Decentralization, which is a buzzword in the current discourse on development, has witnessed three waves in the processes of its conceptualization during the 1970s and 1980s. The first wave noticed around the 1970s was marked by deconcentrating hierarchical government structures and bureaucracies. The second wave surfaced during the mid-1980s and focused on broadening the concept by including within its fold ‘political power sharing, democratization, and market liberalization’. The third wave which emerged during the 1990s was characterized by the opening up of governance as a wider platform for public participation through organization of civil society.