The Challenge
Ethiopia was transitioning from the World Bank's Doing Business methodology to the new B-READY framework. Government institutions and private sector stakeholders needed to understand what this shift meant in practice, how Ethiopia would be assessed, and what specific regulatory and institutional changes could improve performance. The transition required coordinating multiple ministries and agencies around a new set of indicators, many of which cut across jurisdictional boundaries and required process-level changes alongside legal amendments.
Our Approach
We conducted a detailed analysis of the B-READY methodology and mapped each indicator against Ethiopia's current regulatory and institutional environment. This allowed us to identify where performance gaps existed, what changes were within reach in the near term, and which areas required longer-term institutional reform. We then facilitated a series of structured working sessions with government counterparts to translate the findings into an actionable reform agenda, with responsibilities, timelines, and accountability mechanisms built into the process design.
Key Activities
- B-READY indicator mapping against current regulatory framework
- Gap analysis across all three pillars: Business Entry, Operational Environment, and Market Contestability
- Prioritization of near-term vs. structural reform opportunities
- Facilitated government working sessions with cross-ministerial participation
- Development of an implementation roadmap with assigned responsibilities
Outcomes
The process gave government counterparts a clear picture of where Ethiopia stood against the new framework and what specific actions would have the greatest impact on its assessment outcomes. The working sessions produced a shared reform agenda across multiple ministries, reducing the coordination failures that had previously slowed business environment improvements. Several near-term regulatory changes were identified and moved into implementation.