Journal of Leadership, Planning, Tourism & Sustainable Development (LATDD)

This inaugural issue of Leadership, Planning, Tourism and Sustainable Development examines the practical foundations of more balanced territorial development in Haiti. Its core premise is straightforward: territories do not transform through planning alone, but through the quality of local institutions, the ability to finance public action, and the strength of linkages among economic, social, and political actors.

A first set of articles addresses the financial backbone of decentralization. By assessing local governments’ financial health (2015–2022) and examining the financing of territorial communities in the Jacmel district, the issue explores municipal viability, flexibility, and vulnerability while documenting persistent spatial inequalities. These analyses are grounded in two complementary theoretical lenses: territorial imbrication, which emphasizes the interdependence of governance scales, and public choice incompatibility, which highlights the misalignments between national priorities and local needs—often producing fragmentation, inefficiency, and contested autonomy.

A second set of contributions turns to endogenous economic drivers of inclusion. The study of microfinance institutions in the Jacmel metropolitan area shows how proximity-based economies and social capital shape access to funding and energize local entrepreneurship. Other papers extend this discussion through the analysis of incubation systems (departmental committees) and support programs leveraging training, mentoring, and diaspora engagement, assessing both their potential (jobs, value-chain revitalization, inclusion of marginalized groups) and their structural constraints (weak infrastructure, organizational challenges, limited financing).

The issue also foregrounds the sociocultural dimension of local development. Drawing on field surveys, it investigates how development projects may reshape collective dispositions and practices—through learning processes, technical training, and patterns of engagement—thereby reframing sustainability as the combined outcome of institutional capacity, territorial embeddedness, and social trajectories.

Taken together, the papers propose a demanding yet actionable message: sustainable and territorially balanced development requires stronger local governments, more coherent financial arrangements, and local ecosystems able to convert resources, learning, and solidarity into inclusive development pathways.