Communities, cities and governments around the world increasingly turn to Local Economic Development strategies in response to the challenges of globalization and the drive for decentralization.
LED means more than just economic growth. It is promoting participation and local dialogue, connecting people and their resources for better employment and a higher quality of life for both men and women.
The ILO's goal of Decent Work for All is reflected in LED strategies through its focus on growth, poverty reduction and social inclusion. The organisation's social partners increasingly adopt LED in the Decent Work Country Programmes, which are developed and agreed upon by Governments, Workers' and Employers' Organizations. The ILO's Global Employment Agenda provides a conceptual framework for better integrating the different strategic components of inclusive employment policies and programmes. LED provides a means for articulating this framework at the local level.
The ILO is assisting its constituents in developing and implementing LED strategies in a wide range of economic, social and political settings across the world. This includes countries emerging from crisis, Indigenous Peoples, rural and backward areas with child labour, city slums as well as growth-oriented clusters where territorial competitiveness is addressed. LED tools are also applied in Private Sector Development strategies.