The Changing Features of Public Administration in Ethiopia : The Challenges

This article assesses the daunting challenges facing the changing patterns of Public Administration in Ethiopia. It seeks to outline the major determinants that have shaped Ethiopia's system of Public Administration. It is argued in the course of this exercise that Ethiopia's public Administration, as is the case of most developing countries, has had to assume the role of prime mover in the process of promoting sustainable human development. This article also demonstrates that despite attempts to subject it to political control; the Ethiopian Civil Service has manifested a fairly high degree of resilience in terms of asserting and defending its professional integrity. However, it is recognized that the detrimental impact of these 'external pressures' on the Public bureaucracy continues to constrain it from satisfactorily delivering basic essential services to the Ethiopian Public. It is accordingly emphasized that for the technocratic vision enunciated in Civil Service Program to attain fruition, it is imperative that the country's leadership accords the program the highest level of country’s political support. Indeed, if the necessary political support for the reform initiative can not be speedily mobilized, it will not be possible to reconfigure the Civil service in a manner that will prepare it to innovatively deal with the complex challenges of the 21 st Century.