Her name is Shetaye Debebe. She is a resident in one of our pilot city where the urban governance dialogue was conducted. Shetaye has been living in the city for long years and she is a widow and responsible for a number of children. She also has a land of about 500M2 in which she has home of her own constructed long years before but suddenly the city administration engineers informed her that she will be displaced from her land as it is going to be given for investor and she will then be paid birr 14000 (about USD 1550) in compensation. It was big shock for her as the decision was neither legal nor fair for her. She then repeatedly requested the administration to do some thing about the problem, but the whole effort was in vain and the issue was dragged for long.

She later said that it was good news for her when she first heard that ActionAid Ethiopia and the radio Fana is going to organize community dialogue on urban governance in the presence of regional, zone and city administrations. She then became the first to participate in the meeting and voiced her concern in detail in the presence of higher city and regional government officials. Higher officials responded to her request on the spot as it is new for them and implicated that the problem is probably associated with engineers which they promised to correct immediately.

After few days of that dialogue, shetaye called to the radio program team to inform her joy and thank the program organizers for the justice done for her as a result of the dialogue. She told to the team that the city administration has now paid her Birr 300,000 (about USD 33,333) along with new land in compensation. The administration also apologized her that the mistake was made by an engineer who was bribed by an investor.