Assessing and Starting A Local Economic Development (LED) Initiative: USAID LED Primer
This primer on LED is designed to provide development practitioners with a better understanding of the basic concepts and approaches for LED. The primer provides a conceptual framework, addresses successful LED strategies, covers key questions to determining if an LED strategy is appropriate, and provides sample scopes of work and additional resource materials.

Local Economic Development: A Primer for Developing and Implementing Local Economic Development Strategies and Plans
Washington, D.C: World Bank. Developed as a resource to assist communities to develop local economic development strategies, this LED Primer has been prepared for towns, cities and communities that are new to LED and that wish to help their local economies grow. The Primer seeks to provide municipalities, practitioners, businesses and communities with an understanding of what local economic development is, why it is practiced, and how it is practiced.

Making Local Economic Development Strategies: A Trainer's Manual
The trainer's manual has been developed as a resource to train municipal officials and community representatives in the core elements of local economic development strategic planning. The Manual consists of six separate but complimentary sections that together form a comprehensive teaching tool for devising an LED strategy.

Doing Business Reforms
The Doing Business database provides indicators of the cost of doing business by identifying specific regulations that enhance or constrain business investment, productivity, and growth. The indicators are developed by the Finance and Private Sector Vice Presidency of the World Bank Group.

World Bank Five Stage Approach to LED
Ideally, the development of an LED strategy will be an integral part of a broader strategic planning process for a sub-national region, city, town or rural area. Effective strategic planning ensures that priority issues are addressed and limited resources are well targeted. The five-step planning process detailed should be tailored to complement, and correspond with, other local planning processes. The process is not prescriptive and should be adapted to meet the needs of the individual community.

Resource Guide on Local Economic Development, International Labour Organization (ILO)
This guide is designed for use by program managers, staff, consultants, LED facilitators and local development practitioners working on social and economic programs and development interventions at the national, regional and local level. It offers an integrated local development approach that focuses not only on job creation but also integrates the other three pillars of the ILO in the context of decent work values. The ILO's local economic development process integrates fundamental rights, social protection and social dialogue. The resource guide is designed as a flexible and comprehensive tool, adaptable to local circumstances and suitable for use at any time during the LED process.

Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Programme
The LEED Programme identifies, analyses and disseminates innovative ideas for local development, governance and the social economy. Governments from OECD member and non-member economies look to LEED and work through it to generate innovative guidance on policies to support employment creation and economic development through locally based initiatives.

World Bank, Local Economic Development
The World Bank provides a broad range of reference materials, case studies, and other useful resources for development practitioners, policy-makers, and LED practitioners.

Central European Initiative (CEI)
CEI is an inter-governmental forum for political, economic and cultural cooperation for its 18 Member States. The CEI aims to bring the countries of Eastern and Central Europe closer together and assist them in preparing for membership to the European Union. The CEI's Know-how Exchange Programme (KEP) provides a framework for the transfer and dissemination of knowledge in economic transition and institution building.

International Labour Organization
The ILO website provides a range of resources to support a participatory development process for LED aimed at creating decent jobs and stimulating economic activity. ILO's LED Programme, based in the Cooperative Branch of the Department for Job Creation and Enterprise Development (EMP/ENT), has four fields of intervention: technical cooperation; research; training; and public information.

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