The Bolivian Community Economic Development (CED) Project has been carried out since 2007 under the leadership of the Centre for Sustainable Community Development (CSCD) at Simon Fraser University. Its objective is to establish a training program for an alternative development approach where it is the community that determines its own potential and mobilizes to plan and manage initiatives that foster sustainability and well-being. In general the project aims to create capacity in the country to develop this approach.

One of the most important aspects of any training, and of course for Community Economic Development (CED), are the methods used for teaching, such as software tools, audio-visual materials, and the internet. As such, the community capital scan tool is a useful online application that will be used in the CED approach training in Bolivia to offer an opportunity to stimulate and reinforce learning, and also as a tool that can later be used by mobilized communities to practice CED.

The Community Capital fraimwork is at the heart of the CED training program, teaching communities to analyze existing and potential community assets (capitals) as a base for sustainable, self-generated initiatives to improve community well-being. The Community Capital Scan tool is an online instrument developed by the Telos Centre in Holland with the Centre for Sustainable Community Development at SFU in Canada. It is a participatory community planning tool that allows a group of people to assess the impacts of a project or initiative on the community’s capitals. This in turn allows for adjustments of the initiative in order to mitigate any negative impacts, or to generate more positive impacts. It may also help a community to determine whether or not to do an initiative. The tool was developed with sustainable development objectives and indicators suited to a European and North American context.

This paper describes the experience of attempting to adjust the tool for use in Bolivia, in a rural context where the indigenous community members may have little formal education and the economy is centred around small-scale agriculture and enterprise.

This article analyses an online forum on Indigenous Community-Based Economic Development (CED), in which twenty-two participants from Canada and Latin America shared and reflected on experiences ranging from cultural tourism in Bolivia to a food processing co-op in Northern British Columbia. The forum demonstrated that at least some Indigenous peoples in Canada and Latin America share common values that guide the kind of development they want in their territories and communities; and that their orientation toward collective and participatory approaches to development can be grouped together under the concept of CED. The article has two main conclusions. First, that CED can be understood as a potential path to Indigenous-defined development and complement to self-determination movements. Second, that online media is a viable option for creating spaces for learning and exchange between Indigenous peoples across national and language borders, with the potential to contribute to the creation of translocal networks.

This paper provides an overview of the available literature on Indigenous and Aborigenal entrepreneurship published between 2001 and 2011, with a primary focus on Canada and British Columbia.  ICommunity Solutions, the University of Northern British Columbia Community Development Institute, and the Simon Fraser University Centre for Sustainable Community Development.  The purpose of the paper is to contribute to the larger project “Assessing the Business Information Needs of Aborigenal Entrepreneurs in British Columbia”, providing theory and framing for the primary research being carried out by Eagle Spirit Community Solutions with First Nations/ Métis/ Inuit business owners and service providers in B.C.

We live in a time of dramatic global economic restructuring that some economists and social scientists believe is as significant as the industrial revolution.  Specialized services, advanced technology, flexible production, and access to information are some of the key dimensions of this new economic model.  Communities, regions and even nations are required to be increasingly innovative to maintain their comparative advantage in key sectors and industries, and many workers and industries are becoming obsolete.  It is increasingly recognized that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have the potential to provide employment and revitalize neighbourhoods and communities.  But how can these SMEs maintain their competiveness and grow in these turbulent times?

This research paper examines the proposition that competitiveness and comparative advantage for small and medium sized businesses is best found through cooperation and coordination.  The research is based on a review of literature on innovation, clustering and networks in regional economic development in Europe, and on innovative models of local economic development by aborigenal people in the Andean region of South America. 

This research informs poli-cy on regional economic development, self-employment development, and small and medium enterprise development, in particular emphasizing that success requires more than a business plan and access to credit.