The role of citizen advisory committee in promoting public participation in decision making of Adama City

The issue of public participation in decision making has increasingly received due attention. This resulted in evolving of vast literatures that provide different continuum of understanding, ranging from expert-driven perspective to empowerment. It is these perspectives that have influence on conceptual understanding of public participation on one hand and that are complement each other in explaining this complex subject. These perspectives have evolved different mechanisms that facilitate public participation. They are as many as understanding of the concept itself, ranging from traditional methods to innovative. Citizen Advisory Committee/Board is one of these mechanisms that comprises of citizens and government officials to play a role in representing the interests of the wider public and to serve as a community point of contact. Similarly there has been a growing interest in examining the success of public participation. Despite this growing of interest, there remains a limitation in developing consistent framework for evaluating it. This gave way for evaluation of pubic participation to be categorised into process-based, outcome-driven and user-based methods. Of the three methods this study adapted "social goals" which is part of the outcome-driven. The whole mark was to answer the research questions dealing with the extent to which the Citizens Advisory Committee has been effective in promoting public participation in decision making of Adama city? To what extent has the CAC been effective in mobilizing public needs and preferences to incorporate into decision making of the city? To what extent has the CAC been successful in influencing the decisions of the city hall towards the needs and priorities of the citizens? To investigate these, the data were collected using focus group discussion, semi-structured interviews and survey, and were analysed on the basis of some standard analytical technique like frequency distributions, comparing proportions and qualitative analysis. In general, when assessed the role of CAC in educating both the wider public and its members, increasing trust in the municipality, incorporating of public values into municipal decision making and improving decision quality, it was found that the extent of effectiveness of CAC was very low in achieving these goals. What this implies? The findings imply either the need to dissolve or still reform the CAC. But the former has negative connotation as it can exacerbate the already on pipeline trust between public and the municipality. This study favours the second option and proposes the areas in which CAC can be improved. To this end, it recommends strong and determinant political will, commitment of adequate resources, creation of environment for public awareness and educating CAC, development of mechanism of incorporating public values, and evaluation of the progress regularly. Finally the study proposes two areas of further research. Accordingly, a component of "social goal" conflict resolution and investigation of some of the barriers to public participation in decision making will deserve further research.