Exploring institutional capacity of urban land delivery and administration for housing development in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia: Institutional analysis

Abstract

AbstractLand administration institutional arrangements with clear functions, robust coordination, and integrated monitoring and evaluation systems are critical to ensuring sustainable land and housing delivery in rapidly expanding cities. It is also important to benefit the homeless and low-income groups in society. However, urban areas in Ethiopia have faced various challenges in providing land for residential housing development. Moreover, studies on assessing the capacity of urban local governments from an urban land institutional arrangement point of view in Ethiopia were limited. The purpose of this study was to examine the appropriateness of existing urban land administration institutional arrangements to support the effectiveness and efficiency of land delivery for housing development. A comparison of existing capacity to desired capacity is conducted to show the capacity gap in urban land administration institutions. A mixed-methods research approach was used to achieve the study’s objective by utilizing both primary and secondary data sources. Data were collected via questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions, field observations, and desk reviews. The findings revealed that urban land administration institutions lack functional clarity, have poor vertical and peer coordination, inadequate monitoring and evaluation, and have flawed feedback loops, which hinder the effective and efficient operation of land and housing development. Thus, it needs reforming existing institutional arrangements, which could significantly contribute to existing knowledge by identifying institutional capacity gaps and its exit strategy in urban land administration.

Keywords

• capacity
• coordination
• housing development
• institutional arrangement
• land administration
• urban