When the Public Works

Unemployment remains a congenital problem facing many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. In the absence of viable economic alternatives, governments often turn to labour intensive public works programs as social safety nets to generate short term employment whilst producing growth enabling public goods. This book explores the experience of Ethiopia in its attempt to institutionalize employment generation schemes as part of the National Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Strategy, many facets of which were heavily influenced by the Maharashtra employment generation scheme program in India. The book explores in detail, through case studies, the complexities of policy formulation and execution and concludes that generic failures in public sector governance continue to bedevil the emergence of a more systemic approach to solve the unemployment crisis. Emerging from this action research, conducted over a period of seven years whilst working with the Government of Ethiopia and the European Union, are a set of recommendations and corrective measures that would lay the foundation for rural renewal and the removal of infrastructure related binding constraints to growth.