Territorial Approach to Local Development

Approche Territoriale du Développement Local (ATDL)

Author:

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Leonardo G. Romeo, Adjunct Professor of Planning at Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, at New York University

Letter of Contract N° 2013/330793, prepared in June 2014

Executive Summary

Adopted by the EC on 15 May 2013, the Communication “Empowering Local Authorities in partner countries for enhanced governance and more effective development outcomes” commits the EU to promoting territorial development. This is now being reflected in the next programming cycle of both the Thematic and Geographic lines of EU development cooperation. Already, the EU Thematic Programme “Civil Society Organizations and Local Authorities” (CSO&LA) has made “Testing pilot actions promoting local development (LD) through a territorial approach” one of its three overarching goals. As such it is poised to become a critical, although by no means the only, instrument to operationalize the EC Communication’s commitment to territorial development.

Yet, both the concept of territorial development and the contours of a territorial approach to local development promotion are in need of clarification. Also, more specific guidance could be provided to EU Delegations’ staff to enable them to better advocate and support a “Territorial Approach to Local Development” (TALD). As a first step towards the development of such guidance this policy note aims (i) to provide a definition of a national territorial development policy and a map of its multiple dimensions, and (ii) to identify entry points and appropriate modalities to support the development, adoption and implementation of a territorial approach to local development in diverse country contexts.

This document is also available in French.