Local is lekker but is local enough?

A lot of discussion in South Africa around LED revolves around “defining LED’. In truth most of the time this is more a reflection of lack of capacity to implement than a fundamental need to define what LED is i.e. the lack of an LED definition is not the barrier to lack of implementation but rather an excuse for it.

However, some interactions I had today highlighted an important element of LED which does have direct bearing on the lack of implementation.

I had a conversation with a colleague this afternoon who had decided not to put in a proposal to investigate the feasibility and future viability of the sugar industry in an area of southern KwaZulu-Natal. In his view the sugar industry in this part of the country had reached the limits of it ability to grow due to local conditions and the limited ability of sugar cane to thrive in sub-tropical regions. The funders of the study clearly think otherwise or they would not be commissioning a study on the future of the industry.

I also read an article in today’s Business Report entitled “Sweet dreams are made of EU sugar reforms” which amongst other things highlights the fact that the restructuring of EU sugar markets has created an opportunity for the African, Caribbean and Pacific sugar producing countries to pick up a shortfall of six million tonnes. (To put this in perspective, Illovo’s annual production is only 1.8 million tones). Surely this is an opportunity for sugar producers in southern KwaZulu-Natal or is the industry so beleaguered that even the opening up of European markets can’t save them?

Who is right and who is wrong in this case will be tested in time and is not really the point of this blog. What is interesting, however, is the less than obvious point that these differing opinions and the various dynamics in the KwaZulu-Natal sugar sector highlight: while it is called LOCAL economic development, and practitioners have to develop an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of the LOCAL economy, what is happening in the “globally” (outside the locality) also has bearing on the relative success of the local economy.

So many times LED practitioners are called into rescue LED projects where local factors have not been considered (e.g. the proposed activity requires high skill levels not found in the local area) or where non-local dynamics have not been taken into account (Market? What market? Oh! the consumers of the product!). Local is lekker, very lekker but that is not all there is to it. For LED initiatives to succeed and prosper, insight into both local and “global” is essential.