Methodology of Economic Development

DELTA provides training and expert assistance to municipal teams (comprised of the members of the local government and the business community) to develop medium- to long-term economic development plans. The goal of the strategies is to improve the business-enabling environment and to generate private sector growth in each partner municipality.

This comprehensive website details the entire project methodology employed in operating such a program. It has been developed by the Foundation for Local Autonomy and Governance, which acted as the chief implementing partner for DELTA Albania. These pages are intended to serve two primary purposes:

• to educate and guide municipalities, donors and experts alike in undertaking local economic development strategic planning; and
  
• to highlight the strategies that have been completed under DELTA Program in Kosovo and Albania
  

There has been a growing consensus in the donor community about the need for government and private sector leadership to forge partnerships for economic development. One of the most important areas of public-private sector interface is in the areas of national business enabling environment. However, barriers to private sector development often occur at the sub-national or local level. Local taxes, municipal fees, and other administrative obstacles may originate in city hall, rather than in the national parliament. Furthermore, local governments often do not have the capacity to develop or implement policies or programs that can help foment growth in their municipality by concurrently removing barriers to investment, developing and institutionalizing public-private partnerships, and formulating economic development strategies about ways to exploit comparative advantages of their region, municipality, or town. Therefore, the impact of national-level policy reforms may be weak, particularly in countries that are going through the decentralization process.

With this in mind, the DELTA program was designed to forge strong public-private partnerships at the municipal level to create alliances for improving the business climate and for stimulating creative ideas, after undertaking a municipal competitive assessment, to foster private sector growth.