scholarly journals Local Economic Development Initiatives in Ghana: The Challenges and the Way Forward

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 142 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Kwame Mensah ◽  
Justice Nyigmah Bawole ◽  
Albert Ahenkan

This case study presents and analyses Local Economic Development (LED) initiatives and challenges from two districts in Ghana. The study is a qualitative case study that uses individual interviews through purposive selection from officials who are directly involved in the formulation and implementation of district development initiatives. The study found that the district does not have a LED policy in place but have initiated and implemented a number of programmes that are pro-LED. These programmes are in the area of agriculture, human resource development, financing and infrastructure development. However, the implementation of these initiatives has encountered many challenges such as inadequate human resource, finance, absence of LED policy and improper collaboration among local level actors. The paper provides the way forward for the initiation and implementation of LED at the local level.

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 448-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Phele ◽  
S Roberts ◽  
I Steuart

This  article explores the challenges for the development of manufacturing through a case study of the foundry industry in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. Ekurhuleni Metro covers the largest concentration in South Africa, but the industry’s performance has been poor over the past decade.  The findings reported here highlight the need to understand firm decisions around investment, technology and skills, and the role of local economic linkages in this regard.  The differing performance of foundries strongly supports the need to develop concrete action plans and effective institutions at local level to support the development of local agglomerations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 245513332110476
Author(s):  
Faisal Hassan Issa

National governments set policies that affect local level development and influence the pace and content of development initiatives. Local economic development (LED) initiatives require a more robust focus on issues that places local government authorities at centre stage. For decades, at the local government authority level, much effort has been seen in the social development arena shadowing efforts to promote local businesses through business development services. National level organs set to promote businesses and to support the business agenda are expected to be the change catalysts and to propagate supportive policies for sustainable local economic development objectives. Nonetheless, the desired integration of efforts between national and local authorities and the civil society is yet to be observed. Additionally, frequent policy changes affecting the balance of power and authority between the national and local level authorities impact less positively local capacity to promote businesses despite the national efforts in infrastructure development. It is observed that better integration of efforts between the different actors, increased capacity of local authorities and implementation of local initiatives to surmount local challenges while working on policy attributed gaps, are necessary for promoting businesses at the local authority level.


2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-127
Author(s):  
Caroline Piquet

For over a century in Egypt, the Suez Canal Company reflected the role of the concession in European economic expansion overseas. Concession was a European business practice widespread in Egypt; it was an institution inherited from a system of privileges for Europeans since the Middle Ages. It promised a way for Egypt to adopt modern infrastructures and receive needed European help for digging the canal. The results of the Suez Company are indisputable: the desert of the Suez Isthmus became a lively economic region with active ports, growing cities, and an expanding labor force. And the region was linked to the rest of the country by a new road network. At the same time, however, the concession system denied Egypt full benefit of this infrastructure. The canal served the financial and strategic interests of the company, not the interests of the local economy. This outcome embodied all the contradictions of the concession system: on the one hand, concessions were a necessity for modern infrastructure development in Egypt; on the other, they were a hindrance to further national economic development.


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