scholarly journals Municipal Local Economic Development and the Multiplier effect: Piloting a Community Enterprise Identification Method in South Africa and Namibia

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucienne Heideman
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
State Enterprise ◽  
Leaky Bucket ◽  
Multiplier Effect ◽  
Formal Employment

Local Economic Development (LED) is a contested concept in southern Africa, and has become synonymous with delivery of generic job-creation projects, often grant-dependent and unsustainable. Municipal LED has followed this pattern in South Africa since 1994, with little lasting success. Each local economy is unique, and has its own problems and opportunities. The ’Plugging the Leaks’ method recognizes that communities themselves know best how money enters and exits their area. By asking people to analyse their local economy as a 'leaky bucket', the method puts control back in the hands of local people, rather than external experts, and allows them to analyse their own local economy to identify gaps and opportunities for enterprise. By better networking and working collectively to improve their local economy, local communities are able to re-circulate cash internally. This circulation of cash is explained as the local multiplier effect in the workshops. A pilot process of running ‘Plugging the Leaks’ workshops in low income communities in South Africa and Namibia revealed that spending choices in these communities are severely limited in a context where there is no effective welfare state. Therefore, empowerment with this method came from the discovery of collective action and networking, rather than from individual spending choices. Local start-up business tends to be limited to survivalist and copy-cat one-person ventures, and are a last resort when formal employment is absent. In this context collective enterprise offers the necessary empowerment for people to attempt financially sustainable ventures that respond to a gap in the local economy. The pilot project is attempting to show that municipal LED staff can play the role of facilitator for initiating the enterprise-identification process and further mobilise state enterprise support agencies around the locus of LED, without crossing the line between facilitation and implementation of ’projects’.

scholarly journals Probing the efficacy of local economic development in South African Municipalities: A case of POLOKWANE local municipality

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
CM Mashabela ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
South African ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

The government of South Africa adopted Local Economic Development (LED) as part of its development policy in its quest for an inclusive economic development and growth. LED is intended to create a conducive environment for an inclusive local economy. However, unemployment and poverty rates are high in local communities with some SMMEs struggling to secure funding. Although municipalities do not create jobs directly through LED, they should, however, ensure that strategies implemented talk to inclusive economic growth, particularly the mitigation of unemployment and poverty rates. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the efficacy of LED in South African municipalities. The paper aims to evaluate and analyse the impact of implementing LED in South Africa. The quantitative research approach was adopted, and questionnaires were utilised to collect primary data. The paper found that LED in South Africa produces desired results at a low rate in that only a small fraction of the participants agrees that the municipality facilitates funding for SMMEs; only a small fraction of the participants is of the view that LED units provide adequate infrastructure and create industries. Moreover, the paper found that only a fraction of the participants is able to create job opportunities. Consequently, the paper recommends that municipalities should facilitate SMMEs funding, provide adequate infrastructure, develop industries and design LED strategies that enhance job creation. The paper argues that effective measures of implementing LED will enhance LED impact rate and fast track the prospects of inclusive economic growth in South African municipalities.

scholarly journals Prediction of Urban and Rural Tourism Economic Forecast Based on Machine Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Wusheng Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Causal Relationship ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Economic Forecast ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Tourism Revenue

With the rapid development of tourism, tourism revenue, as one of the important indicators to measure the development of the tourism economy, has high research value. The quasi-prediction of tourism revenue can drive the development of a series of related industries and accelerate the development of the domestic economy. When forecasting tourism income, it is necessary to examine the causal relationship between tourism income and local economic development. The traditional cointegration analysis method is to extract the promotion characteristics of tourism income to the local economy and construct a tourism income prediction model, but it cannot accurately describe the causal relationship between tourism income and local economic development and cannot accurately predict tourism income. We propose an optimized forecasting method of tourism revenue based on time series. This method first conducts a cointegration test on the time series data of the relationship between tourism income and local economic development, constructs a two-variable autoregressive model of tourism income and local economy, and uses the swarm intelligence method to test the causal relationship and the relationship between tourism income and local economic development, calculate the proportion of tourism industry, define the calculation result as the direct influence factor of tourism industry on the local economy, calculate the relevant effect of local tourism development and economic income, and construct tourism income optimization forecast model. The simulation results show that the model used can accurately predict tourism revenue.

scholarly journals Cluster-Based Local Economic Development (The Case of Cluster Development In Umbul Ponggok, Klaten)

2019 ◽  
pp. 369
Author(s):  
Nunuk Dwi Retnandari ◽  
David Merauje
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Tourist Destination ◽  
Development Patterns ◽  
Management And Development ◽  
Banking Institutions ◽  
High Level ◽  
Superior Level

Local economic development is one of the means regional governments frequently employ to improve community welfare. However, improper management and development patterns would lead to failure in the implementation of economic development or outside communities may enjoy the benefits of economic development instead. Umbul Ponggok is a community-based tourist destination and it has, to this day, been capable of becoming a source of livelihood for most of the residents living in the area. The community’s involvement at every level of the decision making process and implementation guarantees continuity in the local economy they develop. Additionally, the transparent and accountable management in place ensures the high level of trust people have. Such superior level of trust and involvement was no overnight feat, persistence and wholeheartedness of initiators along with the support of various parties (university, banking institutions, NGO, and others) made certain that the numerous issues encountered were resolved, all challenges overcome, and every opportunity taken.

Institutionalising local economic development practice in Ghana

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas A. Akudugu
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Participatory Development ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Planning System ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Institutional Frameworks ◽  
Development Practice

In recent times, the term ‘local economic development’ has been conceptualised and introduced as a bottom-up participatory development strategy in Ghana. It is intended to be implemented at the district level to facilitate the revitalisation of the local economy and create jobs for local residents. Using in-depth interviews and the analysis of relevant policy documents, this paper evaluates efforts aimed at institutionalising the practice in local institutional frameworks and development planning practice in the country. The paper found out that processes aimed at institutionalising contemporary local economic development practice in Ghana are not making any meaningful impact. Institutional frameworks such as the structuring of development policymaking and planning in the country are still rigid and promote bureaucratic top-down development decision-making processes. Similarly, the promotion of a meaningful bottom-up decentralised planning system is only a well-packaged talk by policymakers in the country. Evidence shows that there is a clear lack of political will to implement reforms, particularly the new decentralisation policy that seeks to make District Assemblies in Ghana responsive to local economic development promotion. There is the need for a conscious effort towards making local economic development practice matter in national and local development endeavour in Ghana.

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