Prof Meyer is an associate professor in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the NWU’s campus in Vanderbijlpark.
The Economic Development Council of South Africa – or EDCSA – was recently launched during a glitzy ceremony at the Saint George Hotel in Centurion. The council represents a dynamic collaborative between the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Cooperative Governance, and boast support from various other stakeholders, including the LED Network, the Industrial Development Corporation, the South African Local Government Association, and the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority.
According to Prof Meyer the idea to create a professional body for economic development practitioners in South Africa can be traced back to a visit from the internationally renowned leader in urban community development, Prof Ed Blakely, in 2015. During this visit Prof Meyer, the research leader of the Applied Local Economic Development (APPLIED) research initiative and Dr Marius Venter, the founder and director of the Centre for Local Economic Development (CENLED) based at the University of Johannesburg, started the participative process of preparing the groundwork for the development of a professional body. Dr Venter is the chairperson of the EDCSA.
Professionalising the economic development sector
The main reason for establishing the EDCSA is, according to Prof Meyer, to professionalise the economic development sector. To this end, the EDCSA supports the following guiding principles for professionalisation:
- To strengthen the local government system and all private and public institutions working in the economic development sphere;
- To promote a high level of professional competence, experience, behaviour and ethics of appointed and elected local government officials and other economic development practitioners;
- To promote professional ethics and professional conduct;
- To promote a development-orientated approach to local government and in all other institutions involved in economic development;
- To ensure uniformity, standardisation and harmony in the approach to professionalisation, professionalism and professional ethics;
- To contribute to improved individual and institutional performance and contribute to an enabling environment for performance improvement; and
- To align to existing constitutional, legislative and regulatory mandates and requirements, in particular to the broader initiatives and provisions for capacity building of economic development practitioners in order to promote equity.
Membership to the EDCSA will include persons in the following occupations:
- In the public sector: managers and practitioners in municipalities, provincial government and in government departments responsible for municipal affairs, public governance, integrated development planning, town planning and Local Economic Development (LED);
- In the private sector: managers and practitioners involved in fields such as social development, community development, social entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility; and
- In addition to these, membership will be open to individuals and organisations who have an interest in LED or economic development in general, and who support to the objectives and values of the EDCSA.
“Over a period of more than 10 years, economic development – and particularly local economic development – has been the focus of various training and development initiatives in South Africa. The aim of this professional body is to establish, manage and monitor the professional conduct of the many practitioners that have participated in these different initiatives and who are building their career paths in the economic development sector,” says Prof Meyer.
Prof Danie Meyer
