Old industrial areas
Good practice case study
Voivodship of Katowice, Poland
Many new Member States are only beginning to build local partnerships and other less formal governance structures. The example of the Voivodship of Katowice provides a good example of these forms of governance in a traditionally centralised new Member State. In 1997 the Voivodship of Katowice has started establishing Local Development Agencies as a basis for the development of Local Pacts as initiatives for community support for development. The mission of the development agencies is to address unemployment and support local economic development in particular cities and poviats. There have been variations in the way that local partnerships have developed. Initiatives implemented have included business incubators, training centres, loan guarantee funds, counselling for SMEs and personal resource banks. In addition ten Local Employment Pacts have been developed in the region under the Phare programme – and forming part of the Silesian regional employment strategy involving the voivodship regional government, labour office and regional partners (NGOs and business).
Case study
Voivodship of Katowice [pdf, en, 10kb]
