*1.2. Background and Context of the Study*

The origins of the cadastral system in Ethiopia dated back to 1907 when Menilek II signed Ethiopia's first decree related to urban land administration [21–23]. It was by a French company that the cadastral system was introduced but remained without maintenance for more than 80 years [24]. Even though, there was a sporadic effort to es-tablish a cadastral system some time ago in Addis Ababa, as it is not updated for a long time, it is almost non-existent as a system until very recently. Hence, the Addis Ababa City Administration around 1995 decided to launch a cadastral project initially intended to register all property owners liable for property taxation and collect data that would enable the city administration to assess property tax. However, the attempt was not effective which then changed in to establishing a multipurpose cadaster [21]. Even though a step forward was achieved and some experiences were gained as a result of launching the ca-dastral project of 1995 of Addis Ababa, it was not possible to evaluate this project as a successful one due to varieties of reasons, which among others, lack of cooperation be-tween these cadastral system and land right creation institutions [25].

Currently in Ethiopia, urban land is under the responsibility of Ministry of Urban Land Development, Housing and Construction (MULDHC). Within this institution, urban land right provision is undertaken by the Urban Land Development and Management Bureau (hereinafter ULDMB) while the cadastral system is overseen by the Urban Land Adjudication and Registration Information Agency (hereinafter ULARIA). These two institutions are working autonomously though their task are related and could be performed through a single institution. The major activities performed by ULARIA are, according to Proc. No. 81872014 [26], Strategic Plan [25], and Annual report [27], the legal recording of rights including the spatial boundaries [28]. The task of allocating (creating) landholding rights belongs to ULDMB. Land right in this case refers to a set of legally guaranteed enti-tlements or privileges associated to land ownership. They may also be expressed as bun-dle of rights or attributes of ownership. A bundle of rights is a term for the set of legal priv-ileges that is generally afforded to a real estate buyer with the transfer of the title. It in-cludes right of possession, right of control, right of exclusion, right of enjoyment, and right of disposition [1].

The legal protection to land is implemented through land management that changes the resources of land into good effect [29]. Land management encompasses all activities associated with the management of land that are required to achieve sustainable development. Under the umbrella of land management, cadastral system plays major role by ensuring that land is secured [23]. Cadastral system serves as a fundamental source of data infrastructure for land management, as stated in the work by Enemark et al [30]. Spe-cifically, it provides parcel information for the use of land, value, tenure, and development. In this regard, Ethiopia has formulated urban land policies related to land right and cadastral registration systems under two different urban land policies. Proclamation No. 721/2011 [31] dictates about modality of urban land acquisition, while Proclamation No. 818/2014 [26] dictates about urban land adjudication and registration that must be im-plemented all over the country. In line with these proclamations, regulations, directives and manuals have been prepared. The overall objective of the scheme is to accelerate the social-economic and environmental development of urban centers through providing land right and ensuring landholders' security of holding and recognition of title to im-movable property by certifying their right, restriction and responsibility through adjudica-tion and registration.

The organizational structures for landholding right providing and cadastral registration institutions differ widely between countries throughout the world, and reflect local cultural and judicial settings. In some regions these organizations are merged and other countries unmerged [21]. Compared to merged institutions, unmerged type of institutional arrangements exploits resources such as human resource, and leads to the creation of in-compatible parcel information by creating variations of the same object: parcel location, ownership, use and value. Such variations are costly and create a void since there are lim-ited mechanisms that link the management of ownership. Likewise, Ethiopia operates these two related activities by two different institutions, called land right providing institution and urban cadastral system registration institution. In other words, merger did not take place between these two related institutions.

Cadastral system in conjugation with landholding right providing institutions are the building block in land administration and management system. The land manage-ment paradigm endorses modern land administration system through four key functions: land tenure, land valuation, land use and land development. These functions are inte-grated through cadastral system [32]. In this regard, cadastral system and landholding right providing institutions have allowed modern operations for the land administration and management sector.

Cadastral System is an institutional framework varied and complicated by the tasks they must perform, by national cultural, political and judicial settings, and by technology [33]. In this paper, cadastral system is defined as a formal sub-system of land administration that includes the organizational system (a set of professional actors with responsibilities to carry out cadastral activities and maintain cadastral information systems), procedures, and regulations, which altogether ensure that the cadastral system is

kept up-to-date. In short, a cadastral system is an organizational system usually referring to the operations that a cadastral institution is conducting [23]. Landholding right provision (creation) institution is a government organ that is responsible for creating and allocating right, restriction and responsibility on the land.

Land right creation and Cadastral system tasks are concerned about the management of spatial and legal data on land. In many countries these tasks are executed by a single institution. Despite international literatures; Cadaster 2014 [13], Cadaster 2034 [34], de Vries et al. [8], Koroso et al. [4] claiming that merging such agencies is more effective for the data handling, Ethiopia executes these two related tasks by two different and independent institutions: land right creation by the ULDMB, while cadastral registration tasks are overseen by ULARIA. In some countries these institutions are merged while in some other countries are not [8]. In countries where the merger did not take place, such as Ethiopia, the content of both institutions is very similar [35]. This type of arrangement misuses resources (such as human resources) and leads to the creation of duplicated and sometimes incompatible parcel information by creating variations of the same object: parcel location, ownership, use and value. Such variations are costly and create a void since there are limited mechanisms that link the management of ownership [33].

As in most developing countries, Ethiopia is challenging by issues related to institutional coordination within the urban land sector. Chekole et al. [23,35] and Tigistu [36] revealed that the historic failure of urban cadastral system pilots in Ethiopia in general, and Addis Ababa in particular remains a concern. It is estimated that over 6.5 million parcels are found within the urban jurisdiction of Ethiopia, and out of this, approximately 680,000 parcels are believed to exist in Addis Ababa [25]. Although a number of cadastral pilot projects were launched in Addis Ababa, there have been many challenges to succeed: - poor cooperation between the two institutions (landholding right provision and cadastral information registration), lack of legal framework to fill the gap between these two institutions, use of different sources of data by the two institutions (the right providing institution uses Arial image Addis Ababa taken in 1996, while the cadastral registration institution uses the Arial image acquired in 2010), the system lacks procedure to eliminate this gap, silence of the law on how the status of parcels placed in the dispute register where there is no response from the right creating institution within 15 days. As a result, most urban people do not enjoy secure land and property rights. This can be evidenced from the report of MoUDC [27], Chekole et al. [23], Chekole et al. [35] and Doing Business Assessment [19], in which, Ethiopia is ranked at 142th out of 192 countries in the world with respect to cadastral system.

Therefore, the main objective of the research is to analyze the effect of institutional merger between ULDMB and ULARIA on institutional effectiveness. Guided by theory of merger, the paper employs desk review and case study research strategies to uncover the research problem. Within the realm of this thematic scope, the following research question is endorsed: does institutional merger between ULDMB and ULARIA improve institutional performance? By unraveling this question, the paper may contribute an alternative solution that can improve performance of urban cadastral system institutions. Furthermore, quality service delivery may be improved through avoiding bureaucratic processes, and reducing time and cost of services.

The paper is organized in to five sections: introduction: in this section brief information are provided to let readers understand the problem, objective, and scope of the paper. The second section endorsed the theoretical framework to give information on how and with which theory the research is guided. Methodology of the research is presented in the third section, whereas results and discussions, and conclusion are presented in the fourth and the fifth sections respectively.

#### **2. Theoretical Framework**

This research used the theory of merger as a theoretical framework. The concept of merger was primarily, in the geospatial sector, developed by the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) initiative in the form of "Cadastral Statements" among which, "separation between cadastral maps and registers will be abolished" [13]. In support of Cadaster 2014 initiative, the demand for a widely accepted standardized domain model in land administration emerged [13]. The concept of Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) was developed and introduced after assessing the strengths and weaknesses of cadaster 2014 [37,38]. From the assessment, Lemmen et al. [37] have realized existence of different and inconsistent land administration systems across and with countries. Most countries develop their own unique land administration systems; some cadastral system institutions are centralized while others decentralized [29,39]. In the centralized system, institutional arrangement of cadastral system is undertaken by a single institution whilst the decentralized system follows separate institutional arrangements. The different implementations of the various cadastral systems do not make meaningful communication across borders easily [38]. Due to this, LADM has come to tackle these differences. Similarly, the concept developed by Enemark [40] Fit-For-Purpose (FFP) suggests the use of merged institutions rather than separate institutions in the land administration and management systems. One of the concerns for the emergence of FFP is to simplify bureaucratic institutional arrangement barriers in implementing sustainable land administration system. According to Sułkowski et al. [41], merger refers to the formal union of two or more organizations into a single organization usually designed to deliver a more effective operation to meet external challenges and opportunities. Mergers could be classified into horizontal mergers, vertical mergers and conglomerate mergers. A horizontal merger involves the merger of two or more institutions operating related activities. A vertical merger is a combination of two or more institutions involved in different stages of production. Conglomerate merger is a combination in which an institution combines with unrelated institution [41]. This paper follows the horizontal type of merger for the case of Ethiopia, since ULDMB and ULARIA are two institutions arranged at the same structural hierarchy. For the merger to be successful, there are key components required [42]. (1) Smooth communication: - there should be a need to have completely open and direct lines of communication with the key players of the institutions to be merged. (2) Win-win strategy: - in both sides, institutions need to be improving their situation in some way. (3) Shared vision: - a clear set of goals and objectives will keep institutions focused throughout every decision. (4) Well-planned: clearly plan out many of the critical details of merging processes including contingencies. (5) Integration: establish an integration team that is entirely dedicated to executing and implementing the merger. Thus, these components guide how the merger process can take place.
