A kebele (Amharic: ቀበሌ; Oromo: Ganda; Tigrinya: ታቢያ, tābiyā; "neighbourhood") is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia, similar to a ward, a neighbourhood or a localized and delimited group of people. It is part of a Districts, itself usually part of a zone, which in turn are grouped into one of the ten regions or two chartered cities that comprise the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.[1] Each kebele consists of at least 500 families, or the equivalent of 3,500 to 4,000 persons. There is at least one in every town with more than 2,000 population. A Districts representative, had jurisdiction over to ward.
The ward also referred to as a peasant association, was created by the Derg in 1975 to promote development and to manage land reform; they became a key element that the rival Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party and MEISON fought each other, and the ruling Derg, to control during the Ethiopian Red Terror.[2] Thewards were retained as administrative units by the Transitional Government of Ethiopia upon the conclusion of the Ethiopian Civil War in 1991; ever since, their administrative role has expanded to include the provision of government services more broadly. As Human Rights Watch noted, ward officials determine eligibility for food assistance, recommend referrals to secondary health care and schools, and help provide access to state-distributed resources such as seeds, fertilizers, credit, and other essential agricultural inputs."[3]
Notes
- ^ Population and Health in Developing Countries: Population, Health and Survival at INDEPTH Sites Archived 2006-02-13 at the Wayback Machine. ISBN 0-88936-948-8
- ^ Edmond J. Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia: From Empire to People's Republic (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), pp. 234f
- ^ "One Hundred Ways of Putting Pressure", p. 17. Human Rights Watch report, released 10 March 2010