Practices and challenges of urban land governance in Debre Markos City Administration

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the practices and challenges of good governance in urban land administration, with a particular focus on the Debre Markos City Administration. The study selected the Debre Markos City Administration Municipality service office as a case study. This study employed a mixed research approach, and data were collected through questionnaire and interview methods obtained from both public servants and customers. The data was analysed through descriptive analysis. Based on the analysis conducted using three core elements of good governance—transparency, accountability, and responsiveness, the study found that there were poor practices of good governance in urban land administration. On the other hand, the study investigated various challenges of good governance in urban land administration, which emanate from personal, administrative, and socio-economic problems such as the absence of innovative figures of land registration, lack of monitoring and evaluation, inadequate institutional performance, and absence of reward and punishment systems. In general, the findings of this study revealed that due to various challenges, there were poor practices of good governance in terms of transparency, accountability, and responsiveness in the study area. These challenges impede people’s access to quality service in urban areas and undermine the trust between citizens and the government. Finally, enhancing institutional capacity, consistent implementations of monitoring and evaluation, innovative figures of land registration, and giving corrective measures for wrongdoers were stated as recommendations.