Overview of corruption and anti-corruption in Ethiopia

U4 Helpdesk Answer

Overview of corruption and anti-corruption in Ethiopia

Sustained corruption and human rights violations have caused widespread unrest in Ethiopia since 2015. A change in the country’s leadership in 2018 provided Ethiopians with hope of a change to the status quo. Corruption exists in various forms, including but not limited to clientelism, kleptocracy, rent seeking and state capture. While anti-corruption laws remain strong in principle, they are not implemented adequately. The executive maintains control over the judiciary and legislature.

22 October 2018

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Main points

Ethiopia remains a closed political space, with the ruling coalition retaining all federal and regional parliamentary seats, and silencing any opposing voices.
Corruption remains a pervasive issue, and the new prime minister has pledged to make addressing it a priority.
Widespread human rights violations and ensuing impunity of the abusers seems to be the norm.
The government of Ethiopia’s commitment to anti-corruption needs to be backed up by investing in building the capacity of institutions with anti-corruption mandates.

By

Kaunain RahmanResearch Coordinator

Reviewed by

Monica KiryaU4 Deputy Director

In collaboration with

Transparency International

Topics

Anti-corruption basics

Cite this publication

Rahman, K. (2018) Overview of corruption and anti-corruption in Ethiopia. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Helpdesk Answer 2018:24)

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About the author

Kaunain Rahman

Kaunain is the business integrity specialist at Transparency International (TI), driving integrity in business as part of TI’s strategy. She strengthens business capacity for collective action, fosters integrity in value chains, and advocates for better regulatory frameworks. Her projects include Integrity Pacts and the Business Integrity Country Agenda, focusing on transparent procurement and national business integrity. Kaunain also leads TI’s efforts in addressing corruption through private sector sustainability reporting.

Disclaimer

All views in this text are the author(s)’, and may differ from the U4 partner agencies’ policies.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Keywords

Ethiopia, political corruption, human rights

U4 Helpdesk Answer