The Role of Stakeholders in Solving Governance Challenges: The Case of Holeta Municipality, Ethiopia

Abstract

The Holeta Municipality faces numerous governance challenges that hinder institutions from providing effective service delivery to customers. The objective of this study was to demonstrate the role of stakeholders’ engagement in addressing governance challenges in public institutions by taking Holeta Municipality as a case study. The research was descriptive in type and used mixed research methods, both qualitative and qualitative data collection methodologies. Sampling techniques included questionnaires, interviews, and literature reviews, which were used as primary and secondary data sources, respectively. The research findings reveal that the absence of active stakeholder participation in the Holeta Municipality governance framework causes the institution to perform poorly in terms of service delivery. This weakness gives rise to a rent-seeking mentality, poor resource mobilization to complete public projects, poor leadership, expert skill deficits, administrative bureaucracy, and the absence of merit-based appointments. All of these problems combined led to widespread discontent with the performance of the municipality’s service delivery. The findings also reveal that the municipality has criteria for recruiting stakeholders, but the recruitment process was exposed to patron-client relationships. In addition, the findings show that municipalities still do not align their interests with the greater public, resulting in low stakeholder participation and delayed service delivery performance. In summary, Holeta Municipality’s governance challenges cause its service delivery performance to fall short of expectations, and it needs urgent revitalization with the Multi-Level Governance (MLG) model. Revitalization of the governance structure with the concept of the MLG model, application of competency mapping to allocate appropriate experts in each position, and drawing lessons from other public institutions are recommended to make the municipality efficient in its governance.