Impacts of decision-making process on social justice in the infrastructure equity in Ethiopia
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00208523221093961 |
| Author | Ambaw Desalegn,Negussie Solomon |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Impacts of decision-making
process on social justice in
the infrastructure equity in
Ethiopia
Ambaw Desalegn
and Negussie Solomon
Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
Abstract
Equity concerns the distribution of resources and is inevitably linked with concepts of
fairness and social justice. What are the decision-making processes for fair allocation
of infrastructure resources and its effect on social justice in Ethiopia? The article uses
structural equation modeling-partial least square software for analysis. Therefore, the
article finds that there is infrastructure inequity and social injustice owing to a lack of
democratic decision-making and accountability in Ethiopia. Moreover, the Ethiopian gov-
ernment lacks the tools and institutions that provide the foundation for good decision-
making processes and democratic accountability. There also exists a low level of social
cohesion in Ethiopia today. Hence, the government needs a democratic decision-making
process that would bring diverse interests together and solve the lack of intergovern-
mental relations (IGRs) as well as the lack of democratic accountability to improve citi-
zens’justice in the infrastructure sector in Ethiopia. As a result, it requires a focus on
regional governments’needs, reacting to their concerns, and keeping them justified
on the equitable distribution of infrastructure across regional states in the country.
This will also help to save Ethiopia from bloody conflicts.
Points for practitioners
In practice, the drive for public management is to increase the quality and efficiency of
government-provided services. Professions in government agencies, public enterprises,
and trusts that deal with policies and strategies that govern the equitable allocation
and administration of public resources make up the public management and
Corresponding author:
Ambaw Desalegn, P.O. Box: 1238, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Email: desalegne.ambaw1@gmail.com
Article
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
2023, Vol. 89(4) 1030–1045
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00208523221093961
journals.sagepub.com/home/ras
administration pathway. As a result, the most important takeaway for professionals is
that creating a learning organization is a significant management strategy that public
organizations must pursue in exercises.
Keywords
Decision-making processes, democratic accountability, Ethiopia, equity, IGRs, social
justice
Introduction
Millions of Ethiopian people live without access to modern infrastructure services. In
order to address this issue, the Ethiopian government has shown efforts to increase infra-
structure access across regional states in Ethiopia (Tarekegne, 2020). However, equitable
infrastructure planning largely depends on reliable data and techno-economic criteria and
fails to integrate equity and fairness deliberations (Tarekegne, 2020). These insufficien-
cies in the planning phase result in the building of infrastructures that fail to provide fair
allocations to those who need them and further intensify infrastructure access inequities at
a regional/zonal/local level in Ethiopia. This article aims to consider an approach for a
social justice-based infrastructure allocation planning and implementation framework
that reevaluates the delivery planning and decision-making processes in the country.
So, the research question here is regarding the decision-making processes for fair alloca-
tion of infrastructure resources and its effect on social justice in Ethiopia. It is also indi-
cated that this issue requires the necessity to recognize innovation in public infrastructure
sector allocations is increasing (Bekkers and Tummers, 2018; de Vries et al., 2018; Lewis
et al., 2018).
Therefore, this article explores and empirically tests the interrelationships among
intergovernmental relations (IGRs), decision-making processes, democratic accountabil-
ity, and social justice in the infrastructure sector in Ethiopia. It is then very essential to
define some of the keywords. Social justice is a fundamental element of the legitimacy
and stability of any political community. Whereas, the democratic decision-making
process is not only a more effective and efficient allocation of public infrastructure
resources but also a more equitable allocation of opportunity to minimize disparities
among regional states in Ethiopia. IGRs also deal with relations between different
levels of government, which continuously advocates issues of a party-political and man-
agerial environment. Accordingly, institutions of democratic accountability are contribu-
tory to accomplishing sustained development and stability. This is also very crucial to
equitable infrastructure development and for the nation-building process in Ethiopia.
Hence, this article utilizes conceptual/empirical framework, presented in Figure 1, to
analyze the social justice implications of equitable infrastructure allocations in
Ethiopia. This framework interlinks the four central principles of social justice with infra-
structure allocation justice. It also introduces a series of questions to achieve an equitable
balance to the conflicting goals faced by planners and the protection from undue interfer-
ence (Tarekegne, 2020).
Desalegn and Solomon 1031
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