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Methodology
Local Economic Development (LED) |
In 2004 the United States Government set expanded goals for economic growth to create jobs and support Serbia’s democratic evolution. In response, IRD initiated local economic development (LED) pilot project in six Western Serbia municipalities. Using the civil society base previously established, IRD set out to further build public/private partnerships through which citizens and local governments would gain the skills necessary to plan and implement strategies and projects for economic recovery and growth.
In February 2005 IRD contracted Management Systems International (MSI) to undertake a regional economic assessment and provide local economic development training. The World Bank’s “Cities of Change” methodology was selected as the most appropriate because of its emphasis on cooperation among citizens, businesses, and local government officials. The World Bank has pioneered this public/private partnership in many countries, including some in Eastern Europe. The April/May 2005 situational analysis of Western Serbia resulted in selection of six pilot municipalities: Arilje, Čajetina, Krupanj, Šabac, Užice, and Vladimirci. Selection criteria were:
- The capacity, commitment, and political will of the municipal government
- Progressive attitudes toward public/private partnerships and business expansion
- A strong private sector and the availability of skilled workers
- A capable, active civil society
- Sufficient physical infrastructure to support economic growth
- A natural resource/product base for growth in a competitive market
Each pilot municipality carefully selected local government, business, and community representatives as LED team members. The mayor of each municipality authorized the local teams to participate in the training, to undertake the economic analysis, and to develop the economic plan for presentation to citizens and to the municipal assembly. The LED training program is designed around 5 modules:
- 1 : Organizing the Effort
- 2 : Local Economy Assessment
- 3 : Strategy Making
- 4 : Strategy Implementation
- 5 : Strategy Review
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Stage One: |
Organizing the Effort |
Module 1 (May, 2005), focused on 11 municipal facilitators and IRD program support staff. This workshop planned the LED process in each municipality. The local facilitators provide a central organizing mechanism for the LED program; they quickly became the organizing nucleus in each municipality. The workshop concentrated on the LED process, selection and empowerment of members and teams, the role of team members, operating procedures, and achieving local political empowerment and support. All six municipal LED teams were formally recognized and commissioned by their local governments.
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Stage Two: |
Local Economy Assessment |
Module 2 (July 2005), taught team members to assess the internal and external economic circumstances of the community and to collect, analyze, and interpret data meaningfully. Team members learned to develop consensus on critical issues. Participants also learned to assess the relative position of the local economy in terms of surrounding areas and local and regional markets, and to identify competitive advantages and overcome barriers using an analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT).
This workshop increased the confidence of the teams. Based on this training the teams spent three months collecting and evaluating the data most relevant to their local economy. Local governments and businesses assisted the teams in collecting, summarizing, and analyzing the information for each municipality.
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Stage Three: |
Strategy Making |
 Module 3 (October, 2005) focused on data analysis leading to choosing economic strategies with the highest yield in terms of competitiveness, increased income, market access, and job creation. It also focused on choices, alternatives, comparisons, and decision-making necessary among competing options. Participants learned the questions to ask and logical steps necessary to define an economic vision for their community; to set g oals and o bjectives; and develop programs to pursue and support economic growth. Participants then began pro ject identification and development to support their strategic aims.
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Stage Four: |
Strategy Implementation |
 Module 4 (January, 2006), focused on the organizational and technical aspects of initiating the strategy. The training helped team members learn to identify and organize the technical, budgetary, human resource, institutional, and procedural aspects of strategy implementation. The workshop also emphasized public presentation and clear communications. Participants learned to assess how reasonable their proposed programs and projects are, to prioritize among them, and to plan for project implementation. They also learned the elements of project development.
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Stage Five:
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Reviewing the LED Strategy |
Module 5 (April, 2006), taught team members to assess the progress of their strategy, anticipate possible problems, and learn to intervene to ameliorate negative influences. Members learned to identify unexpected project impacts and assess changing circumstances. The workshop focused on making modifications to improve project impact and setting evaluation criteria. Module 5 closed the cycle of LED Training for the pilot municipalities.
All six pilot municipalities prepared their LED strategies, in accordance with this five-stage methodology. The documents have been adopted in each of the 6 municipalities as their official economic development plans. The summaries of the strategies are presented in this publication.
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