The Ethiopian Civil Service was formed to serve as an executive organ to ensure and maintain homogeneous personnel practice throughout the country. The legal framework changed little since it was promulgated in 1962 and has not been able to benefit from important new human resource management concepts and practices.

The Transitional Government of Ethiopia in its effort to transform the civil service appointed a Civil Service Reform Study Task force to diagnose problems and suggest ways and means of improving them.

The Task force identified several key problems and made recommendations for their improvement which were accepted by the Government and formed the bases for the Ethiopian Civil Service Reform Programme (ECSRP).

The Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) as a lead agency for the implementation of Human Resource Management (HRM) reform Sub-programme developed seven projects covering the following aspects:

1. Job Classification and grading.
2. Performance Appraisal &Time Management
3. Recruitment, Selection, Promotion and Transfer
4. Remuneration and Conditions of Service.
5. Human Resource Planning
6. Civil Service Law & Grievance Systems and Procedures.
7. HRM Information system.

FCSC's project proposals were accepted and work on the sub-programme which was expected to start in late 1996 was delayed until the last quarter of 1997. Some projects which needed less expatriate consultants input started a month or two earlier but it was after project teams were trained, a set of clear guiding principles developed and a strategy for achieving the programme designed that the work on the sub-programme began to move.

In February 1998 a change in strategy from designing and documenting all policies and procedures centrally with limited user input to one of working closely with six designated pilot institutions was proposed. The change in approach affected the nature and timing of work on individual projects as most teams have to work on a matrix form of organization but will not affect the overall programme timing, as implementation should be achieved still from 2000 onwards.