This is a practical handbook for the practitioner. Modeled by the work of UNCDF with in the least developed countries.

This Guide serves to bolster previously gained experience by compiling a variety of recommendations, lessons learned, and experiences (both positive and negative) drawn from actual practise. It aims to educate frontline professionals responsible for designing, implementing, or supporting programmes that boost local development, enhance local communities' capacities, and demonstrate decentralised methods of constructing infrastructure that can be replicated successfully beyond the scope of individual projects.

In particular, UNCDF and UNDP staff and teams engaged in local development projects, local government assistance programmes, and service delivery support will find the material presented in Chapter I to be of most interest. We expect the audience for the other parties to be larger.

It is important to note that this Guide does not claim to be a normative "recipe book." Instead, it aims to provide a conceptual framework for addressing and resolving the typical problems encountered in implementing such programmes, as well as providing some insight into the various factors that must be considered, promises that must be made, and risks that must be taken in order for the intended results to materialise.