ProFound’s clients
ProFound provides professional support to organisations and programmes dealing with sustainable development and trade promotion in developing countries. Our clients range from governmental institutions, NGOs and foundations to Business Support Organisations and private businesses.
BioTrade Initiative
The UNCTAD BioTrade Initiative promotes sustainable BioTrade in support of the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity through a unique portfolio of regional and country programmes. ProFound has been involved with UNCTAD BioTrade Initiative since its launch.
Read more.Since 2003, the Initiative’s BioTrade Facilitation Programme (BTFP) enhances sustainable bio-resources management, product development, value adding processing and marketing together with partners in various countries such as Uganda, Vietnam, Peru and Colombia.
BTC, the Belgian Development Agency
BTC aims to eliminate poverty and develop a society where present and future generations have sufficient resources to build a sustainable and fair world. ProFound supports BTC’s efforts in a cooperation going back to 2010.
Read more.CBI, the Centre for Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries
ProFound has been working for CBI for 30 years. CBI supports exporters to get a foothold on the European market. It builds capacities of Business Support Organisations to provide export services to exporters and executes Export Coaching Programmes to SMEs from developing countries to export to Europe.
Read more.e-MFP, European Microfinance Platform
E-MFP hostes the European Microfinance Week (EMW) every year. The EMW is one of the top events in the financial inclusion calendar and a meeting point for microfinance and financial inclusion professionals working worldwide. Every year, the ProFound team under the flag of its sister company Blue Rhino works at the event to provide a full report on the discussions taking place.
Read more.Fairtrade International
Fairtrade International works to share the benefits of trade more equally – through standards, certification, producer support, programmes and advocacy. In 2019, ProFound worked as a consultant on benchmarking sustainability standards for sugarcane for Fairtrade International.
Read more.GIZ, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit
GIZ is Germany’s leading provider of international cooperation services. GIZ has staff in more than 120 countries around the globe. ProFound has been working on various assignments for GIZ in many different countries.
Read more.As a federal enterprise, GIZ supports the German Government in achieving its objectives in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development.
Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation
Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation is a non-profit development association. The association focuses on development cooperation and emergency response. Since 2016, Helvetas and ProFound are working together in a Regional BioTrade programme in Vietnam, Lao PDR and Myanmar.
Read more.As an international network of member organisations, Helvetas works in Africa, Asia, South and Central America and Eastern Europe. Helvetas aims to create a fairer world where everybody’s basic needs are satisfied and where every person can determine how he or she wants to live.
IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative
IDH aims to increase sustainable trade by building coalitions between public and private partners. IDH and ProFound share the same vision of sustainable trade. ProFound has worked with IDH since 2012. ProFound assessed for IDH the sustainability of the cashew sector.
Read more.IFAD, the International Fund for Agricultural Development
IFAD supports programmes in remote areas, targeting some of the poorest and most deprived segments of the rural population. ProFound, by means of our sister company Blue Rhino, contributed to this mission by delivering various publications.
Read more.IFAD recognizes that vulnerable groups can contribute to economic growth, provided the causes of their poverty are understood and enabling conditions for development are created.
IFOAM – Organics International
IFOAM is a membership-based organisation working to bring true sustainability to agriculture across the world. In 2020, a market analysis with recommended interventions to boost organic trade within and from Africa was initiated by IFOAM and supported by GIZ. ProFound with associate Markus Abenz were chosen to write the study.
Read more.IPD
IPD is the service provider for import promotion in Germany, connecting German importers with exporters from developing countries and emerging nations. ProFound provides market research services for the natural ingredient sector to IPD.
Read more.ITC, the International Trade Centre
ITC is a multilateral agency. ITC’s mission is to foster inclusive and sustainable growth and development through trade and international business development. In 2020, ProFound received a mandate for a market research study regarding Penja Pepper from Cameroon.
Read more.ITC has a joint mandate with the World Trade Organization and the United Nations through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Through its work, it contributes directly to 10 of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Mountains and Markets
Mountains and Markets was a project supported by UNDP and GEF (Global Environment Facility). ProFound supported Mountains and Markets with implementation of quality management standards and voluntary certifications in the entire supply chain.
Read more.The project objective is sustainable wild collection of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) through community enterprises in biodiverse demonstration conservancies in the northern mountains of Pakistan.
Nat Coffee
Nat Coffee is a private company founded by Nathalie Manac’h. The aim of Nat Coffee is to be the first Swiss business to bring exclusive coffee from Myanmar to Switzerland. Since November 2019, Nat Coffee in collaboration with a coffee entrepreneurs group is applying for the certification “FairWild”/organic. ProFound is currently working on the project.
Read more.ProColombia
ProColombia has a broad scope of activities to support Colombian exporters, ranging from building capacities, organising and assisting at trade fairs, providing market information and several other. ProColombia and ProFound collaborate in a number of projects and products within the agro-industrial sector.
Read more.ProEcuador
ProEcuador is the national institute for the promotion of export and investment of Ecuador. ProFound developed a series of presentations on the market of quinoa and chocolate. The presentations provided trends, market requirements and market entry strategies to companies with an interest to enter the UK, German, French and Dutch markets.
Read more.ProEcuador provides capacity building, market information and coaching to emerging and experience exporters across a range of sectors including natural ingredients such as quinoa, cocoa and processed tropical fruits and nuts. It organises trade missions and trade fairs where Ecuadorian companies can find international buyers.
SIPPO, the Swiss Import Promotion Programme
SIPPO facilitates market entry of SMEs into European markets through activities in four different areas: market intelligence, matchmaking, performance measurement and knowledge transfer & exchange. ProFound has been providing services to SIPPO for over ten years.
Read more.Solidaridad
Solidaridad is a Dutch NGO that organises stakeholders in 13 value chains to improve the sustainability of production and provides them with knowledge on international markets through the use of experts. As one of these experts, ProFound identified opportunities for Colombian flower growers to supply sustainable flowers to Europe.
Read more.SNV
SNV is a not-for-profit international development organisation that makes a lasting difference in the lives of people living in poverty by helping them raise incomes and access basic services. ProFound worked on different projects for SNV related to upgrading local value chains to international value chains.
Read more.Swisscontact
Swisscontact is the business-oriented foundation for international development cooperation. Working in 34 countries with over 1,200 team members, Swiss Contact has been fostering economic, social, and environmental development since 1959. Swisscontact is the leading partner in the Promoting Private Sector Employment (PPSE) programme in Kosovo. Alongside Riinvest Institute and PEM Consult, Swisscontact assists in enhancing incomes and creating employment for small and medium-sized companies.
Read more.The World Bank
The World Bank is an organisation resulting from collaboration of 189 member countries. It works towards sustainable solutions that reduce poverty and build shared prosperity in developing countries. In 2017, ProFound worked on an assignment for the World Bank in Eastern Indonesia, together with the Setara Foundation and several experts from the Gadjah Mada University.
Read more.Traffic
TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, aims to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. TRAFFIC has a strong link with the FairWild Foundation, one of ProFound’s strategic partners. ProFound has conducted market analyses for TRAFFIC’s Medicinal and Aromatic Plants programme. Together with TRAFFIC, ProFound is also developing a project in Nepal to create a sustainable value chain for wild-collected Jatamansi.
Read more.Unitar
The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) is the training arm of the United Nations System.
ProFound conducted multiple workshops on SME Development in Afghanistan for UNITAR.
Read more.
- SME development in the Afghan and rural context;
- stakeholders identification and integration;
- and effective management of change.
UNDP
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) aims to achieve the eradication of poverty, and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion by helping countries to develop policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capabilities and build resilience in order to sustain development results.
ProFound worked for UNDP in several projects.
Read more.What our clients say about us:
ProFound has been a key partner for the development of the Initiative – both in terms of developing strategies and tools for effective programmes, as well in implementing activities within these programmes.
On our request ProFound identified and activated relevant stakeholders in the natural ingredients sector in South Africa: ministries of trade and industry, environment, science and technology, and private sector stakeholders such as companies and associations. ProFound’s experience and capabilities in bringing them together through strategic conferences resulted in a common understanding of what the sector needs to export to Europe and develop a vision on how to get there.
ProFound provided companies in Ecuador with clear information on how to do business in important European markets for quinoa and chocolate. The training to our staff built their capacities to better understand what type of information companies need and how to find it.
ProFound’s expertise in value chain development supports successful delivery of market analyses, the development of strategies, training programmes and connecting companies in source countries to buyers in Europe. We look forward to working together in the future around the empowerment of producers through strengthened capacity and market access, enabling sustainable and beneficial trade in wild plant ingredients and implementing the FairWild best practice.
ProFound worked together with the Helvetas teams in researching the possibilities for BioTrade. Their help with the desk research, field work and reporting has been very useful in the completion of the inception phase of the project.
With the support of ProFound we know how to facilitate poor beekeepers in Ethiopia with access to sustainable markets for their honey. ProFound helped us to develop the honey value chain by improving the partnerships between our Ethiopian honey processors and international buyers. Their knowledge on the international honey market and the requirements such as food safety management give us a clear direction for our strategy on honey value chain development.
With the help of ProFound, Ethiopian entrepreneurs are prepared for the last mile to the European market.
We received a very informative and intelligent report on the European market for sustainable flowers from ProFound. The report gave us the knowledge to set out new strategies to improve exports of sustainable flowers to Europe.