ABSTRACT
This chapter examines processes of civic engagement by the government, and particularly the parliament post 1991; it examines different mechanisms the parliament has put in place including public outreach sessions, constituency visits and other channels, such as call centres and woreda intranet. The chapter also discusses youth participation and the role of e-democracy/e-parliament platforms in public engagement, particularly youth. The chapter highlights the piloting of an e-democracy platform that has shown promising results in public engagement, however, the process has also unveiled that e-democracy does not guarantee the incorporation of citizen’s concerns in policy in countries with output-oriented political culture. In Ethiopia particularly, besides structural barriers such as lack of IT and physical infrastructures, MPs access to and messaging with their constituencies is restrained through direct monitoring by the political party and secretariat. There is a tendency by the secretariat and the executive branch to view MPs as the agents of government that should use the platforms to channel messages and ‘convince’ people of activities tuned to the vision of the dominant political party.
