Under the patronage of Prime Minister Hani Al-Mulki, a major conference on local economic development (LED) will be held in Amman on May 8–9.

The main theme at the two-day event, organized by the Ministry of Interior (MOI) and funded by the European Union Delegation (EUD), will be “Promoting Equitable Economic Growth and Expanding and Diversifying Employment Opportunities for All.”

Papers and interventions will be presented by MOI, Ministry of Municipal Affairs (MOMA), Ministry of planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the European Union’s PLEDJ (Promotion of Local Economic Development in Jordan) project, Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO), and USAID’s Jordan Loan Guarantee Facility (JLGF), as well as representatives of the agriculture, industry, tourism, telecommunication, information technology and other sectors.

The conference will focus on LED’s potential contribution to Jordan’s economic development objectives, provide an overview of the LED concept and approach, describe LED’s potential role in addressing stagnation in the growth of local economies, and explore LED’s potential contribution to national economic development.

The conferees will also consider the pre-requisites for LED’s effective promotion and provide a preliminary overview of the distribution of roles and responsibilities among national, local, private, public and external actors in LED promotion.

It will also discuss the potential strategic value of LED for Jordan’s national economic development effort and the scope of an integrated effort for the promotion of LED.

The conference will review ongoing LED promotion efforts, carried out by private, quasi-governmental, non-governmental and public national institutions, international aid agencies, and development partners. The preliminary results of field assessments of the level of coordination between these entities and the extent to which their interventions are consolidated and synchronized will also be presented.

It will also discuss the modalities of LED delivery and the capacities of local development units/directorates ( LDU/Ds) at both the governorate and municipality levels and review the results of an assessment of the capacities of LDUs and the extent to which these units have engaged meaningfully in LED promotion and will explore options for strengthening their role.

The conferees will also explore the level of institutionalization of LED functions and the procedures and capacities they have retained in order to carry out the range of activities that constitute the stages of a formal LED promotion process. This includes carrying out local economy assessments, convening and facilitating interaction and communication between economic actors, developing and guiding the implementation of LED Strategies, and coordinating and supporting the implementation of a range of LED programmes and projects included in LED Strategies.

Towards the end of the conference, the participants will delve deeper into the stages and activities of a comprehensive LED process and take stock of available resources and experiences that will be crucial for advancing this effort in the future. They will also try and gauge the extent to which such stages have been applied on the ground and how much of the procedures and capacities required for each have been retained by local institutions and particularly, municipalities and governorates.