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Supporting clients for more positive impacts
Alongside its financial operations (debt, guarantee or equity stake), Proparco offers its clients capacity-building services to strengthen their competencies and their practice and, in so doing, adapt to a local and international environment where competition is more and more present, and take on or deepen a responsible approach regarding social and environmental issues. PROPULSE, that is Proparco’s technical assistance offering is of particular relevance in contexts that are often characterized by a lack of training, of information or of know-how. PROPULSE makes it possible for its clients to set themselves up for sustainable and lasting growth, and, by extension, contribute to economic and social development.
Beyond the support provided by its experts, PROPULSE, Proparco’s Technical Assistance service
PROPULSE, the Technical Assistance (TA) or capacity-building service of Proparco, consists in providing external expertise and know-how to Proparco’s clients. It is complementary to the more global support provided by Proparco’s experts within the framework of their relationship with clients. PROPULSE comes in answer to competency and/or transformational issues that Proparco’s clients face.
Our mission:
Proparco supports clients from the beginning to the end of a project
Support from Proparco’s experts (human resources)
PROPARCO network
Financing/Investment Division
• Understanding needs according to type of partner and stage of development • Searching and proposing solutions tailored to partner’s needs
Mobilization of different areas of expertise to design the project
Governance expert
Improving partner’s governance • Identifying strengths and weaknesses • Designing an action plan • Building capacities
Financing/Investment officer
• Financial and sectoral expertise • Coordination of all Proparco’s in-house areas of expertise
Environmental and social
• Improving partner’s practice • Identifying E&S risks within project • Coordinating required external areas of specialist expertise • Designing an action plan
Mobilization of experts for the implementation phase of the project
Investment officers
• Advice to client • Participation in decision-making bodies • Coordination of in-house expertise
Governance
Support in implementing corporate governance action plan
Environmental & Social
Support in implementing E&S action plan
Project identification Due diligence Formalization Implementation
External skills and expertise
Co-financing feasibility studies to better define market needs and appropriate tools upstream of the project
Accelerator of impacts
Possibility to mobilize Technical Assistance (TA) to accompany the evolution in clients’ strategies and practices, and to support their desire to innovate, thereby accelerating positive impacts on their activities
PROPULSE can be delivered directly to Proparco clients or delegated to investment funds in which Proparco has invested. Different forms of support can be co-financed by Proparco: • consultancies; • implementation of internal projects carried out by one or several experts; • training (thematic workshops, university courses, external training, etc.); • exchange visits between companies and practitioners; • studies (feasibility studies, market studies, product and diversification studies, audits, etc.); • seminars and crosscutting events.
Often co-financed by the beneficiary company, these activities may be financed via Proparco’s operating budget, by resources coming from the French Government, the European Union or the Green Climate Fund (as an accredited entity, Proparco is able to mobilize delegated funds).
As PROPULSE is generally coupled with the financial support Proparco provides to its clients, TA programmes must match Proparco’s overall impact goals and also those of the different financing/investment programs/tools they are paired with. PROPULSE has proven to be essential to companies that: • develop products that are less common or are at a very early stage of development (venture capital/digital or start-up); • propose products with a high social impact (social or inclusive enterprises); • operate in countries where the support ecosystem is particularly weak (priority poor countries or fragile countries).
There are three types of TA: TA responsibility, TA performance and TA impact, broken down by sector of activity and/or by type of actor: financial institutions, agriculture / agribusiness, manufacturing sector, investment funds, infrastructures (energy, water, transportation, sustainable cities), healthcare, education, start-ups.
PROPULSE is a catalyser, making Proparco clients:
• greener and more inclusive: environmental and social responsibility, energy efficiency, green finance, gender, etc. • and perform better, therefore more sustainable: operational excellence, product and service quality, governance, talent management, etc. and in fine generate more positive impacts.
Thematic areas of intervention
Management & Organization Strengthening your team’s capabilities in terms of financial management, HR management, your performance – technical and operational (e.g.: quality certifications) and/or marketing
Environment & Social Setting up E&S management systems and/or obtain certification processes
Governance
Climate & Biodiversity
Strengthening your enterprise’s governance in compliance with International financial partner requirements: division of the distribution of powers, control procedures, transparency,…
Improving your references in terms of ecology and sustainable development, e.g. by developing green financing products, carrying out energy efficiency audits, taking measures that contribute to mitigating or adapting to climate change, etc.
Diversification/innovation Developing new products to diversify or conquer new markets. Implement production modes and innovating organizations adapted to local and international markets
Accessibility
Launching new product(s) or service(s) that correspond to the needs of very low-income populations, MSMEs, cooperatives, agri-farmers
Inclusion
Ensuring sustainable and responsible practices throughout your value chain to support sustainability and promote inclusive development
Technical assistance Facilitating access of African school leavers to international universities.
Between 2019 and 2021, Proparco supported Enko Education in setting up an orientation service to support school leavers throughout the university admission process. In two years, 15 guidance counsellors have been recruited and trained within Enko schools. Enko Education has set up communication, information and management tools, enabling school leavers to better understand the pre-requisites of targeted universities and to manage their applications via a dedicated platform. Some 300 school leavers supported in this way have been admitted into more than sixty universities in 15 different countries over the world.
Proparco’s role in technical assistance projects
Identification
Defining the client’s need either during appraisal or monitoring of financial operations
Appraisal
Specifying the content of the technical assistance and most appropriate area of expertise needed
Decision
Agreeing on the content and terms of technical assistance and maximum amount covered by Proparco
Monitoring
Supporting the recruitment of the service provider, monitoring the quality of the service provider and the impact of the TA within the company
On top of its classic PROPULSE offerings to clients by means of financing TA, Proparco now deploys PROPULSE’s Expertise (providing clients with specialist consultants recruited by Proparco) and PROPULSE Training. In 2021, Proparco upgraded its methodology as well as its impact monitoring and results control for PROPULSE. From now on, there is a new indicator system that is transversal and specific to PROPULSE projects, aligned with Proparco’s strategic indicators. It enables indicators to be aggregated, like the number of people trained, the number of strategies-procedures-tools created or improved, or even the number of market / feasibility studies carried out aiming at deploying new products and/or penetrating new markets.
