The Practice of Decentralisation in Terms of Community Participation in Decision-Making

Participatory decision-making is the urge for decentralization. Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, decisions are not made based on shared understanding and marginalized voices are increasing. We used a mixed method, and the data was analysed through convergent parallel design. Grounded on theoretical lenses of democratic decentralization and democratic decision-making approaches, our findings fail to support the decentralization of community participation in decision-making at the grassroots level due to the absence of legally entrenched and visible participatory structures as well as the low performance of local administrators in mobilizing the community in the revenue-generating and budgeting process. All of these made the community lack interest in decentralization and less likely to participate in the process. Hence, at the local government level, the practice of decentralization is more promising than apprehending inclusive participation.