USAID, Obama and local economic development. Hayford and Jason, thanks for raising the issues and potentials around President Obama's upcoming visit to Africa. Jason, you raise a great question, what about LED and Obama? I am currently in Washington and am visiting USAID, World Banks and others to talk about local economic development. 

Over the last few months I have posted a number of interesting lending and non- lending LED programmes from the African Development Bank, World Bank, EU, USAID and others - these have been dedicated to local economic development strategies and projects or programmes that have LED as key elements within broader projects. It is encouraging to see LED becoming more important in multi-lateral and bi-lateral programmes focussed on developing countries and those in transition, especially Africa. However, compared with the massive LED investments ongoing in advanced countries by natonal and sub-national governments, Africa especially is very underserved indeed.

One of the roles of LEDNA is to raise the profile of local economic development, build capacity and share knowledge so that Africa can also benefit from much larger and more comprehensive LED programmes. We the LEDNA family know the opportunties and challenges that we face to achieve this, but working together, sharing and lobbying for LED where ever we can are essential steps we are all trying to take.

So, for the Obama visit, do we have LEDNA members in Ghana who may have a chance to engage somehow with the Presidential team? Do LEDNA members have ideas on how we can do this? I will of course keep the agenda moving in Washngton, and the more interest we can get from Africa, the sooner we will have our ultimate goal- MORE AND BETTER LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ESPECIALLY IN AFRICA!