| This already completed project, implemented by ECLAC with the support of the Federal Republic of Germany through the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), responded to a growing interest in the role of local economies in the context of reforms leading to the modernization of the State and in the production restructuring strategies that were applied in the countries of Latin America. There was an awareness of the fact that development continued to be territorially concentrated and inequitable in the region, hindering the productive potential of the various territories and standing as one of the roots of poverty. The project had a threefold objective: to contribute to the strengthening of territorial institutionality for economic development, to analyze the causal relationship between decentralization and local economic development, and to contribute to a debate about the policies that should be adopted. The project took up the discussion that arose in the region about the role that local communities should play in promoting economic development. Its activities were directed at overcoming the lack of information regarding local economic development initiatives that existed in the region. To this end, a conceptual framework was designed that served as a basis to conduct case studies in selected countries, on the basis of which an inventory was prepared and an analysis was made of the more significant initiatives. The case studies encompassed the following local experiences: Tandil, Córdoba and Rafaela in Argentina; Buena Vista and Irupana in Bolivia; Ceará, ABC Paulista and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil; El Loa, Rancagua, Ranquil and La Araucanía in Chile; Pensilvania, Antioquía and Bucaramanga in Colombia; Ilo and Villa San Salvador in Peru, and Jalisco and Chihuahua in Mexico. These studies gave rise to workshops with the relevant local counterparts from the various territorial levels. In the cases of Chile and Bolivia, two national seminars were held, aimed at defining and analyzing the main guidelines for formulating national policies on local economic development. All these studies have been published in about thirty documents. The above activities provided inputs for the preparation of a summary report, contained in the book Desarrollo económico local y descentralización en América Latina: un análisis comparativo (in Spanish), which was presented at an international seminar on the subject on 5 and 6 September 2001. Participants at the seminar included the authors of selected case studies, national experts and government officials of the region, as well as representatives of multilateral organizations. The promoter and director of the project was Mr. Gabriel Aghón Barbosa, senior expert at ECLAC, until his untimely death in July 2000. | 
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