This article describes the work done under the ECLAC/GTZ project directed until his death by Gabriel Aghón from the ECLAC Economic Development Division. It shows that the emergence of local economic development initiatives is not only the consequence of the decentralization processes under way in the different countries of the region but is the result of a more complex set of factors which have arisen in the local areas themselves and have given rise to the mobilization and action of public and private local agents. The project carried out almost thirty case studies in seven countries of the region and is one of the most extensive studies made since local economic development initiatives began to be made in Latin America.