisions of government and the officials are not
the better condition to open to the public .If the activities of the government are not transparent
and the civil servants cannot answerable for their decisions; this affect the flourishment of good
governance (Ibid).
Corruption; Refers to abuse of entrusted power for private gain. The high level of corruption
has been widely perceived as a major challenge in improving the quality of good governance, the
complex and non-transparent system of control; monopoly of the government as a service
provider; underdeveloped legal frame work; and weak notion of citizen right have provided
incentives for corruption (Julius, 1999).
Lack of rule of law and human right protection; the concept of good governance is
undoubtedly linked with the citizen’s right to life liberty and pursuit of happiness. This could be
secured in a democracy only through rule of law .Therefore, lack of respect by leaders and
citizen’s right often poses a great challenge to stability.
Mismanagement of public assets and government revenue; improper payment; work and
supply in accordance with specifications; unreasonable delay; and lack of monitoring the
contractor’s performance are the constraints that impede to build good governance. Generally,
the above all listed challenges of good governance and are highly associated with ethical values.
So failing to adopt, deploy and enforce corporate code of ethics are the main challenges to
promote good governance. Weak accountability including lack of time management is also other
related limitation that obstacle the flourishment of ethical values for good governance (Ibid)
3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Target population; the study population will people, who live in Gesha Town.
Sampling frame; the sample frame of the study will clients, who get service from Gesha
Town Municipality currently.
Sample techniques; the study will employed purposive sampling technique. The reason
behind using this technique is based on various criteria which includes; experience,
capacity, responsibilities and as its name suggests, the sample will be choise for a specific
purpose; i.e. , clients are purposely selected because of the Municipality deliver service to
the society the researcher use to take relevant information about the issue as well as
available data by hoping that they have appropriate knowledge and experience about the
topic .
Sample size; The researcher will select respondents for the sample from the current clients of
Gesha Town Municipality Office per year. From this sample, the researcher will prepare
questionnaire for the clients and interview questions for civil servant of the Municipality; and
select civil servants from the total of employees with the other left official
Questionnaire
Interview
I. Time schedule
No Activity Time January February March may
1 Submission of title
2 Serving related literature *
3 Writing proposal *
4 Proposal submission *
5 Data collection *
6 Data Analysis and interpretation *
7 Write research *
8 Submission of final research *
9 Presentation of final research *
As much as possible the ways enable to minimize the cost under taking the project
with all these consideration. Hence the following minimum cost budget will be
used for completion of research proposal.
Binding of number 17 3 51
proposal
Binding of research number 1 10 10
Typing paper Number 5 15 75
Printing and Pages 17 5 105
writing of proposal
Printing and pages 40 4 160
writing of thesis
Sub Total
2 Transportation Researcher (s)
Subtotal
Grand Total 490
Reference
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Africa, London: Led Books.
Allen (1999) Value and Virtue in Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective, Palgrave
Macmillan.
Andrews, M (2008) Good Governance Agenda, and Indicators without Theory, Oxford
Development Studies.
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) (2000) Strategy Note on Governance for Human
Development.
United Nations Development Program (2011) Human Development Report: Sustainability and
Equity: A Better future for all, New York: UNDP.
NEPAD (2007) Governance in Africa’s Development: Progress, Prospects and Challenges,
Algeria.
World Bank (2002) Social Accountability in the Public Sector, Washington DC: WB Institute