Caribbean Local Economic Development Program

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), in partnership with the Caribbean Forum of Local Government Ministers (CFLGM), the Caribbean Association of Local Government Authorities (CALGA) and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF), is implementing a six-year, 23.2 million dollar project to stimulate sustainable local economic development (LED) in the Caribbean Region.

From 2012 to 2017, the Caribbean Local Economic Development Program, (CARILED) will support nearly 50 local governments and agencies in their Local Economic Development initiatives targeting more than 500 small and medium size enterprises (MSME) throughout the Caribbean. CARILED is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Local Governments Key Actors in Supporting Engines of Sustainable Local Economic Growth

Micro, small and medium size enterprises are proven engines of local economic growth throughout the world. Local government authorities are key actors in fostering a supportive environment for these enterprises and in implementing LED initiatives that take into account the needs and socio-economic conditions of their region.

Through CARILED, local government authorities in the Caribbean will receive the support they need to further create and sustain a supportive environment for MSMEs. CARILED will help strengthen the competencies of local government authorities in order for them to encourage and support existing businesses, attract new ventures, and put in place services, plans and strategies that meet their needs. These initiatives will generate lessons, approaches and practices for local economic development that will be used to inform the improvement of existing policies, regulations and programs on LED at the national level in the countries of focus of the program, and to create new tools and management models that will be disseminated throughout the entire Commonwealth Caribbean region. The resulting increase in sustainable economic growth will benefit men, women and youth in the Caribbean. It will also support the achievement of CIDA's Caribbean programming strategy for economic growth as well as that of CARICOM, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and individual countries in the region.

CARILED is funded by CIDA and will receive in-kind contributions from Canadian, Caribbean, and Commonwealth partners. Consistent with CIDA's commitment to a decentralized management, approach, CARILED is implementing a decentralized program-management model. A Caribbean-based regional project office will be opened with Canadian and Caribbean staff, in a country that has regional transportation facilities and is close to CIDA, CARICOM and OECS offices.