The Challenge

Investors operating in Ethiopia consistently identified inter-institutional coordination as one of their most significant operational challenges. Approvals, permits, and services that required sign-off from multiple agencies created delays that were difficult to predict or resolve. The problem was not that individual institutions lacked capacity, but that no single institution owned the full process, and there was no shared system for tracking where an investor's issue sat or who was responsible for resolving it.

This coordination failure created a gap between Ethiopia's formal investment framework and the actual experience of investors on the ground. It also made investment promotion harder, because agencies responsible for attracting investors could not guarantee service delivery once investors arrived.

Our Approach

We mapped the investment process from entry to operation, identifying each touchpoint that required inter-institutional coordination and where delays most commonly occurred. We then analyzed the root causes, distinguishing between structural gaps in process design, information asymmetries between institutions, and incentive problems that made coordination difficult to sustain.

Based on this analysis, we developed a set of recommendations focused on process redesign, shared tracking systems, and accountability mechanisms. These were structured to be implementable within existing institutional mandates, avoiding the need for new legislation or institutional restructuring.

Key Activities

  • End-to-end investment process mapping
  • Identification of inter-institutional coordination failure points
  • Root cause analysis: process gaps, information gaps, and incentive misalignments
  • Development of coordination mechanism designs
  • Recommendations for shared tracking and case management systems
  • Engagement with investment promotion and sector agencies

Outcomes

The analysis provided a clear framework for understanding where and why coordination broke down, and what types of interventions could address each root cause. The process mapping surfaced specific bottlenecks that had not been previously documented. The recommendations gave institutions a concrete starting point for redesigning coordination without requiring new authority or resources, and laid the groundwork for a digital tracking system to follow.