LED World Forum: Significant Participation of Local and Regional Governments

The Italian city of Torino will host, from 13 to 16 October 2015, the 3rd World Forum of Local Economic Development (LED). The Forum (Plenary Sessions, Panels and Workshops) will take place in Polo Reale, the architectural and museum complex, which hosts one of the royal residences of the Savoy.

 

The forum is organized by the Executive Committee (EC) comprising the Municipality and Province of Turin, the global network of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and its Committee on Local Economic Development, through the Andalusian Fund of Municipalities for International Solidarity (FAMSI). Also in the EC, the Organization of United Regions (ORU FOGAR), the Brazilian Service of Support for Micro and Small Enterprises (SEBRAE), the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The theme of the forum is underlining the Post-2015 Agenda and the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which have been adopted in September 2015 by the United Nations. The crucial question of the forum will be the examination of how the concrete implementation of SDGs can be achieved through local economic development and territorial development.

UCLG and its regional sections and partners are representing local and regional governments, who constitute a big part of the forum through panels, workshops and B2B meetings attended by representatives of municipalities, cities and territories, non-governmental organizations, international institutions and governments, the academic and business sectors, and local associations.

In fact, UCLG and its Sections (ORU-FOGAR, Metropolis, and UCLG Africa), members (FAMSI) and partners (FMDV) will be organizing panel sessions and workshops within Focus area 3 “Towards sustainable urbanization: LED strategies for creating positive urban-rural linkages”.

UCLG Africa will organize, Thursday 15 October (17:00-19:00) a panel session on “LED in Africa: Status, challenges and prospects” that UCLG Africa Secretary General, Mr. Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, will moderate. He will also be among the speakers during the plenary session on: “A new universal agenda for development. How can LED become the means to implement Post2015 Development Agenda at the local level?

Ahead of this forum and given the important participation of local governments in it, UCLG prepared a Key Positioning document where key messages of local and regional governments on LED are gathered. It will be disseminated during the forum. However, an electronic copy is available here.

 

The complete programme of the 3rd World Forum on Local Economic Development is available here.

More information about the Forum available here.