Citizen Participation and Local Governance

The book attempts to bring out the propensity with which civil society can influence citizens’ behaviour towards issues that affect their lives. The author argues that local authorities should strive to serve their constituencies they do not have the prerogative to make arbitrary decision of issues that affect their localities but should endeavour to incorporate contributions from the very people who they are supposed to serve. Through the formation of community-based institutions, like residents’ association, citizens can be able to speak with one voice, thereby buttressing their propensity to engage the local authority. Accordingly, in this book, the author makes attempts to highlight how a Resident Association has engaged the Harare City Council to provide improved service delivery and at the same time exhorting the local authority to incorporate input from ratepayers on how best services could be improved within the City of Harare and to allow citizens to have their destiny into their own hands.The book would be of interest to students of local governance, those in the civics, politicians as well as general practitioners and the casual reader. The author intends to make this book part of a series of editions on the intensification of Local Governance and how best citizens can participate in local authority decision-making processes.