The Forum for Development Agencies and Investment Strategies is a flexible tool for supporting the whole work of OECD LEED Programme. It is a channel for engaging city and regional actors, and articulating key city and regional perspectives. Ms. Debra Mountford, administrator of the LEED Programme, is responsible for this Forum. 

The goals include:

Work Programme. A core planned programme of events and reports aligned to the LEED Mandate and Work Programme which can be promoted to the city and regional members of LEED as well as others (including one annual meeting of the FCR). Additional flexible events/activities as agreed by active partners/funders.

LEED Partners engagement. Increase the level of active participation/satisfaction of existing city and regional partners within the partners club. New LEED Partners. Act as a vehicle for attracting new city and regional partners into the partners club.

New LEED sponsors. Act as vehicle of attracting new city and regional agencies into the LEED series of reviews and work streams and act as a vehicle for attracting the financial participation of other sponsors who work with city and regional level organisations.

Membership and Activities

The forum is not separate from the LEED Programme or the Partners Club. The intention should be to act as a flexible vehicle for engaging city and regional level organisations in the work of the LEED programme and the Partners club, and contributing diverse city and regional perspectives into that work. Therefore, the task is to grow the participation of city and regional authorities/agencies within LEED. The delivery mechanisms are:

• Events/Conferences.
• Reports on key themes.
• Publications.
• Reviews.
• Investigative missions.
• Enhancing the local development tool kit and development of international guidelines.

Themes

LEED is distinctive from the multitude of other international organisations/programmes on Local Development (eg those run by UCLG, Cities Alliance, ILO, World Bank, IECD, EURADA, EU, UN, INTA, ICMA, EUROCITIES etc).The Forum will continue to articulate and analyse new tools for cities and regions:

• A ‘channel’ for cities and regions to participate in a high value environment and draw from a collective knowledge base.
• A clear work plan that tackles the big and tough questions.
• A smart means to build international partnership.
• A vehicle for talking to national governments.
• A menu of options for how to engage.

A menu to select from:

• Receive LEED documents and reports.
• Join the LEED Partners Club.
• Come to a LEED event.
• Sponsor an event.
• Participate as ‘a case study’ in a thematic report.
• Participate in (sponsor) a review series.
• Participate in an evaluation.

An agenda that delivers value to cities and regions and their partners, on themes related to:  

• Local Development Agencies
• Achieving Local Development benefits from hosting major events, facilities, or projects.
• Closures of major facilities as a catalyst for local development and the subsequent impact upon reshaping cities and regions.
• Financing local development and overcoming inefficiencies. Audit of what we know and wider dissemination of LEED work.
• Local futures (propsectif) and new sources of job creation.
• Tackling worklessness and poverty through Local Development including training, education and workforce capacity.
• Competitive advantages of diversity (strategies for integrating immigrants, etc).
• Regional organisation of Local Development.
• Local strategies for the knowledge economy (Universities, Medicine, Technology, Creative Industries, etc).
• New approaches territorial marketing.
• The role of the public sector as a driver of change.
• Private sector participation and CSR.
• The influence of local innovation on national policy.
• The integration of large-scale projects and strategies to deliver regeneration and economic development.
• City development strategies to achieve economic growth and social cohesion.
• Quality of life/place as driver of local development and enhancing territorial assets to enhance economic growth and to promote social cohesion.

For more information on how to participate in these activities, please contact Ms. Debra Mountford from the LEED Programme.