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Mr. Ato Dawit Yohannes, the Speaker of Ethiopia’s House of the People’s Representatives recalled that Ethiopia was a country ravaged by war over three decades. The consequences of the war and of military rule were debilitating in every sense: its economy in shambles, its society disintegrated, and the rule of law non-existent. In the face of such catastrophic conditions, the coalition of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front had begun the process of building good governance.
He acknowledged that the Government of Ethiopia was keen to participate in the first African Governance Forum and to share its views on good governance and its concrete, albeit short, experience. Ethiopia views good governance as a process that entails the State and society working together to build a relationship that goes beyond mutual recognition, and embodies a modus operandi between the two.
Given the length and difficulty of the struggle to build a prosperous and democratic society in Ethiopia, as everywhere in Africa, he observed, it was imperative that the countries of the region learn from other’s experience. Good governance, he concluded, was not only about constitutions and laws, it was also about government performance.