Local Economic Development

Local Economic Development (LED) has emerged globally as a vital planning approach for local economies. The emergence and growing significance of LED planning approaches are inseparable from the changing world economy and especially the advance of globalization. The question of catalyzing LED planning initially emerged in Europe and spread to other advanced economies. The geographical diffusion of LED has occurred to late-developing economies in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. The relevance of this place-based approach to contemporary development planning in the global South is widely confirmed. New evidence demonstrates that the implementation of LED approaches can raise human development prospects in the global South.