Gender Issues In Civil Service Reform: The Case of Three Federal Ministries of Ethiopia
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Date
2007-04
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The objective of this research is to assess how gender issues are addressed in the Civil Service Reform Sub-Programs by taking the cases of selected sample ministries, which are Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Finance And Economic Development and Ministry of Trade And Industry. To meet the objective of this research data were collected from primary and secondary sources. The primary data were gathered through sets of questionnaire distributed to 150 randomly selected employees, but 131 were collected. The researcher also conducted interviews with six officials of the Reform Offices and Women’s Affairs Departments of the sample ministries. Furthermore, observation was made in those ministries. What is more, relevant documents and journals were used as sources of data. The goal of the Civil Service Reform Program is to upgrade the capacity of government institutions so that they can provide efficient and effective services to the public. The attainment of this goal calls for the development and change in the current situation of their employees. In this perspective, the implementation of the Program has been assessed in three Sub-programs of the reform. In the Human Resources Management Sub-program, the findings indicated that the result- oriented performance appraisal system has not considered the reproductive role of women. Similarly, the Affirmative Action, which is supposed to benefit women, does not have clear action plan and is not properly implemented. It is not even familiar to most women employees of these ministries. Furthermore, this sub-program has not facilitated any mechanism towards the career development of employees. The findings also have shown that the Top Management Sub-program has not done much on gender. Thus, the higher officials have paid less attention to gender while accomplishing their leadership role. It was found that sufficient effort has not been made to bring more women to the top positions to narrow the existing gender gap. The Service Delivery Sub-program of these sample ministries is found to be encouraging in general. However, they have not made any special consideration to treat their female customers, as observed in one of these ministries. The findings also revealed that the Women’s Affairs Departments have weak work relations with the Reform Offices. Due to this and other reasons, they are unable to implement gender mainstreaming. Besides this, it was found that the Reform Office heads and their staff have no gender knowledge and skills. They have also no clear guideline to carryout gender mainstreaming duties in their activities. Finally, based on the findings and the conclusion drawn, recommendations were forwarded regarding the need for gender mainstreaming in the Civil Service Reform Program
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Gender Studies