Addis Ababa University

College of Development Studies

Center for Environment and Development Studies
Course Title: - Environment Policy and Governance
Course Number: - DSESD641

Environment Policy and Governance Assignment

Term Paper: - Urban green lands and environmental governance challenges and prospects:
the case in Addis Ababa

Submitted by:-

Name ID Number

Abraham Lebeza GSE/0619/16

Table of Contents
Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................................ 2
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3
Statement of the problem ............................................................................................................................ 4
Objectives ..................................................................................................................................................... 6
Research Questions ...................................................................................................................................... 6
Methodology (methods, tools and strategies) ............................................................................................. 6
Results and Discussion .................................................................................................................................. 7
Current condition of UGI in Addis Ababa.................................................................................................. 7
The practice of IGI development and bottlenecks of implementation practice....................................... 7
Optimal strategies to overcome the constraining factors ........................................................................ 8
Overall performance of the Governance and Factors .............................................................................. 8
Lessons to draw and scale up ................................................................................................................... 8
Conclusion and policy recommendations ..................................................................................................... 8
References .................................................................................................................................................... 9

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Abbreviations
EDS Electronic Data Systems

LULC Land Use and Land Cover

NDVI Normalized Difference Vegetation Index

NMT Non-Motorized Transport

SDGs Sustainable Development Goals

UGI Urban Green Infrastructure

UGS Urban Green Space

UNESCO United Nations Education, Social and Culture Organization

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Introduction
Over half of the world population which is 55% is living in the urbans areas. As urbans are the epi
center of economic and social center of the nations in all corners of the world the rate of
urbanization is increasing despite variability of pace in the different regions. The highest rate of
urbanization is recorded in the Latin America and Caribbean region which accounts the highest
urban population and Africa is the lowest. Despite the fact that Africa has a lowest urban
population, the rate of growth of urbanization in Africa is the highest. Urbanization in Ethiopia is
not an exception. The urban population in Ethiopia is the least, 22.7% compared to other African
countries and the rate of urbanization is the highest, 4.8% compared to other countries in the
world.

The growth of urbanization in Africa including Ethiopia is growing without proper urban
development planning which results in the urbanization and urban areas facing with shortage of
access to social services and infrastructure which any urbanization is expected to meet for its
citizens. The unplanned urbanization process in Ethiopian and Africa is being a result of the
creation of substandard living conditions in the urban areas, people living in a precarious situation
of without access to basic public services and facilities, congestion and informal settlements in the
cities, prone to pathogenic diseases due to lack of sufficient sanitation facilities, home for
unemployed young generations and robbery and violence are rampant.

The unplanned urbanization process is not only cause of social and economical difficulties, it is also
a cause for environmental calamities that hits the urban areas. Such environmental calamities are
due human and natural activities that are mutually reinforcing to each other. In Ethiopia, the
unplanned urbanization process that results in the encroachment of land that would otherwise
optimally used for other land use activities is causing the depletion of biodiversity resources and
impacting the ecosystem services that are important to support the life of human beings. (ZEMEN
HADDIS GEBEYEHU et.al. (2017). Due to the unplanned urban development process, the human
activities are pressuring on the natural resources beyond their carrying capacities. The natural
resources such as surface and ground water are being utilized beyond their capacity to replenish
through recharging. Water scarcity is the characteristics of most of the urban centers in the
developing world. Furthermore; environmental pollution due to industrial activities and unsafe
disposal of institutional and residential wastage in the urban center is polluting the diminishing
water resources, vital for human beings. According to the study of K Yeshitela, et.al. (2019) Addis
Ababa’s rivers are characterized informal settlement and plantation of industries in the river
banks.

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One of the sustainable goal (SDGs 2030), Goal 11 particularly focuses on urbanization
development and deals about making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilience and
sustainable. SDG 11 with a broad range of activities and measurable targets envisaged to be
achieved for 2030 lists out different strategies to achieve these targets. One of the strategic
activity to attain the goal of resilient cities and communities is the development of urban green
spaces (UGS). The urban green space development is enshrined under resilient cities goal being a
specific target. Target 7 of Goal 11 says and advocates for the urbanization development to
provide access and inclusive green and public spaces. The urban green spaces which constitutes a
range of green spaces such as parks, residential greenery and playing grounds, according to WHO
can promote physical and mental health which in turn contributes for reduction of morbidity and
mortality with in urban residents (WHO, 2016). The development of urban green spaces is
beneficial for regulating the increasing urban temperature, storm water management and human
health. Despite this fact; the land use and land cover (LULC) change for instance in Addis Ababa is
increasing in the last three decades at an alarming rate and is dominated by built up facilities,
including human settlement(GIDISA TARIKU DABA et.al, 2024).

Ethiopia akin to the global sustainable development goal initiative, it is engaged in the
development of urban green spaces outlining via The Urban Greenery and Beautification strategy
in 2015. The urban green spaces are meant to create public spaces for social interaction and pave
way for building coexistence among multicultural and multi-religious communities. The urban
green spaces are recreation areas for the youth and the populace where they satisfy and nurture
their cultural and aesthetical values provided that these sites are accessed by all the communities
without differentiation in social class. Furthermore; the urban green spaces contribute for the
removal of carbon emissions by the intensive industrial activities in the cities, gives open way for
pedestrian and bicycle, trigger non-motorization activities and can lesser carbon footprints at
individual level due to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion by
transportation.

The urban green spaces are part of the integrated urban infrastructure strategy which meets the
concepts of multi-functionality, connectivity, green-grey integration and social inclusiveness on
the urban development to ultimately bring an urban centers that are livable and can prosper the
socio-economic and cultural life of its citizens. Furthermore; the green space development is an
indispensable task as a resilient strategy for urbans in the face of increasing urban population.

Statement of the problem

Despite the government of Ethiopia forged a clear strategic plan and set targets to increase the
urban green spaces in the cities and town in the country , the development of urban green spaces
is not progressing as envisage in the strategic plan. The National Urban Green Infrastructure
standard of Ethiopia proposes 15 m2 per capita public green open spaces within city boundaries,

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with every resident living within 500 m from a public green open space that is at least 0.3 hectares
in size. The World Health Organization has set a minimum target of 9 m2 and an ideal value of 50
m2 of UGS per capita. The structural land use plan of Addis Ababa city indicates that the minimum
standard for urban green space area is 30% of the total land area. However; the existing status of
the commutative green space in Addis Ababa is less than the standard as verified. The composition
and configuration of urban green spaces in the functional land use areas is not appropriate as to
the standard recommendations. In Ethiopia; despite such policy intents are drafted in paper; due
to lack of regulations and standards, the practice of implementation is not in full scale. The
available green spaces and bare lands in the master plan are diminishing and changing their
purpose from time to time due to the expansion of human settlements and other built in facilities.
The lack of harmonization of government institutions and the lack of clear roles and
responsibilities between these institutions is also one of the factor that creates indifference among
these institutions from realizing the national strategic objective of urban green space. For
example; the Ethiopian Environment, Forestry, and Climate Change Commission and its subsidiary
urban forest directorate and city administrations beautification and greenery bureau do have
overlapping assignments.
The governance of existing urban green spaces such as political will and lack of regulative functions
and implementation of land use plans, as well as the allocation of funds for the establishment and
long-term management of green spaces. Unless there is political will and commitment, the existing
urban green spaces might be converted to grey infrastructure or else their value may not be
maintained. Addis Ababa as one of the urban center in Ethiopia hosts 25% of the urban population
in the country.
Addis Ababa’s population is almost ten times larger than Ethiopia’s second-largest city, Gondar
and therefore; taking the urban green space development in Addis Ababa as a case in point can
used to learn for the country under limited constraints. Compounded with its current population,
Addis Ababa is assumed to have a double population growth in the coming 10-15 years. Due to
this fact it is not exaggerated to have a proactive plan for Addis Ababa to manage the urban growth
proportional to a capacity that can deliver basic services to its citizens. Addis Ababa is a city
frequently hit by acute watery diarrhea (AWD) due to unmanaged sewerage facilities without
buffer zones, urban green spaces between the rivers and the residential houses. The city residents
are at risk of storm water flooding accidents due to overflow from the river banks and mostly
slums, vulnerable people settling in the river banks are facing the calamite of the summer season.
A concerted effort and adherence to policies and commitments in the urban development is
therefore is a mandatory action. This research is meant to learn the existing condition of green
land development in urban centers in Ethiopia and Addis Ababa in particular and critically review
the available literature on the topic and organize the policy recommendations which are
researched widely and optimal recommendations under the exiting context in the developing
world including Ethiopia.

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Objectives
The research objective is to find out the constraining factors in the implementation /practice of
Ethiopian urban green spaces policies and strategies. Understanding the root causes that constrain
the implementation process is an input for policy-makers and authorities in addressing these
challenges and also devising optimal strategies that would support to overcome the challenges or
to lesser their impacts.

Research Questions
The following are the research questions to be answered by the critical review of literature bother
available as peer reviewed journal and grey literature in open access repositories as well as from
the web.

1. What is the existing coverage of urban green spaces in Addis Ababa as per the standards
envisaged in the national urban green infrastructure standard
2. What are the bottlenecks of implementation /practice in translating government policies
and commitments to the international conventions
3. What are the optimal strategies to overcome the constraining factors under the context of
developing a city in a developing economy

Methodology (methods, tools and strategies)

The methodology of this research is a discourse analysis which focuses the review of literature on
Urban Green Space developments in Ethiopia focusing on Addis Ababa.

The methodology is about a comprehensive but critical review of peer-reviewed publications and
grey literature. The location of the peer-reviewed journals is mentioned in the reference of this
research report. The grey literature which are not peer reviewed as well as published are located
in the electronic data systems available in a range of academic institutions, governmental and non-
governmental institutions as well as national and international organization databases
(repositories). Furthermore; the grey literature reviewed are searched and found in the google
scholar. The electronic data systems are located at National Academic Digital Library of Ethiopia,
Addis Ababa University, Jimma University, research gate, academia, UN Habitat, UNESCO, and
other multilateral organizations.

In order to focus the critical review research on the subject of interest, the most frequently used
key terms for searching are urban green space, green and public spaces, integrated urban
infrastructure, resilient cities, sustainable urbanization, Addis Ababa Urban Green Space, urban
development, green infrastructure, and other key words.

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Furthermore; to match with the knowledge on the current development Urban Green Space
development in Ethiopia; the literature review available on the internet will be distilled based on
their publication which follows after the Ethiopian The Urban Greenery and Beautification strategy
in 2015. The case study focuses to take the strategic document as time reference.

Results and Discussion

Current condition of UGI in Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is characterized diminished park per capita was very small (0.37 m2) compared to
Ethiopian UGI standards (15 m2) and the large portion of the city's population (above 90%) has no
access to existing parks within the minimum walking distance thresholds according to the study
by supported by Arc GIS tool (Sileshi Azagew and Hailu Worku: 2020). According to the report by
UN Habitat (UN Habitat; 2017) Addis Ababa city has 25 city-level parks with a total surface of about
148ha which accounts only for 0.28% of the total city area. Such coverage of parks and registered
green spaces , accounts for an average 1.2m2 of green areas per resident, which is 8 times lower
than the 9m2 recommended by WHO (UN Habitat, 2017). Despite the poor standard of availability
of urban green spaces in Addis Ababa, the existing green areas are unevenly distributed and are
largely located in the northern and western parts of Addis Ababa.
A study by GIDISA TARIKU DABA et.al , using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)
done in Addis Ababa, they have confirmed that in the last three decades bare land, agricultural
land, vegetation cover and water bodies of Addis Abba is undergoing through land use and land
cover change and it is largely converted built up areas. The expansion of built in areas between
1999 -2021 is increased from 134 to 380 km2 according to 2021, UN Habitat (2021) study of the
state of Addis Ababa. This results in the conversion of rivers, streams and wetlands in to
resettlement contrary to zoning and land use regulation.
The practice of IGI development and bottlenecks of implementation practice
The critical review of the peer reviewed journals and grey literature on the governance and
management urban green space in Addis Ababa reported that the administration at different
levels are not of adhering proportional to the ambitious plans in the strategic document, Ethiopian
National Urban Green Infrastructure Standard (2015). The authorities lack prioritizing investment
in urban green spaces and the sector is under budget shortage. The governance of urban green
spaces is equally demands better and informed citizen about the importance of UGI development
and their multi-functionality, economic, social and ecological benefits. However; the demand from
the user side on the development of urban green spaces and holding the authorities to be
accountable in translating the overarching policy and strategic documents in to practice is poor.
Furthermore; the urban communities at different level do not have a significant role in the
management of existing UGI facilities in their vicinity.

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Optimal strategies to overcome the constraining factors
In order to address the shortage of urban green infrastructure under the increasing population in
Addis Ababa; strategies of developing small to medium parks development is way out. Due to the
budget constraints for the development and management of large parks, looking for medium scale
parks is important. To this end, the decentralization of the management of these UGS would
empower to capitalize on the community capacity and galvanize resources.

Overall performance of the Governance and Factors

Coordination and collaboration among the different stakeholders in the governance of urban green spaces
is critical to ensure an improved outcome in the efforts made by different actors. These is instrumental to
synergize the much needed budget in the development of urban green spaces. Coordination and
collaboration eases confusion on roles and responsibilities in the development of urban green spaces.

Lessons to draw and scale up

The Addis Ababa Sheger river side project and the tree planting initiatives in Addis Ababa and across the
country are instrumental in enhancing the urban green space in the urban centers. The promising results
of these initiatives is observed in the city to boost the availability of recreational centers and ecotourism in
the town. These initiatives do have a reinforcing factor in reversing the low-level of awareness residing both
at the service user and service provider level.

The expansion of greenway network (walkways and cycle paths) and mass sport which are actions under
the strategy of Addis Ababa Non-Motorized transport (NMT) strategy are impetus for awareness creation
on the importance of the multi-functionality, connectivity, green-grey integration and social inclusiveness
in advancing for urban development. Therefore; the development of urban green spaces by the designated
office is not an isolated venture.

Conclusion and policy recommendations

 Decentralizing the development plan for urban green spaces is equally important with the
adoption of subsequent provisions (regulations) which eases the enforcement of laws
enshrined in the proclamations for the development of UGI.
 Ensuring good governance which entails the participation and inclusion of the people
renders and opportunity to capitalize on their capacities. The community can take part in
the management, financing, and other capacities.
 Ensuring the political commitment of the authorities at different level and in turn holding
these authorities accountable is precursor for translating the policy documents and
regulations in to practice.
 Public–private partnership in the development of parks is essential. As a result, the
government regulatory organs should engage the private in the development of urban
green spaces and render technical support to the private bodies.

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