Potenti als exist in a community for undertaking local development. The study therefore aimsrnat exploring the existence of this community potential with a view to base the findings as arnrationale to promote part icipatory community local development initiati ves and sell~reliancernor cOlllmunities in var ious regions of Ethiopia.rnMany times than not the fate of development of developing countries is decided by thernÂ·'good wi ll" of the "west". These countries, either being a colony or ot herwise attached andrnentangled by ideo logical cables have their development agenda decided for them by thernciclcloped cou ntrie s. Hence. it can be argued that the political (ideological) climate of thernÂ·Â·center" decides the ri se and fall of the development process in the Â·'peripheri es".rnDevelopment theories propagated from the "center" to the peripheries since the 1960Â·s.rnExperience shnwp ,> "' -.:. the successive theories presc ribed proved infertile and at somerninstance completely went astray to the expected goal: where equity collided withrnmodernization and vice versa, the role of the state and the free market. and now thernglobalization formula of unequal competition (survival of the fittest). Each developmentrnprescription did not meet the intended purpose. It rather aggravated the development processrnfrom worse to worst.rnConsidering the period 1960 - 2000, the four decades in connection with developmentrnendeavor were yea rs of rather growing poverty, hunger. pestilence and war to developingrncountries in genera l and Ethiopia in particular. The developing countries becollle price takersrnas producers and sellers (of co urse agricultural products). It is still obsen-cd that thernproblems are gett ing aggravated and ramified day by day. For instance. the fertilizer debtrnburden in driving farmers crazy and even forces them to commit su icide.rh~ prubkm "'aus to various questions on what is "to be done?" Th is study tries to comernout with possible local measures to with stand age- old problems. fight dependency andrnes tabli sh se lt~ re lian ce. Comminutes in different parts of the country can be taken as l'ocus 01'rnatte nt ion to at least alleviate local development problems. The success in trying to up root thernhard pegged problems calls for an approach where by potentials of a community are pooledrntogether to address fe lt needs.rnThe conceptual frame works are designed to reflect these issues and conce rn s. Part icipationrnand se lf - reliance are the two theoreti cal frame works of the study. A case st udy of anrnorgani zation GRCO (Gurage Roads Construction Organization) and its off shoot GPSDOrn(Gu rage People Self help Development OrganizationO) is undertaken to explore cOlllmunityrnpotentials. The organi zations operate in SNNPR(Southern Nati ons Nationalities and peoplesrnrL'gion)Guragc zone.rnThe concept of part icipation depends on the nature, the extent. the means and the ends ofrndifferent issues or disciplines. Participatory democracy. industrial democracy. managerialrnand administrative participation are issues of partic ipation forming diffe rent di sc iplines.rnPart icipation can also be viewed as a process and means or each independent 01' the other.rnWhatever be the implication, participation exists in an institution and structure.rnThis study considers an insti tution 111 a community. As such it specifically refe rs tornpartici pation as {fu~. ~ttlf.-. lv./(/. (:oJ(e~(il!e. pr{i(}I.I .of (ll.tljvJ!IYf}(s. ill. {t. CJ)-'~lIP.uJ1i(y .. (0. Y!I {if!/:lq/fi!. !q(:t11.((l!y~(OjJ!I!e.I1Jrnl'!Â·(!if!~Â·/:.bY.I!(!(~/{IIR ~/U!jl: f}!fl..n:IJU!f! !'~~P!/tf.;e.JJpgl}t-'l.etÂ· Participation in my research does not negate thernexplanation, as a normative concept, a statement of intent and bod ies of prescriptionsrn(Yeraswork Admassie. 1995:44). Indeed. intentions and prescri ptions can be understood asrnprocesscs and actions or activ it ies to so lve community problems. The out come of thernresearch is a participatory community local development approach to promote se lf-reliancern~Ind chalknge dependcncy.rnSelf-re li ance is a co ncept. whi ch can take different perceptions tar ditlclc'nt issues 01'rndisciplines In thi s study self-reliance. does not necessarily mean se lf-suffi cient. Se lf-reli ance is undl'rslO(ld :IS Ihc fcc ling of dcpcndencc on ones own self and nol on (llhers. II isrnunderstood as a measure of achievement (local development) and creation of sel fcontidencernof a community in a participatory development initiative.rnThe organization of the paper is chapter I, introduction. Here I tried to ex plain the paradox ofrnpoverty (underdevelopment) amidst plenty in Ethiopia and the causes of underd eve lopmentrnperta ining to developing co untries. The concept of "Community" and communit), basedrndCYelopmcnts and their institutions are highli ghted. Chapter I also include the backgroundrnwhich tries to address development theories in general and community development inrnparticular. Statement of the problem, objective and scope of the study are also includedrnun der thi s chapter. Chapter II deal s with the conceptual frame works of th e study. whi ch isrn(i) participati on (ii) Self- reliance.rnChapter III ex plains research design and methodology of the study. Primary data wasrncoll ected from survey( questionnaire), interviews and focus-group disscuss ions .Secondaryrndata was coll ected from available documents of the two organi zations considered for therncase studv. I al so rcferred other relevant documents on community and development. Thernsurvey was conducted in Guragc zone. By multi -stage random sampling procedure IWO ofrnthe seven woredas in "Sebat-bet Gurage" were selected. Areket and Emdeber are the twoworedarntowns of Gomar and Cheha respectively. The survey was fin ally ad mini ste red to fo urrnkebeles randomly se lected two from each woreda . Purposive sampling procedu re wasrnlulluwcd during interviews .rnIn chapter IV the rcscmch area Sebt-bet Gurage is described from economic. political andrncultural aspects. Chapter V describes the two community development organi zat ions se lectedrnfo r thi s study. The most important part of this study is dealt in chapter VI .Findings of thernresearch are di scussed in detail.lmpact assessment findings used as a measure of potenti alrn(ac hi c'cment) is also included here. Chapter VII includes summary and conclu sion includesrnpotential (achievement) is also included here. Chapter VII includes summary. conclusion andrnrecommendation.