Assessment of the Challenges of Urban Land Governance: The case of Dire Dawa Administration

This research is aimed at assessing the practices and challenges of application of land administration governance principles in urban land development and management in Dire Dawa City administration. The study assessed the problems in applying the land administration governance dimensions (principles). In order to achieve the above mentioned objectives, primary and secondary data was collected. Content and literature review were conducted from available scholarly studies, land management manuals and program documents. A conceptual framework was developed from the literature review and qualitative methodology was employed. Survey Questionnaires, interview and document review checklists were used as data collection tools. The qualitative interview and content data was analysed using narrative explanations. The survey questionnaire responses were analysed descriptively. The findings of the study revealed that land development and management processes are not transparent to the service users. Weak citizen participation in the land development and management and unequal treatment of clients in the service provision were observed as key problems of applying land administration governance principles. The study also revealed that service users were dissatisfied on the performance of land development and management officials in terms of service delivery per the needs of customers. Based on the findings of the study, the study concluded that the City land development and management office lack the required good governance dimensions participation, transparency, accountability, equity ,efficiency, responsiveness and effectiveness. Finally, this study would like to recommend that concerned government bodies in the land development and management institutions need to improve performance, involve citizens and design systems of transparency in the administration.