PROFIT (2020-2022)
Promoting Regional Opportunities for Investment & Trade (PROFIT) started in August 2020 and
launched at the end of October that year. It was an initiative of the Asian Development Bank to encourage
and promote growth in trade and investment between India and the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS, and which
for the purposes of this project they defined as Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand). ADB awarded a contract to
a partnership comprising
IMC Worldwide (now subsumed into DT Global),
Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry
and
ASSIST Asia. I acted as team leader. We developed an 'acceleration service'
targeted at SMEs, that is, a programme of support designed to help businesses start or expand international
trade activities more quickly (and we hoped more successfully) than they would have done if there had been no
help available. The programme was especially challenging as it was implemented during the covid pandemic.
Nevertheless, it achieved all its targets before coming to a conclusion in February 2022.
The final report provides a description of the programme and the lessons. BCCI and ASSIST continue to
offer some support: details are available from them directly.
Connect to Grow (2015-2018)
David was team leader of Connect to Grow, part of a much larger programme of DFID (now FCDO) India intended to stimulate
and transfer innovation amongst SMEs. Launched in 2015, and ran until April 2018, Connect aimed to partner enterprises
in sub-Saharan Africa or south Asia who already had a proven but local market with enterprises in India who had an innovation,
with the objective that both could then grow faster than they could otherwise and, more importantly, that they
could deliver development outcomes. Whilst it had some similarities with challenge funds, it was designed in such
a way that businesses could apply at any time. They were assessed against objective criteria and awards offered until the
budget was allocated rather than being forced to compete against each other in 'rounds'. Promising proposals were offered
advisory support to help them reach the stage where they could potentially submit a proposal likely to be acceptable to the
advisory board.
You can read about one of the clients who manufactures and markets
Sokhipad sanitary pads in
Bangladesh. Another client, Agriaccess in Ghana grows sorghum, and wanted to introduce a system of
micro-irrigation. This, together with improved and hybrid seed, was expected to increase yields
substantially. They achieved significant coverage on national TV in Ghana.
Watch the news here and wind forward about 9 minutes.
I am still working, pro bono, with one of the businesses that came through this programme.
A key objective of the programme was to 'learn by doing' and to record lessons and insights. Our final
learning report pulls together all the lessons from the three years that the programme ran.
© Irwin Grayson Associates 2024