![Members of the House of Peoples' Representatives raise their hands during a vote in the chamber in Addis Ababa, May 2021 (unknown author, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain) [file photo]](https://i0.wp.com/mereja.com/index/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/politics-ethiopian-parliament-2021-20261007095041-2587.jpg?resize=780%2C439&ssl=1)
Members of the House of Peoples’ Representatives raise their hands during a vote in the chamber in Addis Ababa, May 2021 (unknown author, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain) [file photo]
Ethiopia’s House of Peoples’ Representatives on Wednesday approved a bill reshaping four federal ministries, the state-affiliated Fana Media Corporation reported, at the first extraordinary session of its new term, turning the Ministry of Planning and Development into a Ministry of National Strategy and dropping the word “transport” from the name of the logistics ministry, in the first structural move of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s new five-year term, while the total number of ministries stays at 22 and the names of the people who will lead them have not yet been announced.
Fana said lawmakers approved the bill unanimously and that it became Proclamation No. 1440/2019, using the Ethiopian calendar, on the designation, organization, powers and duties of the federal executive organs. Earlier reports by the state Ethiopian News Agency (ENA), by the business publication Birr Metrics and by the weekly Capital, all written while the session was still going on, said only that the House was deliberating on a draft proclamation, and an earlier Fana report said the final status of the bill would depend on the outcome of the debate. The official text of the proclamation has not been published.
Under the new structure, the Ministry of Culture and Sports becomes the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and the Ministry of Tourism becomes the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which means that culture is separated from sport and joined with tourism, while youth affairs get a dedicated place next to sport. The Ministry of Planning and Development is renamed the Ministry of National Strategy, and the Ministry of Transport and Logistics is renamed the Ministry of Logistics.
The bill was introduced by Fekadu Tessema, a member of the House and the government’s representative, whom Birr Metrics described as the new government whip. According to ENA, which cited a social media post by the House, he told lawmakers that the changes “are intended to enhance operational efficiency and align the institutions more closely with their respective mandates.” Fitsum Assefa (PhD), the Minister of Planning and Development, then gave the House a detailed explanation of the draft. Fana wrote that the framework had been prepared “following extensive study and consultations” with federal ministries and their agencies in order to fix weaknesses seen over the past five years, and that government representatives told the House that “clearer institutional delineation would help strengthen the implementation capacity of executive bodies.” Members of Parliament asked that any changes affecting the agencies under the ministries should reflect the way each of those agencies actually works, Fana reported.
The change to the planning ministry is the one most likely to matter for the economy. Birr Metrics called the move from planning and development to “National Strategy” one of the most significant changes in the restructuring and said the new name suggests a broader role than ordinary development planning. The publication said the proclamation is expected to define which powers of the old ministry stay with the new one and whether “additional strategic and policy-coordination functions” will be moved to it, and it concluded that “the significance of that shift will ultimately depend on the powers assigned to the new ministry.” Birr Metrics also said that removing transport from the title of the logistics ministry raises questions about which body will now be responsible for transport, an important sector for a landlocked country.
The restructuring follows a speech on Tuesday by President Taye Atske-Selassie at the opening of the joint annual session of the House of Peoples’ Representatives and the House of Federation. According to DW Amharic, Taye said the government would adopt new working methods and new structures to protect the country’s lasting national interests and would pursue what he called a comprehensive structural transition. He said the government’s work should modernize good governance, raise the economy and productivity, bring down the high cost of living and strengthen the peace and security of the people, and that, more than ever before, it would carry out work that puts unity, cooperation and Ethiopia first. Taye also said the government would do everything necessary to increase the strength of the army and the security forces, DW Amharic reported.
The House re-elected Abiy Ahmed as prime minister and swore him in for a new five-year term on Monday, after electing former finance minister Ahmed Shide as its speaker and Ayelech Eshete as deputy speaker, DW Amharic reported. Muferiat Kamil, the former Minister of Labor and Skills, became speaker of the House of Federation, and Desta Ledamo, the former president of the Sidama region, became its deputy speaker. The prime minister has not yet presented his nominees for the 22 ministries to Parliament, and none of the reports said when he would do so. BBC Amharic published an explainer this week on the history, procedures and structure of the House, which approves the laws that define the federal executive.
The new government is taking shape in wartime. Federal forces are fighting Tigrayan forces in Tigray and Fano fighters in Amhara, and relations with Eritrea and Egypt have broken down, with diplomats expelled on both sides in the past week. In his speech, Taye spoke of ending what he called the culture of the gun in Ethiopian politics, according to DW Amharic.
The economic side of the new term is also drawing attention on social media. The Reporter (@TheReporterET), the Addis Ababa weekly newspaper, reported on Tuesday that the new gov’t is targeting a tax-to-GDP ratio of 9.62 percent as part of structural economic reforms, and on the same day it promoted an opinion article on X titled “The Relapse into Chaos: Geopolitical Fractures and Critical Tasks for Ethiopia’s Next Government.”
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