EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A. Ethiopia and the APRM I. Ethiopia was one of the pioneer countries that acceded to the APRM in March 2003 and, shortly thereafter, it set about the task of operationalising and institutionalising the APRM process. The Prime Minister designated a National Focal Point and appointed Mr. Neway Gebreab, Special Adviser to the Prime Minister, as the APRM National Focal Point for Ethiopia. He also designated the Prime Minister’s Office as the Focal Point for NEPAD/APRM activities. II. A 23-member multi-stakeholder National Governing Council, chaired by H.E. Tefera Waluwa, Minister of Capacity Building, and made up of representatives of Government, the opposition, the private sector and civil society, was inaugurated to lead the process. III. The African Institute of Management Development and Governance, a local research institute was subsequently commissioned to lead the self-assessment process. The Institute immediately commenced the task of preparing the Country Self-Assessment using a holistic approach. As it is widely becoming the convention in governance assessments, six research instruments were used: desk research, interviews with key informers, a national household survey of 4620 households nationwide, and focus group discussions. In addition, the Research Institute carried out expert opinion surveys and held Wereda consultative forums across the country. IV. The CSAR, including the draft National Programme of Action and its six-stage methodology, was submitted to the APRM Secretariat in May 2009. This is highly recommended to other countries embarking on their Self- Assessment. B. The Country Review Mission V. The Country Review Mission was fielded from 31 August – 17 September 2009. It comprised 15 prominent Africans from 8 different African countries led by Professor Adebayo Adedeji. VI. The Team arrived in Ethiopia on 31 August 2009. The Mission commenced on 1 September 2009 with an official launch by His Excellency Ato Addisu Legese, Deputy Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, during which the CSAR, together with the NPOA, was ceremonially handed over by the Deputy Prime Minister to the Leader of the CRM. - 23 -