Donor Approaches to Local Economic Development in Africa www ...

mesopartner working paper 

12 / 2007 

Donor Approaches to 

Local Economic 

Development in Africa 

Doug Hindson 

www.mesopartner.com

© by the author 

Doug Hindson, doug.hindson@gmail.com 

St. Bres 2007 

mesopartner working papers are a product of mesopartner, a 

consultancy partnership specialised in local economic development. 

For more information, see www.mesopartner.com 

ISSN 1613-298X

Table of Contents 

1 Introduction 1 

2 A brief description of each approach 3 

2.1 The World Bank 3 

2.2 ECOLOC 4 

2.3 The International Labour Office 6 

2.4 German Development Cooperation 8 

2.5 UN-Habitat 11 

3 Comparing the approaches across seven variables 12 

3.1 Conceptual frameworks 13 

3.2 Objectives and target groups 15 

3.3 Geographical scope 18 

3.4 Initiators, drivers and champions 19 

3.5 Resources and external dependence 21 

3.6 Implementation processes 23 

3.7 Institutions and sustainability 25 

4 Conclusions 26 

5 Annexes 29 

5.1 Features of LED approaches 29 

5.2 References 31 

5.3 Websites 32

Donor Approaches to LED in Africa 1 

1 Introduction 

This paper compares five approaches to Local Economic Development (LED) that 

are currently being applied in Africa. These are the World Bank (WB), Local 

Economy (ECOLOC), International Labour Office (ILO), GTZ and UN-Habitat 

approaches. I have chosen these five because their methods are fairly distinctive, 

have been spelt out in some detail in relatively accessible manuals and because 

they influence the way many go about doing LED in different parts of Africa. By 

contrasting different features of these approaches and assessing them against the 

challenges that LED faces on the continent, I hope to open a discussion on the advantages 

and disadvantages of pursuing LED in these different ways. The paper is 

intended mainly for LED practitioners and decision-makers in government and 

business seeking support for LED promotion. 

By “LED approaches” I mean initiatives that encourage local actors within defined 

sub-national territories to get together to analyse their economies, identify 

what needs to be done, mobilise local and external resources and take joint actions 

aimed at stimulating economic growth, increasing the number of jobs, increasing 

incomes and taxes and, by these means, reducing poverty and exclusion in ways 

that are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. 1 There are various 

definitions of LED in the literature, most of which, as is the case here, draw 

on the one originally provided by Blakely, who stated that “Locally based economic 

development…is essentially a process by which local government and/or 

community-based groups manage their existing resources and enter into new partnership 

arrangements with the private sector, or with each other, to create new 

jobs and stimulate economic activity in a well-defined economic zone”. 

To this widely accepted definition, I have added three new points. The first relates 

to “external” resources. This is in recognition of the fact that local development 

depends not only on local resources but also those that may be sourced nationally 

and globally, an issue that has become increasingly important with the interpenetration 

of local and global factors. The second relates to poverty and social 

exclusion. I have added these because reducing and eventually eliminating them 

are the main development challenges in Africa, and because economic growth 

does not automatically reduce them, and may even be associated with increasing 

poverty and exclusion. The third relates to economic, social and environmental 

sustainability. I have added this dimension because it needs to be emphasised that 

short term economic growth is not what LED should be about, and because eco- 

1 Blakely E J (1989) Planning Local Economic Development: Theory and Practice, Sage, Newbury 

Park p.58. For a definition applied to Africa see Helmsing AHJ (2003b) “Local Economic 

Development: New Generations of Actors, Policies and Instruments for Africa”, Public Administration 

and Development, 23, p. 69.

2 Doug Hindson 

nomic growth cannot be sustained in the long term if it is based on destruction of 

the natural environment and deepening social divisions and exclusion. 

The focus of the comparison is on seven variables as set out in Table 1, below: 

Table 1. Variables used to compare approaches 

Variable What it covers 

Conceptual framework Concepts explaining local development and defining 

LED and its elements 

Focus of LED Objectives and target group 

Geographical scope Size of geographical area covered and its population 

Actors Initiators, drivers and partners 

Process logic Sequence and content of diagnosis, mobilisation, planning, 

implementation, review and learning 

Institutional arrangements 

Institutions for LED promotion such as networks, forums 

and agencies 

Sustainability How this is conceived and built into the process 

The paper does not attempt to review the practical achievements of these approaches 

in any depth, since this would require field research that is beyond my 

resources at present, but it does refer to achievements where these are reported in 

the documents I have consulted. The main sources for the paper are an internet 

search, a number of published and unpublished documents and my own experiences 

doing LED in a number of low income countries in Africa. 2 

The paper proceeds with Section 2 which describes each of the five approaches 

briefly. This sets the scene for Section 3 where the approaches are compared 

across the seven variables listed above. Section 4 draws conclusions about the 

strengths and weaknesses of these approaches and notes a degree of convergence 

between them over some issues. 

2 The original idea for this paper comes from an international review of LED I did for the United 

Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) in 2004: Hindson D, (2004) Synthesis Report, 

Local Economic Development, Lessons and Options for the UNCDF, UNCDF, Section 5, pp. 

49-55.


2 A brief description of each approach 

2.1 The World Bank 

I have included the WB’s approach mainly because it provides a generic model 

that has strongly influenced the way many practitioners go about doing LED, including, 

in particular, the ECOLOC approach reviewed below, but also, it seems, 

the ILO and UN-Habitat’s approaches to some degree. 

The WB approach envisages five steps in an LED programme: 3 

1. Organising the effort 

2. Local economic assessment 

3. LED strategy 

4. Implementation 

5. Review. 

“Organising the effort” means mobilising the actors within local government and 

in the private and community sectors to support an LED programme. This is a 

phase of consultation and discussion about LED and how to promote it. The “local 

economic assessment”, is the WB’s terminology for the diagnostic phase, which 

involves a “comprehensive assembly” of information on the local economy and 

the assessment of the local economy’s strengths and weaknesses. The diagnosis 

places the local economy within its regional and national contexts. The “LED 

strategy”, is developed through a planning approach that, in principle, should involve 

local government, business and community stakeholders. Planning is followed 

by documentation and dissemination of the strategy. “Implementation” involves 

formulation of action plans, allocation of responsibilities, setting up of 

project output targets and identification of inputs, namely the financial and technical 

resources that will be used to implement the projects. The “review” process is 

based on a monitoring and evaluation system established as part of the implementation 

strategy. According to the WB approach, it is designed to enable the 

oversight of project progress, and adjustment where this is necessary to improve 

performance. This generic five-step sequence is identifiable in one variant or another 

of many LED initiatives in different parts of Africa and elsewhere in developing 

and transition countries today. 

3 The approach was originally set down in www.worldbank.org/urban/led and, an updated version 

is to be found in Swinburn G, Goga S and Murphey F (2006) Local Economic Development: 

A Primer Developing Local Economic Development Strategies and Action Plans, WB, 

New York. www.worldbank.org/ledprimer


2.2 ECOLOC 

ECOLOC 4 is a programme jointly developed by the OECD’s Club du Sahel and 

the Municipal Development Programmes (MDPs) of West and Central Africa, 

funded by the WB and other donors. 5 The ECOLOC initiative was set up in 1997 

and has run a good number of LED exercises, mainly in localities within francophone 

countries in West and Central Africa. It is the largest and most sustained 

LED initiative on the continent, yet its work is not that well known in other parts 

of Africa, notwithstanding the MDP’s attempts to spread its influence through the 

Africities conferences it has organised bi-annually since 1997. The wider policy 

context for ECOLOC is the decentralisation programme pursued by the MDP. The 

rationale for promoting LED in this context arises out of the MDP’s early realisation 

that political decentralisation would remain hollow without a growing local 

tax base grounded in thriving local economies creating increased employment and 

incomes for local residents. 

The focus of the ECOLOC programme is on rural regions, including their main 

urban centres, smaller towns and agricultural hinterlands. The approach holds that 

LED should be based on a thorough understanding of the economic linkages between 

towns and their rural hinterlands, seen within the context of the national, 

regional (West African region, for example) and international economies. It seeks 

to identify key infrastructural needs to promote LED and, more recently has 

shown an interest in analysing the value chains that are most promising for further 

growth of a local economy. It includes both formal enterprises and informal activities 

in the agricultural, commercial, service and processing sectors as part of its 

focus, and seeks to graduate a growing proportion of informal into formal businesses. 

The ECOLOC programmes have three main phases: 

1. Study 

2. Dissemination 

3. Construction works (implementation). 6 

4 The word is an abbreviation of the French term for local economy, namely “l’Economie Lo- 

cale”. 

5 PDM, Club du Sahel and OECD (2001) “Managing the Economy Locally in Africa: Assessing 

local economies and their prospects, ECOLOC Handbook”. 

www.oecd.org/dataoecd/21/53/2428126.pdf 

6 The term “chantiers” used in the French literally translates into the English terms “construction 

site” or “construction works”. I have retained this literal translation here, and put the broader 

terms “implementation” in brackets as “construction works” captures better the strong emphasis 

of ECOLOC on physical infrastructure construction and upgrade.


The study phase has proved, in practice, to be ECOLOC’s main oeuvre. Compared 

to the other approaches reviewed here, ECOLOC’s diagnostic phase is outstanding 

in terms of its scope, complexity, depth and duration. The research is 

conducted over a period of four to six months, using a multi-disciplinary team of 

some 12 experts, including a team leader assisted by an external facilitator. An effort 

is made to ensure that researchers are drawn from the country and target localities, 

where possible. In practice, though, the ECOLOC approach, at least from 

my experience of its inauguration phase, made heavy use of external technical experts. 

The research is exceptionally thorough, involving several steps and including 

analysis not only of the economy, but also demographic, institutional, spatial and 

environmental dimensions of a locality. The analysis of the local economy is done 

within a 60 year time frame, retrospective to 1960 and prospective to 2020, using 

mainly national demographic and GDP data. Static, cross-sectional modelling of 

the local economy in its regional and national context is undertaken. 

A social accounting matrix, using national statistical sources supplemented by a 

local survey, is the centrepiece of the research. It models linkages between economic 

sectors within and their connections with economic sectors outside the locality, 

and includes linkages to local public institutions and households within the 

locality. The matrix provides the basis for estimation of the multiplier effects of 

investments within the economy and allows for the modelling of different scenarios 

of revenue collection and expenditure on its development. The justification 

for the heavy emphasis on the social accounting matrix is that it gives an understanding 

of the room to manoeuvre within a locality. It is argued in the ECOLOC 

manual that this enables careful planning of public expenditure and management 

of the process within the perspective of a long time horizon. 

The second phase of the programme involves the dissemination of research findings. 

Public participation is fairly restrictive at first, involving mainly the experts 

and the mayors during the study phase. In the phase of dissemination of findings, 

which takes some six months, the participatory process is widened to include representation 

from different constituencies present in the locality and, near the end 

of the phase, the whole population. The idea is that widening the participation 

process will deepen ownership of the ECOLOC programme over time, eventually 

leading to its embrace by all dweller in the locality. 

Implementation is undertaken in phase three, which begins about a year after the 

start of the ECOLOC process. This phase, labelled “construction works”, give 

much attention to construction and rehabilitation of physical infrastructure as part 

of improving the environment for business within localities.


Mayors are supposed to be in the driving seat at the local level, but in practice, it 

seems, the initiators of the ECOLOC programme have been donors. Nevertheless, 

there is growing recognition amongst ECOLOC’s promoters that other actors, 

notably organised business, and non-governmental and community-based organisations 

should be encouraged to get involved in an ECOLOC process, and that to 

gain their commitment, they should be more centrally involved from the beginning. 

Finally, ECOLOC has recognised that economies often cross-cut local authority 

boundaries, which means that LED promotion may require the collaboration of a 

number of adjacent municipal areas. This has led ECOLOC more recently to attempt 

to establish regional development agencies, ones that have a degree of 

autonomy from local governments, but work closely with them. 

2.3 The International Labour Office 

The ILO has been involved in LED promotion since the early 1990s. 7 It has run 

LED programmes in Mozambique, Angola and South Africa, and also in a number 

of Latin American, Asian and Eastern European countries. The centre-piece of 

the ILO’s programmes, at least until recently, is the Local Economic Development 

Agency (LEDA). 8 Most of the ILO’s efforts go into setting up LEDAs. LE- 

DAs are supposed to be the drivers of LED in their regions and the ILO believes 

they provide the best guarantee of sustainability. By 2003, 36 of these organisation 

had been established throughout the world, and these were reported to be 

running well, even after donor funding had been withdrawn. 9 Like ECOLOC, the 

ILO’s work in Africa has focussed mainly on towns and their rural hinterlands. 10 

7 Rodriguez-Pose A (2001) The role of the ILO in implementing local economic development 

strategies in a globalised world, Department of Geography and Environment, London School 

of Economics, London. See also: www.ilo.org/dyn/empent/docs/F514423847/adel_eng.pdf 

8 This is the central message that comes across from the ILO material on LEDAs on the internet. 

However a recent personal communication with the organisation indicates that the ILO’s approach 

to LEDAs is currently being reviewed. The organisation continues to believe that LE- 

DAs can play important roles in situations where local government and other support institutions 

for LED are weak, but believes that in some cases existing local organisations may be 

better placed to take LED promotion forward. Personal communication with Jens Christensen. 

9 IDEASS (2003) The Local Economic Development Agency, ILO LEDA publication. 

www.ilo.org/dyn/empent/docs/F514423847/adel_eng.pdf 

10 In terms of African experience, this paper gives special attention to the case of Mozambique, 

for which a substantial report exists: Van Boekel G & van Logtestijn M (2002) “Applying the 

Comprehensive LED approach: the case of Mozambique”, ILO. Geert.van.boekel@undp.org 

The ILO’s approach is set out in a number of papers and website pages for which references 

are given in following footnotes and in the websites at the end of the paper.


The ILO programme occurs in five steps, though these need not be strictly sequential: 

1. Territorial analysis 

2. Consensus building 

3. Promotion of the local economic forum (which becomes formalised in a 

LEDA during the fourth phase) 

4. Design of an LED strategy 

5. Implementation of the LED strategy. 11 

The process is initially led by two technical assistants hired by the ILO through 

UNOPS (the United Nations Office for Project Services), often with additional 

funding from other donors. 12 Having established contact with the national, regional 

and local authorities, the technical assistants launch the first phase of the process, 

which entails a fairly substantial territorial analysis. The aim of the ILO’s analysis 

is to provide a holistic overview of the local economy in its wider national context. 

It gives considerable attention to mapping the economy and institutions of 

the locality. While the spirit and intent of the study phase is similar to that of 

ECOLOC, the research takes place over a much shorter period, using fewer technical 

and financial resources, and is consequently much less ambitious and costly. 

The second phase, called “consensus building”, follows a similar logic to that of 

the “dissemination” phase of ECOLOC. However, the process involves wider and 

more open participation at this early stage, rather than starting fairly narrowly and 

widening later, as is prescribed by ECOLOC. Consensus building in the Mozambique 

case involved interviews, workshops, presentations and study tours. 

The third phase is one of dialogue amongst local stakeholders over the LED programme, 

leading to the creation of an LED forum. The forum combines local and 

regional government (including political leadership and senior officials), business 

representatives, rural farming cooperatives and a range of community organisa- 

11 This sequencing is from Van Boekel G & van Logtestijn M (2002) “Applying the Comprehensive 

LED approach: the case of Mozambique”, ILO. It may be compared with that from a more 

recent ILO publication by Weber on LED in South East Europe, which identifies the following 

steps in an ILO project: Territorial diagnosis and institutional mapping (which runs through the 

entire project), sensistising, promoting a local economic development forum (which later may 

be institutionalised as a LEDA), bottom-up strategy, long-term action plan, implementation 

(which runs parallel with territorial diagnosis and institutional mapping over the whole project 

period). Weber G (2005) Case Study: Experiences with the LED approach in South East 

Europe, Cooperazione Italiana and Universitas, Figure 1: LED project phases, p. 69. 

www.oit.org/dyn/empent/docs/F1544146141/weber%202005%20Case%20Study%20LED%20SE%20Eu 

rope.pdf 

12 http://www.unops.org


tions. Compared to the ECOLOC approach, the ILO draws business in at a much 

earlier stage and gives it a prominent role in partnership with local government 

through its involvement in the LED forum. 

The fourth phase involves the design of an LED strategy. Drawing on the research 

undertaken in the first phase, a participatory SWOT analysis is undertaken by the 

LED forum to pinpoint strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats in the local 

economy. This is followed by the formulation of an LED programme with projects 

and action plans, notably in the areas of finances, business development, 

training and infrastructure. The scope of action is thus somewhat wider than that 

of ECOLOC. 

During the fourth phase, a major focus of energy is on the creation of a regional 

LEDA. 13 The intention is to establish a dynamic and flexible organisation staffed 

with skilled operators and a light and cost-effective administrative support structure. 

The ILO documents stress that in creating LEDAs the intention is not to replace 

or compete with existing government, private sector or community organisations. 

The role of the LEDA is rather to facilitate and intermediate between 

other actors and institutions operating in the area. It performs two main functions: 

creating a forum for broad-based, bottom up participatory, strategic planning, and 

providing financial and non-financial business development services, particularly 

to small and micro enterprises run by the poor. 

The fifth phase involves implementation of the LED strategy. 

2.4 German Development Cooperation 

In South Africa in particular, GTZ 14 and InWEnt 15 , two German Cooperation organisations 

have played an important role in introducing a business and market 

perspective to LED, to a significant extent drawing on the work of Mesopartner, a 

consultancy based in Duisburg, Germany, that has been operating since 2003. The 

German Cooperation in other parts of Africa is not necessarily so closely tied to 

13 ILO (2001) Local Economic Development, 

www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/led/about/index.htm; IDEASS (2003) The Local Economic 

Development Agency, ILO LEDA publication, 

www.ilo.org/dyn/empent/docs/F514423847/adel_eng.pdf ; Weber G (2005) Case Study: Experiences 

with the LED approach in South East Europe, Cooperazione Italiana and Universitas, 

www.oit.org/dyn/empent/docs/F1544146141/weber%202005%20Case%20Study%20LED%2 

0SE%20Europe.pdf. 

14 GTZ is the acronym for Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit. 

15 InWEnt is the acronym for Internationale Weiterbulding und Entwicklung gGmbH (Capacity 

Building International Germany).


Mesopartner’s approach, and I am using the work of Mesopartner in South Africa 

and a number of other countries in Africa as the basis of my review here. Mesopartner’s 

showpiece is the PACA exercise, the Participatory Appraisal of Competitive 

Advantage. 16 PACA exercises have been undertaken in over several hundred 

localities in 30 developing and transition countries, including a substantial 

number in South Africa, some in Ghana and one in Uganda. 

Unlike the other approaches reviewed here, the PACA approach is rooted in an 

explicitly articulated conceptual framework, illustrated in the Hexagon of LED. 17 

Within the Hexagon, the target group of LED is business, including existing 

small, medium, large and aspirant businesses within the locality, and also potential 

investors from outside. The “hard core” of LED comprises enterprise and locality 

development. Locality development refers to improvements in the attractiveness 

of the locality for business, which includes such elements as infrastructure, 

services, the state of the natural environment, the presence of supportive industries 

and services for businesses, the state of the business climate and the 

availability of supportive education, training, research and other institutions. 

Within the hexagon, community development and the natural environment are 

treated as part of a “widened scope” of LED. The Hexagon also incorporates an 

explicit focus on LED governance and on managing an LED process. 

A PACA project is made up of three main phases: 

1. The build-up 

2. The PACA exercise, 

3. The actions that follow. 

During the build-up, a consultant team of one or two external facilitators trained 

in the PACA approach interacts with local champions and prepares for the PACA 

exercise. Local champions gather initial information on the area and prepare local 

stakeholders for the exercise, using brochures and flyers on PACA to provide an 

initial description of the approach. 

The PACA exercise involves the following seven steps: 

1. Preparation 

2. Hypothesis testing 

3. Kick-off workshop 

16 www.paca-online.de 

17 Meyer-Stamer J (2004) A summary of the hexagon of local economic development, Mesopartner, 

Duisburg, p 3. www.paca-online.de


4. Fieldwork interviews and mini-workshops 

5. Findings workshop 

6. Presentation of findings workshop 

7. Way forward workshop. 

Rather than envisaging LED as a linear sequence of steps that take place over 

months or years, PACA combines diagnosis, participation and action planning in 

one tightly structured and carefully facilitated process lasting two to three weeks. 

The preparation that takes place prior to the exercise involves documentary research 

based on readily accessible information, supplemented by the information 

gathered from the local champion and a core local team assembled during the 

build-up phase. The aim of this preliminary assessment is to provide the external 

facilitators and core local team with enough information on the locality and its 

economy to formulate a hypothesis about its structure, dynamics and the key opportunities 

for LED promotion. This hypothesis guides the work of the PACA 

team throughout the exercise and is tested periodically as information is gathered 

and understanding deepened. 

The kick-off workshop begins the local mobilisation process by introducing the 

PACA team and the newly constituted local core team. The external facilitators 

explain the meaning, objectives and methods of LED and prepare the local 

stakeholders for the field work, presentation workshop and what follows. As the 

acronym PACA highlights, the focus of the approach is on participatory appraisal 

of local competitive advantage, with the local actors themselves being intensely 

involved from the outset. The local team is empowered to undertake the diagnosis 

with the support of the external facilitators, thereby building their capacity from 

the very beginning of the exercise so that, ideally, by the end they are able to take 

over. 

The field work involves carefully structured interviews and mini-workshops using 

diagnostic tools grounded in the concept of competitive advantage. It is followed 

by an intensive “results” workshop in which the PACA team returns to the initial 

hypotheses, pools findings, analyses the local economy and identifies key opportunities 

for action. These results are then presented to stakeholders at the “presentation” 

workshop. The presentation workshop gathers together all those who 

were involved during the interviews and mini workshops, plus any others who 

have been mobilised during the process. The workshop enables the local 

stakeholders to assimilate the team’s findings, contribute further information, insights 

and suggestions, discuss proposed actions and agree on a way forward. The 

“way-forward” workshop, which takes place immediately after the presentation 

workshop, is specifically for those who commit to one or more actions agreed 

upon in the presentation workshop. The way forward workshop is designed to as-


sist these committed local actors to convert ideas for action into action plans with 

drivers, collaborators, resources and time frames. 

Following the way-forward workshop, the external facilitators withdraw physically 

from the locality, but provide back-up support to the local champions via 

email and internet. They may return subsequently, but only if there is a need for 

their support and if they are approached to do so by the local actors. 

2.5 UN-Habitat 

The UN-Habitat is a relative newcomer to the field of LED promotion in Africa. 

Its approach was developed by Ecoplan International, a Canadian based planning 

consultancy with international experience in strategic planning, local economic 

development, community planning, resource and environmental planning and 

tourism. It produced the first draft manual in 2003. 18 Like the WB approach, discussed 

above, the UN-Habitat approach is rooted in strategic planning, and the final 

manual, which appeared in 2005, is actually entitled Promoting Local Economic 

Development through Strategic Planning. 19 Although this approach has thus 

far been applied only once, to my knowledge, in Africa (in Zambia), 20 I include it 

here because it has a number of interesting orientations that differ from the others. 

The UN-Habitat’s strategic planning approach to LED is organised in terms of a 

series of four questions: 

Where are we now? 

Where do we want to go? 

How are we going to get there? 

How do we know when we have arrived? 

For the UN-Habitat, answering its five questions, involves ten steps to what it describes 

as “planning excellence”. These ten steps, arranged within the five questions 

set out above, are as follows: 

Where are we now? 

1. Getting started 

2. Stakeholders and participation 

18 http://www.ecoplan.ca/ 

19 The Ecoplan International website refers to an updated version of this manual in 2005, but this 

is not available on the website, so I have used the 2003 version for the discussion here. 

20 Personal communication with W Trousdale April 2007.


3. Situation assessment 

Where do we want to go? 

4. Visioning 

5. Issues and objectives 

How are we going to get there? 

6. Strategy development. 

7. Action planning 

8. Organisation and implementation 

How do we know when we have arrived? 

9. Monitor and evaluate 

10. Adjust and modify 

These ten steps are illustrated in a circle to demonstrate that the process is ongoing, 

and constantly evolving through a process of adjustment and modification, 

and that it involves periodic strategic review. The manual emphasises the importance 

of a business enabling environment, which includes clear rules and procedures 

in government, a safe political environment, easy business entry, and efficient 

regulation and enforcement. Unlike the other approaches, it has an explicit 

focus on poverty reduction and argues that LED cannot reduce poverty effectively 

without incorporating explicit poverty reduction actions. For the UN-Habitat, being 

inclusive means involving both the formal and informal economies. It means 

making specific efforts to include those who are traditionally left out of LED processes, 

such as youth, women and children, and also ensuring that they have access 

to the opportunities created by the process. It attaches importance to the role 

of champions in driving LED and, like the PACA approach, advocates the establishment 

of a core local team early in the process to undertake the assessment and 

strategic planning work, with the support of external facilitators. 

3 Comparing the approaches across seven variables 

The Annex to this paper on Features of LED Approaches provides a summary of 

findings on the different approaches to LED based on the variables set out in Table 

1 above. This section uses this information to compare the five approaches 

across these seven variables.


3.1 Conceptual frameworks 

In its contemporary form, LED promotion can be understood as an organized, 

purposeful response to the opportunities and threats presented to local economies 

and communities by globalization and regionalization. A large and growing international 

literature supports the view that globalization increases the importance of 

sub-national territories in development. 21 While economic globalization intensifies 

linkages between some economies through rapid economic and information flows, 

it weakens these linkages for those that do not have the resources to respond. Local 

economies in industrialized countries, especially their major economic centres, 

are well placed to take advantages of the opportunities globalisation provides, 

whereas low income countries, especially local economies on their rural peripheries, 

are particularly vulnerable to its threats. 22 Nevertheless, local action, even in 

poor, marginalised localities, can make a difference to local development prospects, 

depending on the local resource base, the ways a locality is connected to the 

regional and global value chains that cross cut it, the quality of local leadership 

and the strength of relationships between key local actors. 

Grounding a LED approach in an understanding of local development under globalisation 

is important not only for assessing the prospects of its success in different 

kinds of localities, but also the appropriateness of its methods, processes and 

tools, if a purely voluntarist approach is to be avoided. With these thoughts in 

mind, I briefly examine the conceptual underpinnings of the five approaches. 

The WB’s work on LED does not seem to be explicitly grounded in a theory of 

local development, at least as far as can be judged from the manuals. 23 The central 

organising principles are those of strategic planning. 24 The UN-Habitat’s approach 

21 I do not attempt to review this literature here, just to provide some pointers. An important early 

contribution is Scott A and Storpor M (1990) “Regional development reconsidered” in Ernste 

H and Meier V (eds.) Regional Development and Contemporary Industrial Response, Belhaven 

Press, London. A helpful recent contribution is Messner D (2003) “The network based global 

economy: a new governance triangle for regions” in Schmitz H (ed) Local Enterprises and 

Ugrading, Elgar, Cheltenham. A helpful paper based on Latin American experience is by Bosier 

S (2005) “Is there Room for Local Development in a Globalized World”, CEPAL Review 

86, August. 

22 For an examination of the prospects for LED in African countries see Helmsing AHJ (2003a) 

“Governance of Local Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, Who are the Dancers 

and are they in tune?” Institute for Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands, June. 

23 Swinburn G, Goga S and Murphy F (2006) Local Economic Development: A Primer Developing 

Local Economic Development Strategies and Action Plans, WB, New York. See also the 

WB’s earlier website manual on LED www.worldbank.org/urban/led. 

24 Swinburn and Yatta enunciate a number of other principles underlying the strategic approach 

to LED, but these too are not connected into an explicit theory of local development. Swinburn 

G and Yatta F (2006) Furthering the LED Agenda in Africa: A Discussion Paper Presented by


is close to the WB’s in that it, too, makes strategic planning the central organising 

principle of LED. The UN-Habitat does explicitly discuss the centrality of globalisation 

and the opportunities and threats that this provides for local economic 

development, but does not ground its work in an explicit theory of local development, 

instead arguing that the way to deal with LED is to “take a pragmatic approach 

to globalisation and poverty reduction through research into markets, fair 

trade, information sharing and responsive governments that incorporates participatory 

planning into the decision making process”. 25 

As mentioned in Section 2 above, ECOLOC has developed a sophisticated approach 

to the study of local economies, but its work is not, judging from its manual, 

grounded in an explicit theory of local economic development. As in the 

WB’s approach, its main effort has gone into developing the concepts and tools to 

further the practice of LED but without seeking to understand the underlying 

forces that drive the inclusion and exclusion of local economies from mainstream 

global markets, and hence the prospects for taking action to deal with these forces. 

The ILO has put a great deal of effort into understanding the impact of globalisation 

on local economies and in working through the conditions under which LED 

initiatives are able to respond effectively. 26 It has developed an approach that seeks 

to build on the competitive advantages of localities while including the most marginalised 

groups in LED process so as to reduce social exclusion. This explicit 

coupling of competitive advantage and social inclusion is an important feature of 

the ILO’s work, one that most distinguishes it from the others. The overall aim is 

to create “decent work” and stimulate economic activity. Through the services 

provided by LEDAs, the ILO seeks to promote micro and small businesses, notably 

those that strengthen territorial competitiveness and reduce social exclusion. 27 

The absence of a theoretical framework explaining what determines competitive- 

the Municipal Development Table 2, p. 5. For a more developed statement of the principles 

that underlie this approach see Swinburn G (ed) (2006) Talk is Cheap: Turning Local Economic 

Development Strategies into Reality in Transition Countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, 

Macedonia, and Moldova, Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative. 

25 UN-Habitat, Promoting Local Economic Development through Strategic Planning, Volume 

Quick Guide, p. 6. 

26 Rodriguez-Pose A (2001) The role of the ILO in implementing local economic development 

strategies in a globalised world, Department of Geography and Environment, London School 

of Economics, London. Cancenelli G (2001) “Local Economic Development, Human Development 

and Decent Work: Overview and Learned Lessons”, Geneva; Cancenelli G, Dichter G, 

Programa Universitas (2003) Local Economic Development, Human Development and Decent 

Work: Best Practices”, Geneva. 

27 ILO (2003) The Local Economic Development Agency, IDEASS. 

http://www.forumpartnerships.net/attach/TND_03_B_ILO_IDEASS.pdf


ness and how this relates to social exclusion leaves means that it is difficult to 

judge the circumstances in which the actions proposed are most likely to work. 

Unlike the others reviewed here, Mesopartner’s approach is explicitly grounded in 

theories of local economic development, notably Michael Porter’s explanation of 

the sources of competitive advantage, and the theory of systemic competitiveness 

developed by Meyer-Stamer and others. 28 The advantages of working with an empirically 

substantiated theory of the determinants of local competitiveness are 

considerable for an LED practitioner. It provides a focus and tools that guide diagnosis 

of the strengths and weaknesses of local economies and the actions that 

are most likely to strengthen them. 

However, an unanswered question for approaches based on the concepts of competitive 

advantage and systemic competitiveness is what is to be done about localities 

that have been left behind by the forces of globalisation, the chronic losers 

in the competitive match. Since much of Africa, falls into this category at present, 

some serious thinking is needed within these approaches about how to deal with 

the dark side of competitive advantage, particularly if it is to be used as the organising 

principle for the stimulation of marginalised local economies. 29 

3.2 Objectives and target groups 

The objectives of LED are changing. In high income countries, the approach was 

associated with growth stimulation to stimulate the economy and increase the tax 

base of local authorities. LED has also bee strongly associated with efforts in affluent 

countries to regenerate declining urban and rural enclaves, for example in 

the area partnerships in Europe since the 1950s. 

With the application of LED in low income countries over the last ten to fifteen 

years, poverty reduction has come squarely onto the agenda, particularly since the 

adoption of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals in 2002. 30 It is 

stating the obvious to say that poverty is a majority, not a minority, problem in 

Africa, where it exists across wide swathes of rural and urban areas, but it is this, 

28 Porter ME (1990) The Competitive Advantage of Nations, New York, Free Press; Altenburg T, 

Hillebrand W and Meyer-Stamer J (1998) “Building Systematic Competitiveness: Concept and 

case studies from Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay, Korea and Thailand”, German Development Institute, 

Reports and Working Papers 3. 

29 There is interesting literature emerging on this question from Latin America, examples of 

which are Lira I S (2005)”Local Economic Development and Territorial Competitiveness in 

Latin America”, CEPAL Review 85, April; Finot I (2005) “Decentralisation, Territorial Transfers 

and Local Development”, CEPAL Review 86, August. 

30 http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals


along economic globalisation, that changes the scale and nature of the LED, and 

calls for adaptation of its focus and methods. 

To orient LED towards the challenges of Africa, I have defined its overall objective 

as poverty reduction, while retaining economic growth stimulation, tax enhancement, 

income and employment growth, as its immediate developmental objectives. 

The effect of this is to sets up economic growth as the means by which 

poverty may be reduced, something that is currently being advocated very widely 

in Africa. 

The relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction is, of course, by 

no means straightforward. Although economic growth is associated with poverty 

reduction in countries where the distribution of income is fairly equal, it can be 

associated with growing poverty, and this tends to happen in countries where the 

distribution of income is highly unequal, as has been the case in South Africa, for 

example, since its democratic transition from 1994. This means that approaches to 

LED in Africa cannot assume that growth stimulation will automatically lead to 

poverty reduction. There is, as the UN-Habitat approach has stressed, a need for a 

deliberate effort to promote growth that favours the poor; that is inclusive. 

Clear and appropriate identification of the target groups of LED is important if 

growth and poverty reduction objectives are to be achieved. While the ultimate 

beneficiaries should obviously be the poor, not all of the poor may be able to 

benefit immediately, or even in the short term. It has been shown, for example, 

that business support measures that focus on small, medium and micro enterprises 

have not been strongly associated with poverty reduction. 31 Confusion about the 

goals and means of LED and about appropriate target groups can lead to poor design 

of LED programmes, a waste of public resources and outright implementation 

failure, as was the case in South Africa over the decade from 1994 to about 

2004. 32 

Neither the WB nor ECOLOC are explicit about the target groups of LED. For the 

WB it seems that the “community” is the ultimate target group. In the ECOLOC 

approach, local government appears to be the main local actor, even though businesses 

and communities are brought into the process to play a growing role over 

31 Beck T, Demirguc-Kunt A and Levine R (2003) Small Enterprises, Growth and Poverty: 

Cross-Country Evidence, WB Research Working Paper 3137, December found that there is no 

evidence that SMEs reduce poverty. 

32 LED policy in South Africa sought to reduce poverty directly by subsidising community 

groups from poor localities to develop enterprises. The majority of these enterprises closed 

down as soon as the subsidies came to an end. See Hindson D and Hindson V (2005) “Whither 

LED in South Africa? A Commentary on the Policy Guidelines for Implementing Local Economic 

Development in South Africa”. www.selda.org.za/newsletters/whither_LED.html


the programme cycle and are the main intended beneficiaries. The ILO is much 

more explicit about its target group. While it works closely with local government, 

the target groups are explicitly defined as small and micro enterprises, including 

managers and workers within them. In a recent document the ILO states 

that the objectives of LED are to reduce poverty and social exclusion and improve 

the quality of life of the poor in low income countries, particularly the poorer regions 

within them. 33 LED is intended to achieve these objectives by improving the 

access of the poor and excluded to decent and sustainable jobs, according to this 

approach. 

The UN-Habitat approach is strongly oriented towards community development. 

It does not explicitly define its target group, but emphasises instead the importance 

of including all stakeholders it its processes. Amongst these stakeholders it 

specifically mentions national, regional and local government, corporate, medium, 

small and informal businesses, banks and credit unions, trade and labour unions, 

community and non-governmental organisations, women's groups, poor and disadvantaged 

groups, environmental groups and the general public. Like the ILO, it 

sees LED as a tool for reducing poverty and social exclusion. While there is a 

good deal of experience to show that broad-based participation is good for building 

the legitimacy of development initiatives, it is by no means clear that it ensures 

that all who get involved will necessarily benefit. Furthermore, participatory 

processes that do not result in tangible outputs for those who have been drawn in 

can lead to participant frustration and disillusionment. A more focussed approach 

that mobilises those with the capacity to respond to the opportunities that LED 

brings may be more successful, even if it benefits a smaller number of people at 

first. This, at least, is the rationale behind Mesopartner’s definition of LED’s target 

group, to which I turn next. 

Mesopartner is much more clear-cut than the four preceding approaches about its 

target group. It is no more or less than enterprises. The Hexagon emphasises that 

all categories of enterprises should be involved in LED promotion, including local 

and aspirant businesses within the locality and potential investors who can be attracted 

to it from outside. It stresses that focussing on the linkages between existing, 

aspirant and externally based potential investors are as important as focussing 

on the individual businesses themselves. Local government can play important 

roles in enterprise development but should not be its driver, expect in those 

spheres in which it can help improve the environment for business. 

33 A clear statement of this is to be found in the ILO Resource Kit developed in the Philippines, 

which focus on local development in general, but devotes a whole chapter to local economic 

development and decent work. ILO (2005) Local Development and Decent Work, Part 4, 

Strengthening Local Economic Growth.


There is no explicit treatment of the link between enterprise development and 

poverty reduction in the Hexagon or in PACA approach. Nevertheless, with the 

increasing application of the PACA method to poor rural regions in low income 

countries the poverty reduction potential of LED has come onto Mesopartner’s 

agenda. In a paper written in 2004, Mesopartner argues that PACA favours the 

poor because increased transparency in the local economy removes barriers to entry 

for not-so-well connected individuals. 34 

3.3 Geographical scope 

Some of the origins of LED lie in urban regeneration strategies aimed at declining 

enclaves of cities in affluent northern countries where area partnerships have been 

formed to promote LED, for example in Europe. More recently, this has been 

happening in rural regions as a result of the LEADER programme, a European 

Union initiative. 35 The big shift in international LED practice, though, is the current 

one towards poor regions in low income countries in Africa and elsewhere, 

impelled by the ideas that LED, as an approach, may have something to contribute. 

With this shift to low income countries, the geographical focus of LED has 

widening considerably. It is now quite common to find LED being pursued in 

districts and regions with populations in the hundreds of thousands, rather than the 

low thousands typical in the regeneration enclaves of area partnerships in Europe. 

The WB does not explicitly discuss the geographical scope of a LED programme, 

but the role given to local government in this approach would suggest that municipal 

boundaries define it. ECOLOC’s geographical scope is wider than this, not 

surprising given its focus on poor rural regions in Africa. Apart from the much 

greater size of populations covered in the districts in which ECOLOC works, 

compared to Europe, a feature of the ECOLOC approach is the close attention 

given to the main regional centre within a study area, which is seen as a potential 

pole of development that may connect its agricultural hinterland with the national 

economy and global markets. Detailed spatial mapping of zones within the regional 

centre, their current role and likely future directions of expansion are one 

of the products of an ECOLOC study. 

The geographical focus of the ILO is similar to that of ECOLOC, namely rural areas 

in low income countries, though it does include larger cities at times, for ex- 

34 Mesopartner, Local Economic Development, PACA and Equity, PACA Flash, No. 9, May 

2004. 

35 LEADER (Links between Actions of Rural Development). This is an area-based bottom up, 

holistic and participatory approach to the development of rural communities. For a basic introduction 

see http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rur/leaderplus/pdf/factsheet_en.pdf


ample Maputo, in the case of its work in Mozambique. The region chosen might 

include a number of districts clustered around a regional centre, which is the most 

likely place for a LEDA to be located, as, for example, in the case in the provinces 

of Sofala and Manica in Mozambique. In South Africa, where the ILO was involved 

in establishing four LEDAs in four provinces, the areas chosen were also 

predominantly made up of poor rural districts with large populations. 36 The UN- 

Habitat approach is similar to that of the ILO and ECOLOC, in that it uses local 

government jurisdictions as the basis its work, although the UN-Habitat manual 

does emphasise that “defining the ‘local’ area is a pragmatic exercise based on 

common linkages, constraints and common sense”. 

PACA exercises tend to take place in geographical areas that are smaller than 

those chosen by ECOLOC or the ILO. They would typically include a town and 

its rural hinterland, rather than an entire region made up of several districts each 

with its own small town centre. At its inception, the focus of much of the work of 

Mesopartner was on towns in middle income countries such as Brazil and South 

Africa. Increasingly, PACA exercises are being conducted in low income countries 

such as Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Ghana and Uganda where the geographical focus 

may include several hundred thousand people. In addition to towns and their 

rural hinterlands, PACA exercises may be conducted in parts of larger towns, cities 

and metropolitan areas, but in these cases, the focus would be, for example, on 

an economic cluster or a part of a city that constitutes a meaningful spatioeconomic 

unit. What determines the geographical scope of a PACA exercise is the 

potential for mobilisation of the actors and to create working networks that connect 

them. 

3.4 Initiators, drivers and champions 

Local government has for a long time been seen as the main driver of LED, but 

this idea is increasingly being questioned as the private sector and its concerns 

loom larger on the LED agenda. Local government is seen as the main driver in 

the WB, ECOLOC, ILO and UN-Habitat approaches. It can play a leading role, 

either itself or through a specialized agency established to promote LED, as for 

example in the ILO LEDAs, discussed below. 

The South African experience is instructive on this question. During the first decade 

after apartheid, national policy gave the driving role to local government. This 

led to exclusion of other key actors, notably business and civil society organisa- 

36 Pretorius A and Blaauw D (2005) “Local Economic Development Agencies in South Africa – 

Six Years Later”, Paper presented to the Economic Society of South Africa, Biennial Conference, 

7-9 September, Durban. www.essa.org.za/download/2005Conference/Pretorius.pdf


tions from state sponsored LED. This is one important reason why LED, as pursued 

during this period, failed in its central objectives and why it led to disillusionment 

with LED as a development approach in South Africa. Policy reforms in 

the last two years have acknowledged this, and now define local government’s 

role in terms of facilitating rather than necessarily driving LED. Policy now 

stresses the need for partnerships between government, business and other actors 

to implement projects and programmes. The lesson that may be drawn from South 

African experience with LED is that local government is uniquely placed to initiate, 

convene and coordinate LED, but that driving specific LED initiatives is best 

left to those who are most closely concerned, with appropriate involvement and 

support from the other actors. In terms of improvements in the regulatory environment, 

for example, local government itself is best placed to take the lead, but 

needs the input of business if it is to better understand where the major problems 

lie. Business development services are often best supplied by business associations 

or by private service supplies, except where externalities make public support 

more effective. Similarly, community-based LED initiatives need community 

leadership, but may require the support of local government or private sector partners. 

37 

The role of individuals, as against institutions, is gaining growing recognition as a 

key factor in the success of LED. Public entrepreneurship is an element stressed in 

the literature on the European Union area partnerships. This is also something that 

emerges strongly from the ILO’s documents on LEDAs, which emphasise the importance 

to their success of the quality of leadership. 38 The importance of leadership 

is also a feature of some recent evaluations of the WB’s strategic LED approach, 

39 and the UN-Habitat’s manual, which refers to local champions driving 

LED. 

The role of dynamic individuals is taken even further in the PACA approach, 

which carefully defines the characteristics and roles of local champions. These are 

people who may be located in local government, businesses or the community, or 

simply operate as individuals. Champions are people with good connections with 

key stakeholders and the commitment, technical and personal capabilities to initi- 

37 On the South African experience with LED see Hindson D and Hindson V (2005) “Whither 

LED in South Africa? A Commentary on the Policy Guidelines for Implementing Local Economic 

Development in South Africa”, SELDA. 

38 Weber G (2005) Case Study: Experiences with the LED approach in South East Europe, Cooperazione 

Italiana and Universitas, case studies, p. 18-63, 

www.oit.org/dyn/empent/docs/F1544146141/weber%202005%20Case%20Study%20LED%20 

SE%20Europe.pdf. 

39 See the case studies in Swinburn G ed. (2006) Talk is Cheap: Turning Local Economic Development 

Strategies into Reality in Transition Countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia 

and Moldova, Local Government and Public Sector Reform Initiative.


ate and sustain LED initiatives. They are the main drivers of LED in the PACA 

approach. The identification of champions is deliberately built into the methodology 

and the quality of local champions is regarded a critical element in the success 

of a PACA exercise. 

3.5 Resources and external dependence 

Past definitions of LED stress the importance of local resource mobilisation to 

stimulate local development. It is clear this should remain a major focus of LED 

initiatives, particularly the idea that it is local actors and institutions that should be 

the primary drivers. However, an exclusive focus on local resources would be too 

limiting. One reason is that in Africa, most public resources used by local governments 

come from either the national state or donors, so the way these are used, 

for example to improve the environment for business, is also very important. Another 

reason is that upgrading commodity value chains may represent an important 

element, sometimes the key one, in stimulating LED. These value chains 

cross-cut territories in a way that calls into question the distinction between “local” 

and “external” resources, and this complicates the LED challenge in important 

ways. 40 

All five approaches attach importance to the mobilisation of local resources in the 

success and sustainability of LED. I focus here on the narrower question of the resources 

needed to mount an LED process within a locality, noting that there is a 

larger issue at stake. This question of external dependence on technical expertise 

from donors has become increasingly sensitive in recent times. The issues was 

highlighted by the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in 2005, which emphasised, 

inter alia, the importance of donors building the capacity of beneficiary 

governments to take over and run national programmes initiated by donors, rather 

than the donors continuing to run these programmes themselves as has tended to 

be the pattern in the past. 41 

The WB model, at least on its LED website, does not go into this question explicitly. 

It seems to presuppose that LED initiatives will depend mainly on locally 

generated resources, whether these are derived from local government budgets or 

from business and community inputs. The size of the teams mobilized for LED 

40 For an illuminating paper on the role of local and external resources in stimulating “integrated” 

and “non-integrated” rural development in a European Union context, see Nemes G (2006) 

“Integrated Rural Development: the Concept and Its Operation” Magyar Tudomanyos Akademia. 

Budapest. 

41 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, Ownership, Harmonisation, Alignment, Results and 

Mutual Accountability, High Level Forum, Paris, 28 th February to 2 nd March. 

http://www1.worldbank.org/harmonization/Paris/FINALPARISDECLARATION.pdf


programmes is not given, but the impression gained from a reading of the WB’s 

manuals is that the diagnosis of the local economy requires considerable specialized 

research input. 42 

The information on ECOLOC is explicit on the scale of support needed to promote 

its model of LED. Inter-disciplinary teams of twelve experts (a mix of locals 

and internationals) are assembled for up to six months, funded from donor 

sources. It is inconceivable that local governments, or even national ones, in most 

of Africa could afford this kind and depth of research from their own budgets. Inevitably, 

it is the international donors that foot the bill. For this reason, ECO- 

LOC’s study phase, which is its most impressive achievement, may also be its 

Achilles heel. African governments cannot afford it and donors are unlikely to 

stand in for them for long, especially since the developmental achievements of 

this approach are not clear. 

The ILO is lighter in external resource use than ECOLOC. Two foreign technical 

assistants are funded for three years to see the programme through to the point 

where the LEDA is up and running. The international consultants are supported 

by national experts in the diagnostic phase, and these experts, too, are paid from 

donor sources. There is a strong emphasis in the ILO approach on building the capacities 

of local actors and institutions to promote LED. This includes local government, 

education and training institutions, research and other centres that are 

able to play a role. The LEDAs themselves are funded on a sliding scale from 

100% in the first year to 0% after the fifth, and the organisation claims that they 

have, by and large, been able to survive and continue after funding has been withdrawn. 

43 Part of a LEDA’s finances are generated from charging clients for business 

development services, and part from governments and donors subsidies. The 

ILO approach thus anticipates that the local actors, including the LEDA itself, will 

become financially self-sufficient within a defined time period. 

The manuals on the UN-Habitat approach do not make explicit the costs of running 

their exercises. They do, however, emphasise the importance of local capacity 

building, and the UN-Habitat has run training exercises to build such capacities, 

for example in Kenya in 2005 and Cairo in 2006. 

The PACA approach is by far the lightest in external resource use. It depends 

heavily on volunteer local champions to prepare the way for the PACA exercises 

42 This is certainly the case for LED promotion in South East European transition countries, 

where the WB model has recently been applied with substantial donor support. 42 

43 ILO (2003) The Local Economic Development Agency, IDEASS (Innovations for Development 

and South-South Cooperation) ILO LEDA publication, p 9. 

http://www.forumpartnerships.net/attach/TND_03_B_ILO_IDEASS.pdf


and to drive the local initiatives after the PACA facilitators have left the scene. 

There are no permanent technical assistants. Instead, national PACA facilitators 

are trained by Mesopartner in an effort to create a supply of local consultants to 

service their countries and regions. This has happened to some degree in South 

Africa, for example, enabling the up-scaling of LED nationally. In the PACA 

view, external public resource dependence undermines LED by replacing local 

initiative with dependence. 

In comparing the degree of external financial dependence involved in the PACA 

approach with that of the other approaches, account must taken of the number of 

paid consultants involved, namely one or two for a two to three-week mission, as 

against twelve over four to six months, in the case of ECOLOC, and four over 

about four months, in the case of the ILO. 

3.6 Implementation processes 

All five approaches envisage diagnostic, mobilization, implementation and review 

processes, but they differ in terms of the importance attached to each stage, how 

the stages are sequenced and how and by whom they are managed. 

The WB, ILO and UN-Habitat approaches envisage substantial diagnostic stages, 

ones that take place before or after mobilization of key stakeholders. An ECO- 

LOC project is preceded by interaction between the donors and their national and 

local government counterparts, followed by intensive work involving the international 

and national technical experts, the local authorities and other actors in the 

region, until the diagnosis, research and economic modelling phase is complete. 

The approach that these four organisations follow thus involves a linear, sequential 

logic. 44 

UN-Habitat’s equivalent to the diagnosis phase is called Situation Analysis for 

Local Economic Development, and focuses on three tasks: collection and review 

of research already available, creation of a local economic profile, and assessment 

and analysis of the local economy. The UN-Habitat’s approach follows a circular 

sequence, and the manual emphasises the importance of pursuing a continuous 

process, constantly adapting practice on the basis of learning, so that one round of 

the circle is followed by another based on improvements. 

The sequence of a PACA exercise is also circular, rather than linear, but that is 

where the similarities end. In contrast to the other four, the PACA approach inte- 

44 It should be mentioned that the ILO documents do emphasise that diagnosis and implementation 

are aspects that continue throughout the process, thereby qualifying the linear, sequential 

logic.


grates all steps (participation, diagnosis & actions, review) into one short, intense, 

highly structured and carefully facilitated process. Participatory diagnosis itself 

mobilises actors to a point where they are able to plan actions for implementation. 

Implementation involves reflexive learning to stimulate innovation and constant 

adaptation. Reflexive learning leads back to diagnosis in ensuing rounds, each 

time based on deepening experience of what works and does not work. This, according 

to the PACA logic, is what turns the learning and innovation circle into an 

iterative, benign growth spiral. 

There are also important differences in the conception and role of planning in 

these approaches. Many donor-driven LED programmes in Africa are based on 

one or other variant of the “logical framework”. 45 This is a strategic planning approach 

that, at least in theory, begins with participatory problem identification, 

establishes an implementation logic based on analyses of the causal chain leading 

to these problems, converts problems into desired objectives, formulates projects 

to tackle these problems and then raises the resources to fund and implement the 

projects. Donors like this planning approach. The participatory dimension gives it 

legitimacy. Its workplans stipulate quantifiable outputs that can be measured in 

terms of “objectively verifiable indicators”. The monitoring and evaluation systems 

linked to the logical framework enable donors to exercise oversight of the 

use of funds. The method works well with easily measurable physical outputs 

such as infrastructure. It is less well suited to measuring the achievements of LED 

stimulation, such as business, employment and income growth. The reason is that 

these variables are strongly influenced by external factors such as markets, political 

conditions and seasonal variations, making attribution of programme impacts 

complex. Nevertheless, the strategic planning logic underlies all the approaches 

reviewed here apart from PACA. 

Planning in the PACA approach has a rather different meaning. The term describes 

the process by which local actors decide on which actions need to be taken 

to exploit opportunities that will stimulate a growth dynamic in their locality rapidly. 

Business opportunities and ones to improve the environment for business are 

identified in the PACA diagnosis. They are assessed in terms of three main criteria: 

can they be realised with local resources; will they have a visible impact; and 

can they be implemented within a short space of time, say three months. The aim 

is to start the LED process immediately and achieve visible results quickly in order 

to build confidence, enthusiasm and widening involvement in LED. Post- 

PACA processes are unpredictable because they depend on the initiative of local 

actors. Compared to those approaches that are based on a strategic planning logic, 

45 Examples are the European Union funded LED programmes in the provinces of KwaZulu- 

Natal, Limpopo and Eastern Cape and the United Nations Capital Development Fund LEDoriented 

Local Development Programmes in Mwanza in Tanzania and in Uganda.


this makes the method less attractive for donors and other organisations that have 

to budget in advance and that need predictability for planning purposes. 

3.7 Institutions and sustainability 

There is a widespread view in donor circles that institutionalising activities provides 

a guarantee that they will be sustained. It is this thinking that explains why 

the WB, ECOLOC, ILO and UN-Habitat all emphasise the importance of 

strengthening LED institutions or establishing new ones, notably Local Economic 

Development Agencies (LEDAs). 

The WB provides guidelines for the establishment of LEDAs as specialized agencies 

dedicated to economic and social regeneration. 46 At first, ECOLOC focused 

on building the capacities of local government to take on LED promotion, but 

soon realised that economic systems often cross-cut municipal boundaries and that 

institutions would be needed to promote LED within wider regions. This, in turn, 

led ECOLOC promoters to establish regional LEDAs that serve clusters of local 

municipalities. 

Since the early 1990s, the ILO has put a great deal of energy into establishing 

LEDAs, and, at least until very recently, the LEDA has been the centre-piece of 

their LED work, as mentioned earlier. LEDAs start out as LED forums that enable 

broad based, bottom-up planning in a region. They are intended to ensure that not 

only the elite have a say, but that the poor and socially excluded in a region are 

able to participate fully. In addition to planning, LEDAs provide direct support to 

business in the form of financial and non-financial services, including microcredit 

for the poor. The ILO justifies its focus on LEDAs on the grounds that local 

government and other organisations involved in LED in poor regions in low income 

countries are often weak and unable to support LED, particularly where 

these regions have emerged from war or other extreme forms of conflict. In these 

circumstances, LEDAs can provide a neutral space in which local actors previously 

in conflict may find common ground. Like the ILO approach, the UN- 

Habitat approach sees the institutionalisation of LED as a means of ensuring its 

sustainability. Institutionalisation can take place within existing institutions, or 

may take the form of a new LEDA in this approach too. 

In the PACA view, institutionalizing LED in this way provides no guarantee of 

sustainability, and may subvert it. One reason is that LEDAs absorb a great deal 

of energy and resources, not only to set them up, but also to maintain them. This 

46 The WB Group, The Role of Local Economic Development Agencies (LEDA), Urban Development. 

http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/166856/UCMP/UCMP/7_leda.html


can detract from getting a growth dynamic going. The chances of a LEDA subverting 

an LED process is great where there are other organisations that could do 

the job and feel threatened by the establishment of a LEDA. In the early stages of 

LED promotion, creating networks linking economic actors with shared interests 

is more likely to generate positive results, according the PACA view. LED forums 

and agencies may serve a purpose once a local economic dynamic is on the way, 

and throws up the need for such structures. Sustainability should be built into the 

approach in a number of ways, as demonstrated by the Hexagon. The Hexagon 

creates a framework that connects economic to social and ecological sustainability 

through the exploitation of synergies based on the potential of business to contribute 

to all three. Thus it is the way the LED process is set up and driven, and the 

growth dynamic it creates, rather than any particular institution, which is the best 

guarantee of sustainability. 

4 Conclusions 

The WB has provided a template for LED that has structured the initiatives of a 

great number of donors in Africa, and in this way made a substantial contribution 

to the spread of LED on the continent. From its origins in locality regeneration in 

North America and Europe the model has had to change in major ways to meet 

the challenges of Africa, given that poverty here is a majority problem and that 

the poorest and most marginalised areas are predominantly rural. This adaptation 

is best illustrated in the ECOLOC approach, which has made rural regions the 

main target of its work. Some indications of convergence between the WB’s approach 

and the others reviewed here are evident. 

ECOLOC’s diagnostic phase, the centre-piece of its approach, is hard to outdo in 

its scope and analytical rigour. However, the lengthiness of its diagnostic phase 

and its heavy dependence on external technical expertise (international and national) 

make it by far the costliest of the approaches reviewed here. There are few 

if any countries that could, from their own treasuries, afford this type of diagnosis. 

This calls into question the financial viability of the ECOLOC approach. The focus 

on the construction and maintenance of physical infrastructure within the 

ECOLOC approach addresses one very important dimension of the environment 

for business in poor regions, and this is clearly one of its strengths. However, 

physical infrastructure represents only one of several dimensions of the business 

environment, 47 and greater attention to other issues, including the legal and regu- 

47 On the links between LED and Business Enablement, See Hindson D and Meyer-Stamer J 

(2007) “The Business Environment and Local Economic Development: A comparison”, Mesopartner 

Working Paper, No 11. www.mesopartner.com


latory framework, the presence of complementary and competitive input providers 

for businesses, well functioning markets, and efficient and affordable business development 

services of various kinds would greatly strengthen the approach. 48 The 

ECOLOC approach is strong on the role of local government in LED, but has 

been weak on business development, a dimension that calls for greater involvement 

of the business organisations and businesses themselves, and greater attention 

to stimulation of a growth dynamic that builds on business opportunities. It 

has yet to show that it is able to delivery results in terms of local economic growth 

stimulation. It is perhaps for these reasons that new materials are currently being 

developed to strengthen this approach, drawing on the methods and learning derived 

from other approaches. 49 

The ILO approach also makes local government a key player in LED, but has 

given much more attention to creating the conditions for expansion of businesses, 

giving priority to micro and small businesses run by poor individuals and households. 

Like ECOLOC it has focussed on growth stimulation mainly in the poor, 

mostly rural, regions of developing countries, but unlike ECOLOC, has made 

ones emerging from war and other forms of extreme violence a special focus. It 

sees LED as an approach that can reduce poverty and social exclusion by creating 

decent jobs that improve the working conditions and income of the poor. However, 

the means by which these causal connections are secured have yet to be 

demonstrated by the ILO. Like the PACA approach, the ILO emphasises bottomup 

planning that provides rapid results and creates a local growth dynamic. However, 

unlike PACA, the ILO has made LEDAs the centre-piece of its LED work, 

in the belief that these provide a guarantee of sustainability. The ILO is currently 

re-examining the role of LEDAs, now considered as one option amongst others 

that may be pursued if conditions within a locality favour this, rather than a panacea 

for LED. 

48 A recent book reviewing the application of the WB approach in a number of South East European 

countries is instructive on this and a number of other questions addressed in this paper. 

Application of the strategic planning approach in these countries has led to a kind of conflation 

of LED with infrastructure development and a relative neglect of business and market development 

dimensions, similar weaknesses to those found in the ECOLOC approach. Interestingly, 

the case study authors in this book recommend more involvement of business actors and 

more attention to rapid results. They caution against a focus on long term infrastructural projects 

that local governments do not have the means to realise and argue that this can lead to disillusionment 

with the approach. Swinburn G ed. (2006) Talk is Cheap: Turning Local Economic 

Development Strategies into Reality in Transition Countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 

Macedonia and Moldova, Local Government and Public Sector Reform Initiative. For a positive 

assessment of the strategic approach to LED in Kosovo and Albania see Budd J G (n.d.) 

Case Study: Developing Economies Locally through Action and Alliance (DELTA), A Joint 

Initiative of the WB and Open Society Institute, Urban International Associates, Sofia, Bulgaria. 

49 Personal communication with Gwen Swinburn. I have not yet seen these new materials.


The UN-Habitat has been in operation for too short a time to assess how it is doing 

in practice compared to the others. While remaining firmly within the strategic 

planning mould favoured by the WB, it has incorporated elements from the other 

approaches, notably the importance of competitive advantage and the role of 

champions, as stressed by PACA, and the strong focus on reducing social exclusion 

and poverty, as emphasised by the ILO. Whether it is able to reduce the 

heavy burden of long-winded research, planning and implementation support processes 

that characterise ECOLOC and, to a degree, the ILO, remains to be seen. 

The efforts of the UN-Habitat approach to train nationals in the approach may be 

a way of trying to do this, but highly paid national consultants can be as costly in 

real terms as international ones, and may just as effectively entrench local dependence 

on external expertise. 

PACA is distinct from the other four approaches in a number of important ways. 

It is grounded in an explicit conceptual framework centred on the ideas of competitive 

advantage and systemic competitiveness. The target group of the PACA 

approach is businesses, rather than communities as a whole. Identifying and 

strengthening the competitive advantage of the locality and the businesses within 

it is the central task of this approach, and provides a focus that is grounded in at 

least some of the key determinants of the success in a globalising world. Local 

champions, rather than local government or external experts, drive the LED process, 

with the light-touch support of external facilitators who spend relatively little 

time in the field, but use this time in a tightly structured process. Improvements in 

infrastructure and services provided by local government are seen as important 

aspects of locality development, but other aspects of the business environment, 

including the regulatory system and functioning markets for complementary inputs, 

outputs and services are considered to be as important, if not more so. Critically, 

a PACA exercise seeks to create a benign circle of growth based on innovation 

and learning. Its insistence on the priority of quick, visible initiatives has not 

changed, but PACA practitioners are now giving increasing attention to longer 

term, more strategic and catalytic projects where conditions have matured to a 

point where they become feasible. Although this has not taken PACA in the direction 

of strategic planning of the kind advocated by the WB of UN-Habitat, it 

does bring PACA closer to their concern with the longer term.


5 Annexes 

5.1 Features of LED approaches 

WB ECOLOC ILO UN-Habitat PACA 

Conceptual framework 

Explicitly rooted in Porter’s theory 

of competitive advantage and provides 

conceptual framework for 

LED in the form of the Hexagon 

Conceptual framework not laid out, 

but strong emphasis given to community 

economic development 

while including business and market 

dimensions 

Conceptual framework for 

LED not laid out, but 

seeks to integrate business, 

market and social 

development approaches 

Conceptual framework of 

approach to LED not laid 

out as such, but drawn on a 

number of research tools 

such as the social accounting 

matrix 

Conceptual framework of LED 

not laid out, but discusses 

stages of LED to bring out different 

emphases over time 

Focus 

Business (mainly medium & small) 

Government, businesses, community 

based organisations, general 

population 

Local government, business, 

peasant farmers & 

communities 

Local government, business 

and the population in general 

Target groups Communities and businesses in 

declining areas 

SME & development & locality 

development, CED excluded 

Locality (business environment), 

SMMEs 

Locality, SMMEs & 

peasant farming 

Economic infrastructure 

followed by business development 

Focus of interventions Locality, community (social & 

economic development) and 

business 

Process 

Rapid participatory appraisal of 

local economy and support institutions 

done over two week period 

Documentary, area profile, various 

assessments & analyses including 

attitude survey, competition & 

collaboration analysis, SWOT etc. 

Fairly comprehensive 

expert based research of 

economy and institutions 

Comprehensive expertise 

based research of economy, 

society, institutions & environment 

with modeling 

economic & fiscal systems 

Diagnosis Substantial expert based research 

of economy 

Business mobilization & research 

are simultaneous 

Stakeholder mobilisation is first 

step, aimed at building trust & 

commitment 

Stakeholder mobilization 

follows 4 month research 

Stakeholder mobilization 

follows six month period of 

research 

Mobilization Process begins with stakeholder 

mobilization 

Begins within weeks of mobilization 

Strategic participatory planning is 

the main approach 

Begins after about 8-12 

months 

Begins after 12 months 

build up or research and 

“concertation” 

Occurs after substantial mobilization 

period 

Planning & implementation 

Review capacity emerges as LED 

becomes institutionalized 

M&E built in from the beginning 

and used to promote learning & 

capacity building 

Not specified, but presumably 

annual 

Not specified, but presumably 

annual with LG financial 

cycle 

Annual reviews built into process, 

linked to LG financial cycle 

Monitoring, evaluation 

& review


Institutions & 

sustainability 

Networks run by champions, forums 

and LEDAs may emerge from 

process 

Institutions built to support the implementation 

process 

LEDAs are the centrepiece 

of the programme, 

capacity building of existing 

institutions 

Institutions LEDAs are preferred vehicles Capacitation of local government, 

followed by creating 

LEDAs at regional 

level 

Local resources 

LED institutions help ensure 

sustainability 

Sustainability Local resources National & local resources LEDA, national & local 

resources 

Actors 

Local business champions 

Local government plays lead role, 

but other stakeholders are centrally 

involved 

TA’s working with local 

& regional governments, 

hand-over to LEDAs 

The mayors of the “collectivize”, 

supported by experts 

Main drivers Local government is seen as 

most likely driver 

Partner supporting business-driven 

process 

At the centre of LED, working with 

other stakeholders 

Partner with regional govt 

& LEDAs 

Driver, supported by technical 

experts 

Driver in partnership with business 

& communities 

Role of Local Government 

Preferred champion of LED 

Business, including formal and 

informal sector seen as important 

target groups 

Partners with LG in LE- 

DAs 

Fairly minor partner to LG 

as driver 

Partner in process, driver of 

some programmes 

Role of business organizations 

Marginal players in businessoriented 

LED 

Strong role given to community 

organisations & NGOs in LED 

processes 

Potential partner to LG Partners in the process 

with strengthened roles 

over time 

Partner in process, driver of 

some programmes 

Role of community organizations 

Resources 

1-2 consultants 

Not clearly described in documents 

consulted 

2 technical assistants & 

unknown number of researchers 

Not given Facilitator, team leader and 

12 specialists 

Team size & composition 

2 months to implementation (including 

pre-PACA preparation) 

Not clearly spelt out in documents 

consulted 

7 months to implementation, 

3 years to TA exit 

Duration Not given 12 months to implementation 

Locally driven with support from 

consultants on commercial basis 

Stresses the need for local actors to 

adapt manuals to suit local conditions 

& attaches importance to 

building local capacity 

TAs aim to build local 

capacity and hand over in 

3 years 

Substantial dependence on 

donors & expert technical 

support, but aim at independence 

External dependence Locally driven with external 

technical & financial support

5.2 References 

Altenburg T, Hillebrand W and Meyer-Stamer J (1998) Building Systematic Competitiveness: 

Concept and case studies from Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay, Korean and Thailand, 

German Development Institute, Reports and Working Papers 3. 

Beck T, Demirguc-Kunt A and Levine R (2003) Small Enterprises, Growth and Poverty: 

Cross-Country Evidence, WB Research Working Paper 3137. 

Blakely EJ (1989) Planning Local Economic Development: Theory and Practice, Sage, 

Newbury Park. 

Bosier S (2005) “Is there Room for Local Development in a Globalized World”, CEPAL, 

Review 86, August. 

Budd J G (n.d.) Case Study: Developing Economies Locally through Action and Alliance 

(DELTA), A Joint Initiative of the WB and Open Society Institute, Urban International 

Associates, Sofia, Bulgaria. 

Egziabher T G and Helmsing AHJ (2005) Local Economic Development in Africa: Enterprises, 

Communities and Local Government, Shaker Publishing, Maastricht. 

Finot I (2005) “Decentralisation, Territorial Transfers and Local Development”, CEPAL 

Review 86, August. 

Hakemulder R (1997) “Promoting local economic development in a war-affected country: 

the ILO experience in Cambodia”, ILO. 

Helmsing AHJ (2003b) “Local Economic Development: New Generations of Actors, Policies 

and Instruments for Africa”, Public Administration and Development, 23. 

Hindson D (2004) Synthesis Report, Local Economic Development, Lessons and Options 

for the UNCDF, UNCDF. 

Hindson D and Hindson V (2005) “Whither LED in South Africa? A Commentary on the 

Policy Guidelines for Implementing Local Economic Development in South Africa”, 

SELDA. 

Hindson D and Meyer-Stamer J (2007) “The Business Environment and Local Economic 

Development: A comparison”, Mesopartner Working Paper, No 11. 

ILO (2003) The Local Economic Development Agency, IDEASS (Innovations for Development 

and South-South Cooperation) ILO LEDA publication. 

http://www.forumpartnerships.net/attach/TND_03_B_ILO_IDEASS.pdf 

ILO (2001) Local Economic Development, Employment. 

ILO (2005) Resource Kit on Local Development and Decent Work, Part 4, Strengthening 

Local Economic Growth. 

Lira I S (2005)”Local Economic Development and Territorial Competitiveness in Latin America”, 

CEPAL, Review 85, April 

Messner D (2003) “The network based global economy: a new governance triangle for regions” 

in Schmitz H (ed) Local Enterprises and Ugrading, Elgar, Cheltenham. 

Mesopartner, Local Economic Development, PACA and Equity, PACA Flash, No. 9, May 

2004 

Meyer-Stamer J (2004) A summary of the hexagon of local economic development, Mesopartner, 

Duisburg.


Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, Ownership, Harmonisation, Alignment, Results and 

Mutual Accountability, High Level Forum, Paris, 28th February to 2nd March. 

Pretorius A and Blaauw D (2005) “Local Economic Development Agencies in South Africa 

– Six Years Later”, Paper presented to the Economic Society of South Africa, Biennial 

Conference, 7-9 September, Durban. 

Porter ME (1990) The Competitive Advantage of Nations, New York, Free Press 

Porter ME (1995) The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City, Harvard Business Review, 

Vol. 73 No 3. 

PDM, Club du Sahel and OECD (2001) “Managing the Economy Locally in Africa: Assessing 

local economies and their prospects, ECOLOC Handbook”. 

Rodriguez-Pose A (2001) The role of the ILO in implementing local economic development 

strategies in a globalised world, Department of Geography and Environment, 

London School of Economics, London. 

Scott A and Storpor M (1990) “Regional development reconsidered” in Ernste H and Meier 

V (eds.) Regional Development and Contemporary Industrial Response, Belhaven 

Press, London. 

Swinburn G ed. (2006) Talk is Cheap: Turning Local Economic Development Strategies 

into Reality in Transition Countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Moldova, 

Local Government and Public Sector Reform Initiative. 

Swinburn G, Goga S and Murphey F (2006) Local Economic Development: A Primer Developing 

Local Economic Development Strategies and Action Plans, WB, New York. 

Swinburn G and Yatta F (2006) Furthering the LED Agenda in Africa: A Discussion Paper 

Presented by the Municipal Development. 

UN-Habitat (2005) Promoting Local Economic Development through Strategic Planning, 

Volumes 1-4, http://www.ecoplan.ca/ 

Van Boekel G & van Logtestijn M (2002) “Applying the Comprehensive LED approach: 

the case of Mozambique”, ILO. 

Weber G (2005) Case Study: Experiences with the LED approach in South East Europe, 

Cooperazione Italiana and Universitas. 

WB Group (n.d.) The Role of Local Economic Development Agencies (LEDA), Urban Development. 

5.3 Websites 

www.ilo.org 

http://info.worldbank.org 

www.oecd.org 

www.ilo.org/public/english/employment 

www.ilo.org/dyn/empent/docs


www.oecd.org 

www.mesopartner.com 

www.paca-online.org 

www.selda.org.za/newsletters 

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals 

www.worldbank.org/ledprimer 

www.worldbank.org/urban/led

mesopartner is a consultancy partnership that specialises in 

territorial development, cluster promotion and value chain development. 

It was founded in December 2002 and registered in 

April 2003 by Dr Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke, Dr Jörg Meyer-Stamer 

and Christian Schoen. Frank Wältring joined in 2004. 

The most widely used product of mesopartner is PACA, a methodology 

to kick-start or refocus local economic development initiatives 

which has been developed by Jörg Meyer-Stamer. It has 

been successfully applied in many developing and transformation 

countries. The main objectives of mesopartner are 

to train PACA practitioners in various countries, 

to develop more specific PACA instruments, for instance for 

cluster analysis, value chain analysis and analysis of government-created 

obstacles to business, 

to develop and disseminate further methodologies and tools 

for local and regional economic development initiatives, 

to develop innovative concepts and tools to train practitioners 

in local and regional economic development. 

Another mesopartner product is RALIS (Rapid Appraisal of Local 

Innovation Systems). As technology and innovation continue to be 

major preoccupations of local actors who want to create a localised 

advantage in a globalised world, we expect that there is a lot 

of potential demand for a tool like RALIS which addresses the 

most important obstacle for the leveraging of local innovation 

systems: fragmentation between local companies, agencies and 

organisations. 

Further mesopartner products are 

the Compass of Local Competitiveness, a balanced scorecardbased 

approach to performance management of territorial development 

initiatives, 

GENESIS, a methodology for the rapid and participatory 

elaboration of strategic interventions for a local or regional 

economy. 

You find more information at our website, www.mesopartner.com

mesopartner working papers 

11 

(2007) 

10 

(2007) 

09 

(2007) 

08 

(2005) 

07 

(2004) 

06 

(2004) 

05 

(2003) 

04 

(2003) 

03 (rev. 

2004) 

02 (rev. 

2007) 

01 (rev. 

2004) 

Doug Hindson, 

Jörg Meyer- 

Stamer 

Jörg Meyer- 

Stamer 

Ulrich Harmes- 

Liedtke 

Jörg Meyer- 

Stamer, Ulrich 

Harmes-Liedtke 

Jörg Meyer- 

Stamer 

Jörg Meyer- 

Stamer 

Jörg Meyer- 

Stamer 

Jörg Meyer- 

Stamer 

Jörg Meyer- 

Stamer 

Jörg Meyer- 

Stamer, Christian 

Schoen 

Jörg Meyer- 

Stamer 

The Local Business Environment and Local Economic 

Development: Comparing Approaches 

Designing a Regional Development Agency: Options 

and Choices 

Benchmarking Territorial Competitiveness 

How to Promote Clusters 

Governance and Territorial Development: Policy, 

Politics and Polity in Local Economic Development 

Regional Value Chain Initiatives: An Opportunity for 

the Application of the PACA-Approach 

The Hexagon of Local Economic Development and 

LED in South Africa 

Why is Local Economic Development so difficult, and 

what can we do to make it more effective? 

The Hexagon of Local Economic Development 

Rapid Appraisal of Local Innovation Systems 

(RALIS): Assessing and Enhancing Innovation Networks. 

Participatory Appraisal of Competitive Advantage 

(PACA): Launching Local Economic Development 

Initiatives 

All workings papers are available for download at www.mesopartner.com

Donor Approaches to Local Economic Development in Africa www ...

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