In Zimbabwe’s local governance sector, citizen participation has often been construed as an end in itself in line with the tenets of democracy. However, citizens’ demand for increased input into local government policy and decision-making processes has grown considerably. This increase in citizen initiated input is demonstrated by the increased numbers of interest groups such as resident associations and other related neighbourhood formations. The demand for increased participation has been realised through citizen initiated efforts. Citizens have a central role in financing and sustaining local authorities and determining how the resources they put into local authorities are translated into services as well as accounted for. Thus, citizen participation and stakeholder engagement is the cornerstone of the new developmental local government paradigm. Citizen participation serves as a platform to increase awareness of local authorities’ activities, improve relations and enable the public’s ability to influence local authorities to deliver quality and equitable services. This article presents a citizen participation and stakeholder engagement framework to guide local authorities to work more closely with their citizens and stakeholders for their mutual benefit. Such a framework is useful as a guide to policy formulation and practice by councils and stakeholders and also as an instrument of monitoring and evaluation and enforcing accountability by council leadership.

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