The 36th edition of Proparco’s Private Sector & Development (PS&D) magazine is devoted to technical assistance, an instrument at the service of development commonly used by all actors (international organizations, donors, impact investors, etc.).
Ten years ago, the magazine Private Sector and Development devoted an issue to this topic. What have been the changes in 10 years? How do we design projects that include technical assistance (TA)? How has it become an essential tool for both DFIs and their clients?
In 6 years, the volumes devoted to technical assistance have doubled among European development institutions, proving that TA is at the heart of development issues. Over the years, TA has been able to develop its strengths: it no longer only proposes to improve business practices – which is still essential – but is increasingly seeking to support partners upstream to build new opportunities.
“It is now a question of going further by positioning itself upstream of the demand in order to demonstrate to the players the market potential or the conditions for intervention, and to make it favorable to the emergence of players. TA allows the exploration of new markets in riskier, less mature environments. It broadens the field of possibilities,” says Camille Severac, head of the Technical Assistance and Resource Mixing Unit at Proparco, in the editorial of this issue.
The aim of this issue of Private Sector & Development is to reflect on TA and the issues it raises today. To shed light on this topic, the floor is given to a number of experts from development finance institutions, investment companies, the European Union, and beneficiaries of technical assistance programs.
This issue also sheds light on Proparco’s technical assistance offer, grouped under a single label: Propulse. In 10 years, Proparco’s TA offer has supported more than 200 companies through nearly 400 projects.
You can discover and download the magazine on this link
Soline Praloran, Project Manager at Proparco and Sébastien Fleury, Director of Investing in Complex Environments explain the main issues of the review (click to open the video):
