national-policies

Furthering the Local Economic Agenda in Africa

National LED legislation is being considered by many countries. See this legislation from the UK that received Royal Assent today.

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Business Environment Strengthening Tanzania

At national level the government in 2002 launched the Business Environment Strengthening Tanzania (BEST), which seeks to reduce the burden on businesses by eradicating as many procedural and administrative barriers as possible. BEST is targeting businesses in general and micro-, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) in particular. Within this macro framework, local governments have been empowered through the local government reform programme.

District Development Program III, Uganda

The UNCDF supported District Development Program III (DDPIII) in Uganda contains support to many LED processes.The DDPIII aims at building systems and methodologies to enhance the role of local governments in promoting LED and acting effectively to coordinate the actions of LED promotion actors, enhance the local business enabling environment and invest strategically in economic infrastructure. The DDP III is thus an excellent example of attempts to promote LED both at central and local level. Moreover, the DDP III has recently developed an M&E system which includes indicators that can serve as inspiration elsewhere.

Enterprise Development Diagnostic (MEASURE) for Ethiopia

USAID's Business Growth Initiaitive BGI has developed an enterprise development diagnostic (MEASURE) to provide USAID missions with a tool that assists them in understanding: Changes in business performance; Changes in business behavior and decision making; and How those changes are impacted by changes in the business economic environment, focused on the firm level. The MEASURE tool is comprised of relevant indicators, coupled with an enterprise survey. This paper explains the MEASURE tool and the findings from the Ethiopia pilot. Thanks to USAID.

About the author: I am a Liberian living in the USA. I am presently a retail electricity market development associate with a state public utility regulatory commission. I have completed graduate studies in Regulatory Economics (electricity, telecommunications, and natural gas regulation), International Economic Development, and Regional Planning (all but thesis). 

Background: Context and Definitions

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Decentralisation Governance in EAC Countries - Min. Local Government Uganda

See this powerpoint explaining the rational for decentralisation and specifically how the Ugandan Government is focussing on local economic development within it decntralisation efforts. The powerpoint is made by the Ministry of Local Government in Uganda.

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Assessing -impact of ICTs on attainment of MDGs in Nigeria (Facebook)

25 May 2009

Where: Nigeria

http://www.facebook.com/people/Gbenga-Sesan/596230388

national-policies

Shared by Gwen-Swinburn - 23/05/2009

World Development Report, Density, Divison & Distance in Sub-Sahran Africa

This chapter from the World Bank's 2009 World Development Report looks specifically at the issues of distance, density and divisions and how these impact upon the development of Sub Saharan countires. For LEDNA members this is a very useful piece of work as the World Bank has now begun to look at economic development questions within a spatial context. 

The useful development of the three spatial issues of distance, density and divisions are clearly explained in this short piece of work. Although all readers may not agree with all of the analysis, it is a very useful contribution to our LED work.

The full report link is also on LEDNA.

Gwen Swinburn LED Adviser

MEGA Local Economic Development Programme Serbia (Programme Design)

For those interested in designing national LED programmes take a look at this one for ideas - Program Components

National-Level Policy Advocacy
Major goal of the National-Level Policy Advocacy Team is to facilitate the improvement of regulatory framework that will be conducive to local economic development (LED).
In order to support regulatory reform and to improve policies related to issuance of different business permits or to property acquisition and disposal, the Policy Advocacy Team:

• Provides technical assistance to key national-level partners in the process of LED related legislative drafting, facilitate stakeholders' input into legislative process and support partners in advocating for adoption of key LED legislation;
• Provides support to the local governments in developing own source revenue and land management policies;
• Provides support to key advocacy partners - the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM), the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED), and the Republic of Serbia's Commission for Local Government Finances - in their organizational strengthening and enhancement of advocacy capacities.

Through NALED, MEGA brings together civil society organizations, business community, and national and local government representatives to advocate for the policy changes necessary to achieve full economic development potentials of municipalities, tracks important LED legislation, as well as government and donors' incentive programs, examines business-friendliness of municipalities, organizes forums and round-tables where private and public sector exchange their ideas and solutions in order to improve our legal and economic environment.

Municipal Capacity Building for Local Economic Development (LED)
The core of the MEGA program is the Local Economic Development component.  MEGA provides technical assistance, material support and training to participating municipalities to enable them to support the economic development of their communities. 

Primarily, the MEGA LED component works with the participating municipalities to establish or enhance their Offices for Local Economic Development (OLEDs), define their roles and carry out their functions (e.g. promotion and marketing, information dissemination, identification of investment opportunities, etc).  As a part of this effort, MEGA trains the staff of OLEDs and assists the local governments to form mixed private-public economic development advisory commissions.

Secondly, the LED component provides training and technical assistance to assist the local government staff and members of the economic development commissions in creation of comprehensive, community-based Strategic Plans for LED.  For the municipalities which already have LED Strategic Plans, MEGA will assist the local government to review and strengthen the document as needed.  Within this context and following the adoption of LED Strategic Plans, MEGA will also work with participating municipalities on the implementation of specific projects outlined in the strategic plans, such as green fields development, brown fields development, establishment of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), creation of business incubators, establishment of applied research and technology centers, etc.

Thirdly, MEGA provides technical assistance and facilitates the informatio flow between local governments, the central government institutions and prospective investors by enhancing the quality of promotional materials (including websites), creating investment site-location databases, supporting municipal participation in investor conferences, etc. The ultimate result expected is to attract more investment, create more business opportunities and generate new jobs in local communities in Serbia.

Municipal Capacity Building
The Municipal Capacity Building component, complements and supports the core MEGA assisted LED planning and organizational activities. In a variety of ways, this component aims to help our partner municipalities strengthen their ability to mobilize LED resources from the public and private sectors, and to deploy these resources more effectively in helping to improve the local business climate and grow the local economy. As the participating municipalities vary considerably, the members of the Municipal Capacity Building component tailor training and technical assistance to the needs of each of the MEGA municipalities.

Specifically, the Municipal Capacity Building team is working with partner municipalities:

• To better understand and utilize their capacity for borrowing funds for investment projects;
• To identify and prepare investment projects for debt or grant financing (including commercial bank credits and the ability to access EU funds in the future);
• To improve the operations of Citizen Assistance Centers (CACs) and One-Stop Permitting Centers (OSPCs) to serve the needs of local businesses;
• To strengthen cooperation between municipal urban planning offices and the new OLEDs in the design, implementation and monitoring of economic development projects;
• To educate senior level officials to private-public partnerships (PPPs) and other innovative financing concepts;
• To help municipal governments engage more constructively (and advance local interests) in the privatization of socially-owned companies and the commercialization of surplus military properties;
• To institutionalize multi-year, Capital Investment Planning,  in part as bridge between the LED Strategic Plan and the annual budget process, and as means of prioritizing investment projects within the constraint of available financial resources;
• To introduce local governments to modern, municipal asset management concepts, both to augment local budget revenues and to make vacant or under-utilized, publicly-owned land and buildings available for private sector use;
• To strengthen the local public procurement process and capture opportunities for local firms to do business with local governments;
• To establish partner relations with municipalities in other transitional Central and South-East European countries as a means to share LED best practices.