The International Conference on Local Development (LDC) took place the week of June 16-18, 2004 in Washington, DC. WBI-CESI was part of the cross-sectoral team which organized the conference for the World Bank, together with KfW Entwicklungsbank (KfW Development Bank), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Inter-American Foundation. Other World Bank units involved included the Community Driven Development (CDD), Social Funds, and Decentralization Thematic Groups.

The purpose of the three-day conference was to harness and share global knowledge on how CDD approaches and operations (including Social Funds) as well as decentralization/public sector reform strategies, can support a more integrated approach to local development. It was an important event, which brought together more than 500 practitioners from over 80 countries. The conference was built around a discussion paper that outlined a new approach to local development and enabled people from different countries with common challenges to exchange ideas, experiences, and knowledge. Mr. Wolfenson opened the conference by applauding efforts of the Bank's cross-sectoral team to introduce this new learning process and introducing a different way of achieving development.

The traditional structures in local governance session was one of 26 parallel sessions organized for the Conference. During this session, the WBI-CESI team was able to discuss further the findings of the desk study, allowing participants to peer review the presentation given by Georg Lutz.