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Organizing an LED Strategy
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LED Strategic Planning
Ideally, the development of an LED strategy will be an integral part of a broader strategic planning process for a subnational region, city, town or rural area. Effective strategic planning ensures that priority issues are addressed and limited resources are well targeted. The five-step planning process detailed should be tailored to complement, and correspond with, other local planning processes. The process is not prescriptive and should be adapted to meet the needs of the individual community. | | |
Stage One: Organizing the Effort
A community begins the LED strategy planning process by identifying the people, public institutions, businesses, community organizations and other groups with interests in the local economy. This is often led by the local government, usually the mayor or chief executive. The skills and resources that each of these stakeholders bring to the strategy process provide a critical foundation for success. The identification of these individuals and organizations assumes some basic knowledge of the workings of the city economy. A resource audit is a necessary input to the strategy, and should include the identification of financial, human and other capital resources that can contribute to the LED strategy. Working groups and steering committees can be established to ensure that both formal and informal structures are in place to support strategy development and implementation. Other issues that need to be tackled in the early stages include establishing LED staff teams and appropriate political processes.
Stage Two: Conducting the Local Economy Assessment
Each community has a unique set of local attributes that can advance or hinder local economic development. These include its economic structure, its human resource capacity to carry out economic development, and how conducive the local government investment climate is to economic and business activity. The aim of the local economy assessment is to identify the community's strengths and weaknesses including its human resource capacity, local government's 'friendliness' to all types of business activities from corporate to informal, and the opportunities and threats facing the local economy. The goal of the assessment is to create an economic profile of the community that highlights the basis of its comparative and competitive advantage in relation to neighboring communities and other regional, national or international competitors.
Stage Three: Developing the LED Strategy
As part of the LED strategy, a shared economic vision for the community and LED goals, objectives, programs, projects and action plans will be developed. This process ensures that all major stakeholder groups are given the opportunity to define what is to be achieved, how it is to be achieved, who will be responsible and the timeframes associated with the implementation of the LED strategy. Most importantly, the LED strategy and action plans must be finely assessed against the staff resource capacity to carry them out, as well as the budgetary constraints. Ultimately, the strategy's action plans should be incorporated into the work and budgetary program of the local authority, and appropriate elements taken on by other stakeholders (business associations, utilities, educational institutions, etc.). The aim is to leverage strengths, overcome weaknesses, exploit opportunities and deal with threats.
Stage Four: Implementing the LED Strategy
Strategy implementation is driven by the LED action plans. Ongoing monitoring is provided through the formal structures identified and created in step one, and evaluation of specific project outcomes ensures that the strategy continues to lead to the achievement of the LED vision, goals and objectives. In undertaking strategy implementation, it is important to identify and establish the appropriate institutions to carry out the plans.
Stage Five: Reviewing the LED Strategy
Good monitoring and evaluation techniques help to quantify outcomes, justify expenditures, determine enhancements and adjustments, and develop good practices. This information also feeds into the review of the complete LED strategy. The LED strategy should be reviewed at least annually to ensure that it remains relevant. It may be that conditions have changed or that the initial assessment was incorrect to the local conditions. The LED strategy should evolve continuously to respond to the ever changing competitive environment. |
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