Assessment of community participation on local development projects: The case of oromia regional state

The study title is the assessment of community participation in local development projects a case of Oromia regional state. The main objective of the study was to evaluate the importance of community participation in development projects at local level and the study was guided by two specific objectives which were to examine the roles of local community participation in development projects at local level, to find out the level to which citizens are involved in decision making process concerning development projects. The researcher employed descriptive study type of design. Four methods of data collection were used which are questionnaire, interview, focus group discussion and documentary review. Whereby data was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively uses SPSS 20. Multi stage sampling, cluster, purposive and simple random sampling was employed to select 410 respondents and 40 interviewed key informants.

Findings revealed that community participation was low influenced by socioeconomic factors, political-cultural factors also not understanding the roles of communities in participation. It was also revealed Communities were contributing financially, few were contributing through labor and materials hence it was concluded that citizen's response towards contribution to development projects being poor. The study revealed that citizen involvement in decision making is very low and citizens are not aware of their rights, roles and responsibilities.

The study concluded community participation is very crucial because it creates awareness among stakeholders on how funds are being used and get to decide on their wellbeing, also when communities participate transparency and accountability of the leaders increases hence having projects of quality standards. The study recommended that, there is a need to involve the community to a greater extent in decision making and development project, increase degree of trust to citizens, education and seminars to local leaders concerning community participation should also be considered.