[Typetext]SuggestionforGovernanceofAddisAbabaCityRegionEzanaHaddisWeldeghebraelI. IntroductionThe urban expansion since last century has resulted in functional regions that expand far beyond administrative jurisdictions forming a metropolitanarea, which loosely defined asmulti‐centeredurbanregionswhichdevelopmainlyalongfunctionalnetworks,cuttingacrossinstitutionallydefinedterritorialboundariesȋKübler & (einelt, ʹͲͲʹ, p. ͳȌ.These metropolitan areas are faced with global competition, fiscal disparities, urban sprawl, congestion, pollution and so on ȋSlack, ʹͲͲȌ. These require regional level governance to make the regions globally competitive in the knowledge economy and address challenges faced by the region ȋBird & Slack, ʹͲͲͶȌ. (owever, till recently Addis Ababa and its satellite municipalities have failed to synchronize their development plans. Changing the history of poor coordination, the recent Structure Plan of Addis is being developed in collaboration with Finfine Zuriya Oromiya zone at regional scale ȋAAO)RPO, ʹͲͳ͵Ȍ. This is a great leap forward for the Ethiopian planning culture where planning was constrained by sector or administrative boundary. Although the Addis Ababa City Administration ȋhereinafter AACAȌ and Oromiya Region decided to implement the plan in cooperation, so far the Master Plan Project office does not provide a governance structure to implement the regional plan. To sustain the achievement of the joint planning and to facilitate the implementation of the regional plan, an effective regional governance system must be put in place. )n general there are many forms of metropolitan coordination; however, for the sake of this article ) discuss the two arrangements thoroughly and finally recommend my suggestion for Addis Ababa region based on the blend of both. There are basically two forms of regional governance. These are amalgamation of municipalities into single metropolitan government and voluntary association of municipalities found in the metropolitan region. II. MetropolitanGovernmentThe metropolitanreformtraditionargues that existence of autonomous jurisdictions in a metropolitan area is an obstacle for efficient equitable organization of service delivery; hence it promotes consolidation of local governments to form MetropolitanGovernmentȋKübler & (einelt, ʹͲͲʹ, p. ͵Ȍ. The model posits that metropolitan governance can work only through the direction supplied by a single dominant unit of government ȋOakerson, ʹͲͲͶȌ. )t theorizes that institutional arrangements to manage a certain metropolitan area should match the social and economic influence area of the urban region. This is why they argue for a metropolitan government, which is an organized political entity with higher