ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

The purpose of this applied research project is to establish a baseline and measure progress on economic development efforts using indicators in the Columbia Basin-Boundary region. Indicators are especially important for informing and evaluating the impact of a community’s economic development plan. This project responds to a request made by the Basin-Boundary Economic Development Practitioners Network (EDPN) to provide performance measurement training support. The Columbia Basin Rural Development Institute (RDI) recognized the opportunity to tie this need to the State of the Basin Initiative. It is anticipated that the resulting indicator suite will serve both the State of the Basin economic indicator portfolio and the related planning and performance measurement needs of individual communities and the region as a whole.  The RDI will be working in partnership with the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training (MJTST) and the Basin-Boundary EDPN to pilot the Performance Measurement Toolkit[1] in our rural communities.

Phase 1: Indicator Selection Session

The Community Lead will assemble a small working group of economic development stakeholders[2] that will come together to review the indicator library and select a core suite of indicators that: a) best position the community to understand the local economic climate, and b) create a baseline from which to measure progress against identified economic development goals (if applicable).  Phase 2 and 3 will be scoped at this meeting, including an identification of required resource requirements.  The desired outcomes of the meeting are a draft Collaborative Research MOU, a prioritized list of indicators, and details required to create both a research and knowledge mobilization plan.

Phase 2: Data Collection and Analysis

The Community Lead will work with the research team at the RDI to collect and analyze prioritized indicator data.  A Co-Op student will be available to provide data collection support to the pilot community.  Training for community-based researchers is also available as needed.  RDI will produce a ‘State of the Economy: Revelstoke’ report, which will include baseline indicators to be used to measure performance against identified economic development goals (if applicable).

Phase 3: Knowledge Mobilization

The report will be released and knowledge will be mobilized according to the knowledge mobilization plan that was scoped during Phase 1.  Knowledge mobilization activities could include, but are not limited to, a press release, a webinar to share key findings, a community workshop to tie together research, planning, and future action.

*Phase 1 pilot communities include: Revelstoke

Revelstoke Economic Development Report 2017

To learn more about economic development please access the Knowledge Briefs below:

Economic Development Part I – Performance Measurement for Economic Development

Economic Development Part II – Assessing & Measuring Resilience in Regional & Local Economies 

______________________________________________

[1] http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/employment-business/economic-development/developing-your-community/track-your-progress

[2] economic development practitioner (EDP), local government rep, and industry representation are recommended