Newsletter LEDNA Issue°7/April 2021

The partial or full lockdown measures taken around the world to stem the spread of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic are having a negative impact on economic activity at global, regional and local scales. Specifically, these measures have significant repercussions on the informal economy, affecting more than 2 billion workers in 2020– 62 % of all workers in the world 1 – who derive their livelihoods from it. Many men and women in the informal economy need to earn an income to feed themselves and their families, "Dying from hunger or from the virus" is the all too real dilemma facing these many workers in the informal economy. Not working and staying at home means losing their jobs and their livelihoods. Thus, when there is no other source of income, the loss of labor income translates into an increase in the relative poverty of informal workers and also of their families.2. It is in the current even more critical context of Covid-19, especially with regard to the informal sector, that we are launching this 5th issue of our bimonthly newsletter, the result of constant and collaborative work by the LEDNA network. The subject that we propose to you on the front page is "The dynamics of the informal sector in African cities : support methods & best practices for sustainable and inclusive local economic development (LED)". We hope that this theme will serve as an inspiration to local decision-makers and practitioners wishing to develop an environment more favorable to the informal economy in their locality. We invite you to share with us all the specific work done by local and regional governments likely to shed light on the African protagonists of local and regional economic development. This new issue also introduces you to the post-Covid-19 era, the day before current events, in particular the five major areas of LED (Economic Governance, Business Development, Development of living conditions, Territory Development, and Development labor force), innovations and advances in projects and programs aimed at creating jobs and generating income at regional and locallevels.

To all of you, we extend our most sincere thanks for your trust and your usual cooperation, but also our sincere and most saddened condolences to those of you who have lost loved ones, friends or colleagues.
Good reading ! Francois PAUL YATTA