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We provides a number of programs geared
toward the economic development of individuals, families, small
businesses, and neighborhoods.
By the year 2025 close to half the
poor around the world will live in urban areas. Unprecedented
urbanization in the third world requires a sustainable development
strategy to improve the quality of urban management and foster
an economically competitive environment. Without a city development
strategy there will be decrease in welfare and quality of life
for urban inhabitants. However, the high concentration of persons
in cities suggests that with the proper approach to growth the
benefits of development can be more widely dispersed.
Whereas urban development in the
past included primarily critical but non-holistic approaches,
such as infrastructure improvement, the new urban agenda is now
deepening to encompass a sustainable and self-regenerating approach
that corrects for market failure. Local economic development offers
local government, the private sector, the not- for-profit sectors
and the local community the opportunity to work together to improve
the local economy. It focusses on enhancing competitiveness, and
thus increasing sustainable growth; and also on ensuring that
the growth is inclusive. LED encompasses many different disciplines,
such as planning, economics, and marketing. It also encompasses
many local government and private sector functions including planning,
infrastructure provision, real estate development and finance.
The practice of local economic development can be undertaken at
different geographic scales. A local government pursues LED strategies
for the benefit of their jurisdiction. However individual communities,
and thus individual areas within a local governments jurisdiction
can also pursue LED strategies to uplift their own communities.
These are most successful if pursued jointly with the local government
strategies.
In recent decades, radical processes
of change have shaped social and economic conditions throughout
the world. At the same time, decentralization has led local authorities
and other socio-economic players to take on increasing responsibility
for the development of their territory and for improving the quality
of life of its inhabitants. Local development initiatives and
strategies concentrate on developing both the economy of a territory
and employment within it (mainly through enterprise and job creation
measures), together with its human and social development, all
within an integrated perspective. Local
development is the result of a society's ability to decide what
it wants, to pursue its aims and to control the results. It becomes
a tool for consultation and social dialogue in which participation
by all players in both civil society and the local socio-economic
fabric is essential.
The broader the consensus on goals
and the more closely coordinated the support action, the more
successful the local development strategies and action will be.
If it is to be sustainable, the local development process must
go beyond the economic dimension to take into consideration social
equity, people's well-being, environmental issues, technological
progress, good governance and effective, well-managed local institutions.
Social, economic and entrepreneurial initiatives in a local context
should combine with optimal use of local resources to ensure sustainability.
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