Mission & Vision

Mission

ProFound - Advisers In Development was established in 1990 to provide professional support to organisations and programmes dealing with sustainable development and trade promotion in developing countries. In particular, ProFound aims to assist in creating an enabling environment for economic development, with a strong emphasis on the social and ecological aspects of this development.

Vision

In many countries development organisations face a double challenge. On the one hand their capacity has increased considerably, leading to a growing need for financial input to support their programmes. On the other hand, their access to donor funds does not improve, especially since more and more funds are earmarked for very specific interventions or channelled through large multilateral programmes. Possible alternatives, such as local contributions and gaining access to governmental or multilateral resources, are as of yet insufficiently developed to compensate for the growing gap between financial needs and the availability of means. Therefore, development organisations are exploring new financing strategies; either seeking to increase the proceeds from said alternatives, but increasingly by generating income from self-managed economic activities.

This coincides with the view that the globalisation of the market economy has a direct impact on local communities all over the world, affecting traditional ways of life. Besides the necessity to minimise the negative impact, it must be acknowledged that the globalisation process also creates new opportunities. Underprivileged groups can improve their standard of living by gaining better access to the market, as producers or traders. When access can not be achieved directly, development organisations may aim at establishing new supportive institutions such as banking facilities, marketing and transportation companies.

The broadened scope of activities and responsibilities of development actors requires an integrated and forward-looking approach and highly professional capacities on their part. This particularly holds true for forward and backward linkages in the economic process. In addition to the production process proper, marketing, transportation and financing are but a few of the areas where development organisations are working towards improving local capacities.

Sustainable development is a complex process, involving economical, environmental and political elements. Above all, however, it is about people. A successful approach starts with appreciating people and communities as actors or partners rather than targets or beneficiaries.