ANALYSIS OF POLICY, STRUCTURE OF ETHIOPIAN MANUFACTURING SECTOR ASSOCIATIONS AND CHALLENGES IN THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT

The purpose of this study is to assess the functioning of the existing manufacturing sector associations’ structure, policy and challenges in their contribution. The significance of this study is for the improvement of the existing proclamation No. 341/2003. The study used qualitative research design and case study approach. It also used interview to collect data from sample respondents as a primary data collection tools which were selected using Random purposeful sampling technique considering their job position experience and responsibility. From the total of estimated already established associations and support offices at national and regional level of 151 populations, a total of 43(28%) respondents were participated. The data collected was analyzed using thematic network analysis technique which is a more exploratory coding all data. The major challenges facing industrial sectoral associations included membership challenge, integration of sectoral associations into chamber of commerce, inadequate Support from Regulatory and Service Provider Organizations and capacity limitation of the sectoral associations and their chambers. The associations are not contributing in playing advocacy roles, are not promoting their members products, not providing adequate information, trainings, and technical assistances for their members. It is believed that the findings can help future researcher as a benchmark and for stakeholders as an input, as well as for the attention of policy makers’ to revise these bottlenecks