Facilitating an Inclusive and Long-term COVID-19 Recovery in Ethiopia with a Local Economic Development Approach (English)

The paper examines the role of the Local Economic Development (LED) approach in facilitating inclusive and long-term recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated impacts in selected refugee-hosting woredas (districts) of Ethiopia. This paper argues the importance for an inclusive LED approach to be a driver of job creation and boosting economic and social impacts.  LED is defined as a process by which public, business, and non-governmental sector partners work collectively to create better conditions for economic growth and employment generation.  The paper recommends building œLED platforms' at the local government level to converge digital enterprises, social enterprises, community support organizations, and the private sector to develop an intense and dense ecosystem to support communities and accelerate the local economic development and longer-term COVID recovery. The findings in this paper are relevant to those applying LED approaches in other parts of the world primarily in rural and lagging areas and FCV contexts to strengthen the resilience of local economies and economic inclusion of these areas.