Abstract
Many developing countries including those in Africa thrive to provide decent public services to
their citizens; this includes the provision of basic services such as water and electricity.
However, the initial findings revealed that, lack of capacity, adequate leadership; corruption and
good governance are some of the reasons why these countries failed to achieve their
development objective, especially in most African countries. Western countries after the World
War II (WWII) put in place the Marshall Plan to assist countries in Europe that were seriously
damaged by the atrocities of the War. The Marshall Plan was a whole developmental package for
reconstruction and development strategy; this included the rebuilding of infrastructures, schools,
hospitals and the entire reorganisation of state apparatus. From there on many international
organisations were created to entrench and consolidate the notion of democracy in most of these
European countries. The notion of democracy and good governance therefore became the
flagship for administration in Europe. Since then nation building and societal cohesion initiatives
have assist local, provincial and national governments to adopt policies that use national
resources effectively for continually building Europe in order to maintain its economic and
political power. Organisations such as the United City of Local Government (UCLG) based in
Spain and its related organs across the world have encouraged cities of countries members to
develop through decentralisation strategies since decentralisation is perceived in the current
context as a condition to sustainable urbanisation and local economic development. This paper is
therefore based on the premise that, urbanisation could be effective only if decentralisation
policy is at the centre of development initiatives. In this way the paper argues, local authorities
could utilize local resources to ignite local economic development (LED) through for instance
trade activities and investments.LED initiatives aim at empowering local stakeholders to utilise
business enterprises, labour, capital and other local resources effectively to maximise local
benefits in order to contribute to poverty reduction and the uplifting of citizens life conditions.
The paper is divided into four major parts. The first part gives a background of the notion of
decentralisation, urbanisation and local economic development. The second part gives an
account on how the above are inter-related. The third part provides the challenges faced by
urbanisation in achieving local economic development and part four is presented as conclusion
and recommendations.