Projects

ILS LEDA FOCUS ON LEDA SUSTAINABILITY, 2016

During 2106, six focus groups were carried on through webinars addressed to the 11 Colombian LEDAs (8 June), the 7 LEDAs of Dominican Republic (13 July), the LEDA of Huehuetenango in Honduras (7 September), the 2 CIDES of Senegal (19 and 27 October), the LEDA of Cordoba in Argentina (29 November). A Focus session on the field was also realized in El Salvador to 5 LEDAs (3 June).

Through the workshops the following factors that influence the sustainability of a Local Economic Development Agency were initially introduced: the capacity of identifying financial resources; the ability to carry out initiatives and revenue-generating services, the ability to differentiate sources of income, the quality of the services, the visibility, and the initial investment to start.

The most common causes of obstacles to sustainability were then discussed: changes of representatives of government, lack of diversification of income sources, weakness of the initial investment, lack of cohesion of the board, and weaknesses in management. Practical solutions to problems due to each one of the above-mentioned factors were also introduced.

Examples on how some LEDAs pursue their sustainability were finally presented.

Final recommendations for improving the LEDA sustainability for overcoming or prevent financial crisis followed, and they mainly regard strategic actions for enhancing:

• the social and relational capital
• the strategic and operational learning curve
• the communication

Tailored recommendations to the current sustainability problems of each LEDA were released at the end of each workshop.