Local Economic Development (LED) is an approach towards economic development which allows and encourages local people to work together to achieve sustainable economic growth and development thereby bringing economic benefits and improved quality of life for all residents in a local municipal area.

As a programme, LED is intended to maximise the economic potential of all municipal localities throughout the country and, to enhance the resilience of the macro-economic growth through increased local economic growth, employment creation and development initiatives within the context of sustainable development. The “local” in economic development points to the fact that the political jurisdiction at a local level is often the most appropriate place for economic intervention as it carries alongside it the accountability and legitimacy of a democratically elected body.

CoGTA LED Programmes provides support in the following areas:

• Development and review of national policy, strategy and guidelines on LED;
• Providing direct and hands-on support to provincial and local government;
• Management of the Local Economic Development Fund;
• Management and Technical Support to Nodal Economic Development Planning;
• Facilitating coordinating and monitoring of donor programmes, and
• Assisting on LED capacity building processes.

1. Through these interventions, resources, local role-players and interest groups are mobilized for the sake of achieving economic growth and creating jobs to reduce poverty.
2. Integrated Development Plan (IDP) is a process by which municipalities prepare 5- year strategic plans that are reviewed annually in consultation with communities and stakeholders. These plans adopt an implementation approach and seek to promote integration by balancing social, economic and ecological pillars of sustainability without compromising the institutional capacity required in the implementation and coordinating of actions across sectors and spheres of government.