The concept public participation has gained great attention over the decades with development scholars arguing that it is crucial to democratic governance. Generally, public participation means that the citizens directly or through their associations and organisations participate in the processes of decision making together with their government. Their participation contributes to the building of effective, efficient, responsive, transparent, and accountable governance. Public policy formulation refers to the process whereby different actors or role players come together to deliberate and exchange views on how a public problem can be addressed. Effective policy-making, or formulation therefore is enhanced by strong collaboration between the various relevant stakeholders. This article is based on an analysis of public participation in the formulation of the Lesotho National Decentralisation Policy. Previous studies on public participa