mesopartner Publications

¿Qué es el desarrollo económico local? ¿Por qué es tan difícil?

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Documentos de trabajo de mesopartner no. 04

Addressing Red Tape at the Local Level: Options and Tools

cs@mesopartner.com — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 12:12:00 +0100

Addressing red tape is an important building block of a local economic development (LED) initiative. LED practitioners in many locations started to realise this some time ago, and, in a convergent process, practitioners in Business Enabling Environment (BEE) projects working at national level, have begun to notice that changing rules and regulations at national level is not sufficient, since it is at the local level that the public sector interacts with the private sec-tor on a day-to-day basis. Against this background, the question arises as to what is the most promising approach to address red tape at the local level.

We argue that there are four fundamentally different constellations that re-quire different intervention approaches. Two factors shape the setting of a local red tape inter-vention: The experience of local stakeholders with prior local development interventions, including the degree of trust that exists among key local players, and the credibility of the external actor (e.g. a technical assistance project) that is promoting or supporting the red tape intervention. We outline what we regard as the most promising intervention approaches for each of the four constellations. Our argument is based on experience in South Africa, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Donor Approaches to Local Economic Development in Africa

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 15:10:00 +0100

This paper is currently under revision.

Rapid Appraisal of Local Innovation Systems (RALIS): Assessing and Enhancing Innovation Networks

cs@mesopartner.com — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 15:10:00 +0200

Rapid Appraisal of Local Innovation Systems (RALIS) is a methodology to conduct a rapid diagnosis of a locality, a value chain or a cluster with a special focus at technology and innovation. The starting point is an observation which is consistently coming out of the analysis of successful localities: innovation is not only based on intra-firm efforts but also, and in particular, on dense networks of interaction between a variety of actors – companies, training institutions, research and technology extension organisations, and others. Thus, RALIS is designed in a way which per-mits the identification of such networks, or their absence, and a rough assessment of their density and effectiveness.

RALIS is a methodology to get an overview of the main features of a local innovation system or the innovation processes along a value chain within a short period of time. In the wider sense, it is a rapid, practical, bottom-up, participatory and network stimulating approach to local/regional economic development or value chain promotion.

RALIS can be used for two different purposes:
1. for a diagnostic without implications for immediate action,
2. as an action-oriented method.

The Local Business Environment and Local Economic Development: Comparing Approaches

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 15:10:00 +0200

Recent years have seen an increasing effort in developing and transformation countries to im-prove the business environment. The focus has mainly been at reducing red tape and improv-ing the regulatory environment. Initially addressing primarily the national level, the focus has started to shift towards regional and local levels since it is here that government agencies di-rectly interact with businesses. In this way, an overlap has emerged between the business en-vironment approach and the local economic development (LED) approach. However, from the LED perspective, a favourable business environment involves a broad set of locational factors which is only partly shaped by government. Another important difference refers to the inter-vention approach. While BE interventions have a tendency to be top-down and to depend on external consultants, the LED approach emphasises bottom-up processes and a strong in-volvement of local actors. A consistent effort to reduce red tape and improve the local regu-latory environment is an important element of bottom-up LED processes. It is important, though, to understand that an effort to fight red tape has little impact on the competitive ad-vantage of a location. In fact, an argument can be made that efforts to improve the business environment will have a stronger impact in already strong locations, so that it can ultimately widen the gap between growing and lagging locations and thus reinforce spatial disparities.

Designing a Regional Development Agency: Options and Choices

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 15:10:00 +0200

The creation of a Regional Development Agency is a complex and challenging task. Often, various actors with diverse and sometimes conflicting goals are involved in the creation of an RDA. Negotiations between them may lead to a compromise that, quite literally, generates a compromised RDA.

The design of an RDA should involve a certain degree of focus at the com-mon good, rather than the exclusive pursuance of short-term particular in-terests. The actors involved in an RDA need to take informed decisions re-garding the various dilemmas and trade-offs involved in the design of an RDA. The design process should be driven by deductive reasoning, includ-ing an assessment of existing experiences with RDAs that had to confront similar challenges, rather than inductive reasoning, i.e. a process where re-gional stakeholders behave as if they were the first ever to confront the challenge of designing an RDA.

Benchmarking Territorial Competitiveness

uhl@mesopartner.com — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 15:10:00 +0100

This study was inspired by requests from various local development practi-tioners for a more systematic investigation into best practices and an in-creased level of exchange and learning on Local Economic Development. In this report I shall summarise some of my own experiences based on those debates and workshops, adding information taken from specialised literature on Benchmarking and territorial competitiveness. The report is divided into the following three parts:
1. In order to make the concept easier to understand, I define and synthe-sise some basic ideas on Benchmarking.
2. I then apply Benchmarking to the subject of the competitiveness of dif-ferent locations and territorial economies, with reference to practical ex-periences and with the inclusion of some conceptual ideas.
3. Finally I sum up a number of ideas on how Benchmarking could be used to encourage local and regional competitiveness.
The objective of this report is to identify a form of territorial Benchmarking that might respond to the needs of local and regional development practitio-ners. It does not attempt to offer a definitive answer, merely a basis for de-bate between all those interested in the topic. The writer of the report will be satisfied if this study serves as a stimulus to local economic agents and oth-ers involved in Local Economic Development.

Participatory Appraisal of Competitive Advantage (PACA): Launching Local Economic Development Initiatives

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 15:10:00 +0200

This paper gives an overview of the Participatory Appraisal of Competitive Advantage (PACA) method, including its background, its conceptual underpinnings and its main elements.

The Hexagon of Local Economic Development and LED in South Africa

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 15:10:00 +0200

The paper analyses the practical implementation of LED in South Africa through the lens of the Hexagon framework.

The Hexagon of Local Economic Development

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 15:10:00 +0200

The Hexagon is useful in introducing practitioners and stakeholders to the main concepts and instruments of LED. It helps widen the perspective, un-derstand the complexity of LED and appreciate the trade-offs and conflicts involved in doing LED. There are thus two types of persons for whom this paper – and the concept – is useful:

LED trainers and other persons who need to educate stakeholders, public officials, business representatives etc. about the key issues involved in LED;

stakeholders, public officials, private sector representatives and others who need a framework to organise their thinking on LED.