Solomon Negussie (PhD)Yared Hailemariam2025-08-192025-08-192025-01-01https://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/7068This doctoral dissertation examines the governance of mineral resources in Ethiopia's ethnic federal system, with a special focus on the key issues of ownership, legislative power, management power, and benefit-sharing, and investigates how these issues interact with and influence the implementation of sustainable mining practices. It is grounded in the Critical Realist Research Paradigm, which offers the methodological flexibility necessary to address complex research questions. Building on this foundational framework, it employed an exploratory qualitative research design as its investigative approach. It uses an integrative qualitative analysis approach, combining doctrinal and thematic analyses. It identifies notable legal gaps, ambiguities, contradictions, institutional shortcomings, and practical limitations across five interconnected areas of concern. First, it found that the FDRE constitution assigns ownership of mineral resources in a contentious manner, resulting in competing claims and interpretations. This ambiguity has led to federal and regional mining laws and centralized licensing systems that violate constitutional rules and human rights laws. Second, it found a lack of clarity regarding the scope and nature of legislative power over mineral resources. It also revealed the absence of legal and institutional mechanisms to coordinate legislative power over mineral resources. The absence of a clear constitutional delineation coupled with legal and institutional mechanisms for coordination has resulted in contradictory laws and regulations that violate constitutional principles. Third, there is a sharp difference between the federal constitution, which recognizes regional states as the main actors in the management of mineral resources, and the subsequent legislative and institutional arrangements that have centralized management power. It also revealed that the centralized management practices have failed to address the economic, social, and environmental impacts at the regional and local levels. Furthermore, it was found that the exclusion of subnational actors from the management mineral resources, combined with the sector's effects, has resulted in ongoing disagreements and conflicts that undermine the sector's overall effectiveness. Fourth, it identified significant constitutional deficiencies, legal uncertainties, institutional challenges, and practical constraints in the governance of economic benefits gained from the extraction of mineral resources. Unlike most federal systems, the FDRE Constitution failed to assign substantial revenue sources from the extraction of mineral resources, allowing the federal government to take advantage of the loophole. Furthermore, it found that the federal system failed to establish a legal and institutional framework that regulates the revenue sharing process, resulting in the emergence of practices that undermine the process. Fifth, it found that, despite the attempt to operationalize the concept of a sustainable mining sector, significant shortcomings persist. In particular, the existing governance frameworks fail to effectively incorporate the essential elements of the three pillars of sustainable mining. Furthermore, the federal system is unable to effectively address the sustainability challenges that arise in the mining operations. Based on these findings, it concludes that the Ethiopian federal system faces significant challenges in governance of mineral resources and ensuring sustainable mining practices. Overall, by drawing on Ethiopia's unique experiences, this study contributes to the advancement of the academic and practical understanding of the complex intersection between federalism, mineral resource governance, and sustainability principles. In addition, the study draws attention to a number of issues that require additional researchenMineralFederalismOwnershipLegislative PowerManagement PowerBenefit SharingSutainable MiningEthiopiaThesis