When most people think about economic development, the first thing that often comes to mind is, real estate, infrastructure and the recruitment of businesses. Although, these are indeed elements of economic development, there is more to economic development than only those types of actions.
Economic Development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health.
The scope of economic development includes the process and policies by which a nation or region improves the economic, political, and social well being of its people.
Essentially, a nation's economic development is directly related to its human development, which includes, among other things, health, education, culture and job creation.
The Institute for Applied Economics at LAEDC performs objective research for a wide range of clients, detailing economic impact of development, business operations, and regulation, as well as providing intelligence about specific industry clusters, labor force, and workforce development issues. The Institute's reports provide decision makers with critical information from which to make informed decisions. In addition to providing on-demand research per client requirements, the Institute also provides foundational research to ensure LAEDC's combined programs for economic development are on target, ranging from our collaboration with workforce investment boards to major initiatives such as the L.A. County Strategic Plan for Economic Development.
As economic development practitioners for the past 15 years, we have watched incentives become more important to the day-to-day work of economic developers. This is true for communities small and large, rural and urban, with large economic development staffs and with volunteer leadership. We have developed Smart Incentives because we believe that it is vital for economic development groups to have access to high-quality business intelligence, data and analytical tools in order to make the best decisions for their community.
Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) is an approach to sustainable community-driven development. Beyond the mobilisation of a particular community, it is concerned with how to link micro-assets to the macro-environment. Asset Based Community Development's premise is that communities can drive the development process themselves by identifying and mobilizing existing, but often unrecognised assets. Thereby responding to challenges and creating local social improvement and economic development.
This page will describe ABCD through five key aspects.
Development in the 21st century demands access to information. At a time of tight budgets, libraries offer a more efficient, smarter way of doing development. Most countries around the world, regardless of their size or level of development have public libraries. Beyond Access is starting a movement to make them all hubs for economic and social change. We believe that libraries power development.
The Purdue Center for Regional Development will foster Indiana becoming the nation's leader in supporting creative, regional approaches to development, that build on three core values:
a voluntary approach;
the power of data, analysis, ideas and information; and the importance of dialogue, social capital development, and collaborative partnerships.
Advancing a new understanding of democracy for the 21st century and promoting new strategies and innovations in community development that enhance democratic life.
Promoting new strategies and innovations in community development that enhance democratic life.
The Collaborative is a national leader in the field of community development through our Community Wealth Building Initiative. The Initiative sustains a wide range of projects involving research, training, policy development, and community-focused work designed to promote an asset-based paradigm and increase support for the field across-the-board.
The Democracy Collaborative was established in 2000 to advance a new understanding of democracy for the 21st century and to promote new strategies and innovations in community development that enhance democratic life.
Our goal is to change the prevailing paradigm of community economic development-and of the economy as a whole-in the United States toward a new emphasis and system based on:
Broadening ownership and stewardship over capital
Democracy at the workplace
Stabilizing community and emphasizing locality
Equitable and inclusive growth
Environmental, social, and institutional sustainability
The Collaborative is a national leader in the field of community development through our Community Wealth Building Initiative. The Initiative sustains a wide range of projects involving research, training, policy development, and community-focused work designed to promote an asset-based paradigm and increase support for the field across-the-board.
Welcome to the EDA Know Your Region project. Funded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), this research project explores regional and local approaches to economic innovation and competitiveness across the United States. The resources developed as part of the overall project curriculum, as well as the Know Your Region online clearinghouse, are intended to help local officials, economic development practitioners, community leaders and citizens assess local and regional assets, needs and visions in a global context, leading to long-term regional prosperity and sustainability.
Strategy-Nets is a spin-out from the Purdue Center for Regional Development. The principals of Strategy-Nets understand the dynamics of developing and implementing complex strategies in open networks.
The primary challenge of civic leadership today is to create and sustain adaptive regional economies. By definition, an adaptive economy has the built-in ability to renew itself by continuously developing new strategies to thrive.
Mayor Buckhorn is moving decisively with an economic development strategy that recognizes that its future as a vibrant, livable and sustainable community depends upon connecting its People, redefining its Places, and igniting Progress. Over the next months, AECOM and Parsons Brinckerhoff, planning and transportation experts, respectively, will work with the city and our community stakeholders and opinion leaders to develop a shared vision and give city leaders an implementable plan of action. This master plan, when complete, will form a living "workbook" of initiatives in core areas of land planning, transit, zoning, and economic development and financing strategies.
The Interactivity Foundation works to enhance the process and expand the scope and health of our public discussions by bringing people together in small group discussions of broad topics of public policy concern. Our Fellows conduct Project Discussions that engage separate panels of selected generalists and specialists on a public policy topic for a year or more of private (or "sanctuary") discussions to develop and explore multiple policy possibilities, which are then worked into a Discussion Report. We also conduct and sponsor shorter series (3-4 sessions) of small group Public Discussions, which are open to all interested participants and use the possibilities from our Discussion Reports as the starting point for further exploration and development. Finally, we collaborate with certain college faculty to develop and support facilitated, student-centered Classroom Discussions.
ABCD stands for Asset-Based Community Development and it refers to a type of community development based on the work of Professors Jody Kretzmann and John McKnight.
ABCD challenges the traditional deficit-based approach that tries to solve urban and rural development problems by focusing on the needs and deficiencies of individuals, neighbourhoods, towns, villages, etc.
SiD has been developed since 2001 as a toolkit to develop long term viable sustainable solutions for business, governments and industry. SiD guides individuals and interdisciplinary groups in incorporating problems beyond material and energy usage, extending to include social, ecological, economic, and political matters. If we ever hope to achieve sustainability, we must optimize for all of these competing areas at the same time - and this is what SiD does.
The U.S. Economic Development Administration's investment policy is designed to establish a foundation for sustainable job growth and the building of durable regional economies throughout the United States. This foundation builds upon two key economic drivers - innovation and regional collaboration. Innovation is key to global competitiveness, new and better jobs, a resilient economy, and the attainment of national economic goals. Regional collaboration is essential for economic recovery because regions are the centers of competition in the new global economy and those that work together to leverage resources and use their strengths to overcome weaknesses will fare better than those that do not. EDA encourages its partners around the country to develop initiatives that advance new ideas and creative approaches to address rapidly evolving economic conditions.
The core of our mission is to make a powerful case-supported by sound evidence, rigorous research and compelling real-world examples-for why business leaders should seize upon sustainable development as the greatest opportunity of a lifetime. We will show how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide the private sector with a framework for achieving this market shift. The Business Commission's flagship report, to be published in January 2017, will serve as the foundation from which we will launch a number of activities to inspire and mobilise a growing number of business leaders to align their companies with social and environmental impact.
The TOD Technical Assistance Initiative is a project of the Federal Transit Administration administered by Smart Growth America that provides on-the-ground and online technical assistance to support transit-oriented development, improve access to public transportation, and build new economic opportunities and pathways to employment for local communities. Learn more about the project >>
The Asset-Based Community Development Institute (ABCD) is located at the Center for Civic Engagement at Northwestern University. ABCD has a staff of three individuals, including the founders, John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann.
"In a new report, I reinforce what the goal of economic development should be, as summarized by decades of academic literature: to put a region on a path to higher growth by improving the productivity of firms and people in ways that leads to better incomes and living standards for all."
Social Finance is keen to support others to develop Social Impact Bonds. These Social Impact Bond pages are a place where commissioners, service providers and investors can collaborate, discuss and analyse Social Impact Bond structures and applications. The pages provide an open discussion platform, webinars to take you through our current thinking, technical guides and research that may be useful for developing Social Impact Bonds.
Social Finance is currently looking into new Social Impact Bonds in the fields of criminal justice, chaotic families, looked-after children, health and drug rehabilitation with support from the Big Lottery Fund. We have had considerable interest in the Social Impact Bonds from across the US, Canada, Middle East and Australia, and are keen to see other partners developing these.