The VI World Forum for Local Economic Development (VI WFLED) was held in Seville, Spain, from 1 to 4 April 2025, four years after the V WFLED, held during the pandemic by COVID-19 and virtually. The Forum returns to Andalusia fourteen years after the holding of the first Forum to renew and strengthen the process that was developed from the territory with the aim of promoting, at a global level, territorial policies for local economic development within the framework of multi-stakeholder and multi-level alliances.

The VI WFLED brought together more than 2,500 actors from over 100 countries linked to local economic development.500 actors from more than 100 countries linked to local economic development, including representatives and associations of national, regional and local governments; civil society organisations and networks; social and solidarity finance and economy entities (EFSS), agencies and programmes of the United Nations system including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the International Labour Organisation (ILO); development agencies; private sector, knowledge sector, and multi-stakeholder partnerships, among others, under the theme Just Transition, Financing for Development and Territorial Solutions.

In a context of polarisation, multiple crises, intersectional discriminations and local and international conflicts, the 6th WFLED once again claims the transformative impact of local economic development in the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The overlap with the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) which will be held from 30 June to 3 July 2025, is an opportunity to highlight and reclaim once again the role of the territory and its actors in the solutions to the planet’s global challenges.

The VI Forum takes place after multiple previous spaces of collective construction and regional forums. It is the result of a process nurtured by thousands of actors in territorial development and subnational local economic development policies.

Thematic areas such as infrastructure investment, food security and sovereignty, care, procurement practices, tax incentives, energy transition, ecotourism, circular economy, decent work, public-community and public-private partnerships, as well as micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), banking and credit, remittances, peacebuilding and digital transformation were discussed.

In addition, they focused on the needs and challenges of specific populations, including women, youth, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, as well as rural areas, and specific territories such as border areas, small island developing states (SIDS) and intermediate cities.

Held during the International Year of Cooperatives, the Forum recognises the positive impact of cooperatives in building sustainable, inclusive and resilient local economies, in line with this year’s theme, “Cooperatives build a better world”.

COMPLETE DECLARATION (short version): https://ledworldforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Final-Declaration-VI-WFLED.pdf