Local development is based on the identification and use of the endogenous resources and potential of a community, neighborhood or city.[1]​[2]​.

Economic and non-economic factors are considered endogenous potentialities of each territory, among the latter it is worth remembering: social, cultural, historical, institutional, landscape resources, etc. All these factors are also decisive in the process of local economic development.

In this perspective, local economic development can be defined as the process of transforming the local economy and society, aimed at overcoming existing difficulties and challenges, which seeks to improve the living conditions of its population through determined and concerted action between the different local, public and private socioeconomic agents, for the most efficient and sustainable use of existing endogenous resources, by promoting local business entrepreneurship capabilities and creating an innovative environment in the territory. This approach also considers the importance of social capital and cooperation links with external agents to capture human, technical and monetary resources, among others, that contribute to the local development strategy (Pike et al. 2006). Activity that drives the well-being of people and the income of its population. Although, in terms of local development, there is a tendency to think that it should focus from the global to the local, other currents suggest that "we must think about the local - the felt space Archived August 20, 2018 at the Wayback Machine - and act globally."[3]​.

There are both international institutions (Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, FLACSO-Guatemala and Costa Rica Academic Headquarters, the OECD Center for Local Development) and national institutions in different countries of the world dedicated to improving the living conditions of local spaces through this approach to development. Among some authors whose work influences this approach to development is Manfred Max-Neef. His texts "The Barefoot Economy" and "Development on a Human Scale" are a good example of this.

3. Pike, A., Rodriguez-Pose, A. and Tomaney, J., 2006. Local and Regional Development. New York: Routledge.