School of Local Economic Development Grads Plan for Growth
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| The new ‘class’ of graduates of USAID’s ‘School of local economic development’. |
Recently, the second group of participants in USAID’s Municipal Economic Growth program earned certificates confirming their expertise in local economic development. This group of 35 professionals from 11 municipalities successfully completed an intensive series of training courses under the local economic development curriculum jointly developed by USAID and the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM).
Since 2006, USAID and the SCTM have delivered dozens of training courses to employees of Local Economic Development (LED) offices. Initially set up to supplement municipal administrations, these offices now serve as key catalysts of economic growth for their cities and municipalities. “Skilled local economic development professionals are crucial for attracting investors and supporting the local business community. We encourage you to become true leaders in economic development in your communities,” urged USAID’s Mission Director Michael Harvey at the certificate ceremony. To date, sixty-four professionals from twenty-one cities and municipalities have graduated from the “School of Local Economic Development”.
In just a few short years, municipalities in USAID’s program have created local economic development strategic plans, developed new marketing and promotional materials, compiled land inventory databases, and increased their overall capacity to effectively market the business opportunities which exist in their communities.
Municipalities have developed various projects according to their needs and potentials, including business incubators, business improvement districts, educational centers for the unemployed, and business innovation centers. However, one of the program’s most important achievements has been to instill a desire and a willingness on the part of municipalities to try to understand the problems and interests of businesses and look for solutions. “When we meet with our counterparts from municipalities that are not part of USAID’s program, we now notice that there is a big difference. We plan our economic development and systematically execute our strategies; they don’t,” said Dragana Bogdanovic, the head of the LED office in Paracin and a newly-certified local economic development expert, eager to present Paracin’s latest LED project for USAID grant funding consideration.
With the Law on Local Self Government adopted over a year ago, local economic development has been designated as an explicit function of cities and municipalities. It is up to local leaders, now more than ever, to help ensure the health of their local economies. Efforts by local authorities to drive local economic development in their communities also put pressure on republic authorities to speed up their work to create a favorable environment for business on the macro-level to encourage investors to establish businesses in Serbia.
2009 marks the final year of training, as the last group of cities and municipalities progress through the series of coursework. To ensure that the curriculum would be available to Serbian professionals beyond the duration of its assistance program, USAID handed over a complete set of training manuals to the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities to be used for courses at its Training Center in the years to come.
“While working with the Americans was challenging at times, as we did not always realize ahead of time that we needed that push, our collaboration has always produced great results,” joked Djordje Stanicic, Secretary General of the SCTM, as he thanked USAID for many years of successful cooperation at the most recent certificate ceremony.
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