Stakeholder’s conflicts management strategies in jimma zone, dedo woreda

Abstract

Conflict is the situation in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party which is in the same group, in another group, in the same organization or in another organization. Conflicts can be intra- and inter-group conflicts, or intra- and inter-organizational, as well as intra- or inter-personal conflict as well as a cross-cultural conflict that occurs between peoples who came from different cultures. The fact that individuals have different backgrounds, point of views, values, needs, personalities and other additional realities prevailing in livelihood environment will make conflict is common. The key assumption to undertake this study on conflict management strategies, is that the cause of conflict between several parties and individual, problem on perception of conflict, and the conflict management strategies, outcomes of all these problems made conflict an issue in Dedo Woreda. The main objective of this study was to investigate the of stakeholders in conflict management strategies and resolution Jimma Zone Dedo in woreda. The study investigates the current major causes of conflict and its management strategy in, assess the conflict managements resolution mechanisms, and investigate the current challenges and weaknesses of local conflict resolution mechanism in present study area. Random sampling technique was used to select 3 kebeles out of 33 Kebeles in the woreda by lottery method, while also simple random sampling was applied to select 145 residents based on probability proportional to the size of population. The participants of the study are householders, elders, religious leaders and influential people from the study area. The data were generated both from primary and secondary sources to answer the research questions. The collected data were entered to, and analyzed using SPSS version 23.0, and Descriptive Statistics and Econometric Model were employed. Frequency distribution of age, sex, educational status, marital status, religion, family size, owned land size, and source of income of the respondents were calculated. Logit analysis regression by Hosmer and Lemeshow Test, Nagelkerke R Square estimation and Correlation matrix were employed for all variables to investigate the relationship between the dependent and independent variables, and to identify statistically significant association and determinants. This study shows the existence of the conflicts in the woreda, grazing land, farm land, theft, property claim and religious issues were main causes of conflict. Indigenous conflict resolution mechanisms were most common conflicts resolutions mechanisms, while most common conflicts resolutions mechanisms. Findings shows, court has no significant role in conflict management at p = 0.05 level of confidence intervals. In conclusion, indigenous conflict resolution mechanisms are commonly practiced management strategy, while local elder and religious leader are common stakeholders in conflict management and have significantly positive effect of conflict resolution mechanism in present study areas. Therefore, there is need for policies aiming at enhancing conflict management strategy in identifying causes of conflict, mechanisms of resolution, current challenges and weaknesses of local Conflict resolution mechanisms.