Capacity to implement Local Economic Development

A recent LED Maturity Assessment in South Africa at the occasion of the end of the LED component of the "German South African Strengthening Local Governance Programme (SLGP)" confirmed that while LED insight and strategy had improved in the course of the last three years somewhat (though far from being good), the capacity to execute LED is still lacking. For some more info on this assessment, see the attached summary of the municipality indicator report.

Gabriele Trah, Project Manager Local Economic Development of SLGP, states that "Capacity to implement Local Economic Development in local and district municipalities is still in dire straits ... Why is this so? The LED component of SLGP collaborated with John Lawson of RED-X to come up with some answers to this question. The key issues seems to be Network Governance, in essence the ability of various organisations and stakeholders in the LED field to collaborate, join forces and resources in an effective manner to achieve certain goals. In an effort to overcome the weaknesses in Network Governance, a generic pattern or system was developed to make it easier for LED stakeholders to understand what collaborative efforts are required to harness the right power to influence and deliver effective LED initiatives. This system's approach has been presented in a recent training workshop to municipalities in Gauteng and had quite an "Aha" effect on the participants. If you are interested, have a look at the attached LED systems paper."