Following the removal of the Derg regime from power in 1991, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) swept to power with the promise of restoring peace, tackling the country's chronic poverty, and democratizing the political system. Among the social sectors, Education received the highest attention. The recognition of knowledge as a driving force of economic growth and social development has been evident in the Federal Government's subscription to the EFA and MDG initiatives and in its concerted efforts to reform the educational system. In March 2004, the Ministry set up a Higher Education Systems Overhaul Committee of Inquiry (referred to as the HESO Team) "to examine and analyze the leadership, governance and management of the higher education sector and to suggest ways that the higher education system should be overhauled to enable it to better meet the development needs of Ethiopia" (HESO 2004). The HESO Team's inquiry focused on issues of governance, management and leadership, but not much on academic freedom, nor did it indicate to what extent it is enjoyed by members of the academic community, or what specific reforms are needed to facilitate the full exercise of this fundamental right. Cognizant of this situation, the Forum for Social Studies (FSS) launched, in mid-2006, a research project titled "The Status of Governance, Academic Freedom, and Teaching Personnel in Ethiopian Higher Education." FSS took UNESCO's "Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel" as an international standard-making instrument that could serve as a benchmark for reviewing the situation prevailing in Ethiopian higher education institutions. Within this parameter, the main objective of the FSS research project was to identify the regulatory framework, institutional arrangements and established practices pertaining to governance, academic freedom and conditions of service of higher-education teaching personnel and assess these in terms of their compliance with the relevant principles and norms enshrined in the 1997 UNESCO Recommendation. Based on case studies of major higher education institutions, the project also sought to generate reliable and timely information that would enhance public awareness and facilitate informed policy intervention to improve the situation. A total of seven major public universities and four private colleges were selected for the institutional case studies. Altogether, over 555 teaching personnel and 2,110 students participated in the case studies and this publication presents the findings of all the case studies and three of the conference papers. The investigation in the case studies has sought to generate data on the perceptions of students regarding the exercise of academic freedom and the teaching-learning process, but this was mainly to provide a comparative perspective. The primary focus of the study has been on the status and perceptions of the teaching personnel.

Having just emerged from a prolonged civil war and faced with the urgent tasks of establishing political stability and reinvigorating an economy in tatters, the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (1991-1995) had to set a new direction for the economic reconstruction and social rehabilitation of the warn-torn and poverty-ridden country. During the Transitional Period a spate of new policies and strategies defining the development priorities, goals and implementation instruments of the new regime led by the EPRDF was introduced. This work is a synthesis of various sectoral policies and an attempt to trace the genesis of the policies, highlight the continuities, significant departures and other salient features. Each of the reviews in this digest briefly analyses the critical elements of the policies, identifies major gaps in the conceptualisation of the policy as well as the achievements registered and the challenges encountered in its implementation. The authors also try to identify the outstanding issues to be addressed by policymakers and suggest remedies. The policy reviews have been grouped into three parts and presented under social, economic and governance sectors.

The 1991 government change in Ethiopia ushered in a centralised system of governance, aimed to bring about harmony and cooperation between different groups and to promote local self-rule. It has proceeded in two phases: 1991-2001 centred on creating and powering National/Regional Governments, termed mid-level decentralisation. Further powers were devolved in 2001 through the District Level Decentralization Program and Urban Management Profram. This volume brings together studies by the Forum for Social Studies and others, with the aim of identifying knowledge gaps for further research and to generate debate on the issues in Ethiopia. The study is in two parts: a literature review seeking to document existing studies and highlight research gaps; and field work which involved a rapid assessment of eight weredas and two kifle ketemas in Addis Ababa. The other three studies are synopses of master theses submitted to the Institute of Regional and Local Development Studies of Addis Ababa University.

The Forum for Social Studies is an independent, non-profit institution engaged in policy-oriented research on the development challenges facing Ethiopia. Together with the Ethiopian Economic Association and the Agricultural Economics Society of Ethiopia, they organised a conference in 2005 from which the papers are collected in this volume. The main aims were twofold: to keep the debate on the land question alive, and to move the focus and scope of the debate if civil society and the public at large are to benefit from it. The land issue not only bears on a wide range of development and policy problems, but in a predominantly agrarian society such as Ethiopia, land is a critical asset and central to socio-economic development. Civil society is seeking to broaden the debate, which has hitherto been narrowly framed. The papers are organised in three parts: Access to Land and Agrarian Class Differentiation; Land Transaction; Natural Resource Management, Policy, and Economic Return. Eight papers are presented, including the welcome and opening statements and the conference programme. Dessalegn Rahmato won the 1999 Prince Claus Award in recognition of significant achievements in the field of research and development. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Forum for Social Studies, and was formerly its Executive Director. He has published on land and agrarian issues, food security, environmental policy, and poverty in Wollaita. His current research is on civil society and democratisation.