Local economic development: disseminating global best practices to affect futuristic thinking in SA

The aim of Local Economic Development (LED) is to ensure that the economy of a community, region or country grows faster than the population, so that there can be surplus resources for future expansion (Rucker, Kinnett & Barbash 2012). This suggests that LED is more than economic development at local level. LED is often not viewed from an economic perspective but from a political perspective. Birkhölzer (2005:3) outlines four possible political LED viewpoints. The first perspective is “development from above” with an authoritarian state dictating to regional government and local authorities. This perspective has been proven flawed when political or economic turbulences occur. The second perspective is “development from outside” with reliance on outside investors to bring into the country the necessary resources, mostly funding. This perspective is risky from a sustainability point of view. The third perspective is the “wait and see” where migration occurs if there are problems. This perspective is equally flawed as it is becoming increasingly difficult to migrate because it is so costly, and also finding the right place to go can prove to be problematic. The last perspective is the “development from within” where people play a key role, and do not rely on government or the economy to serve their needs or solve their problems; this points to self-sufficiency