IBF’s corporate timeline: view our key milestones and find out what we have been up to since we started working in development aid in 1977
1977-2000 - Our beginnings and establishment as a consulting company in development aid
1977
The year 1977 saw the founding of the Institut Belge de Formation, d'Assistance Technique et de Transfert de Technologies, which was shortened to IBF International Consulting in 2000. IBF was part of the Société Nationale d'Investissement, a semi-public company.
1994
Ackermans & van Haaren (www.avh.be), a Belgian holding, acquires the SNI and therethrough also IBF.
1996
IBF wins and leads the implementation of the support to the TAIEX Office until 2002. This programme supported the accession of candidate countries to the EU.
1997
Award of two large projects:
- Latvia: Technical Assistance to the Approximation of the Latvian Legislation to that of the European Communities
- LDP: LIEN-Democracy-Partnership
1998
Frédéric André becomes Managing
Director of IBF.
Award of the EISM: External Information Service Management contract
covering all Eastern European countries.
2000
Investment in MNT, later CAIConsulting in Kyrgyzstan.
Award of the project "Algérie - Programme d'appui au développement des PME/PMI - Unité de Gestion du projet".
Creation of our Consumer Policy
Centre (CPC)
The CPC tenders for projects in the area of Consumer Protection
and Market Surveillance, Food Safety and Conformity Assessment -
both on Framework (DG Sanco) and Technical Cooperation
Projects.
Annual turnover of 9 million Euro and 25 permanent staff.
Launch of Framework Contracts Unit and of Assortis
2001
Launch of Assortis (www.assortis.com)
Assortis offers a range of services to companies and
consultants running projects in countries in transition. The web
portal informs of all development aid tenders financed by the
world's major funding agencies and has a database of companies and
specialised consultants.
Award of the World Bank "Long Term Technical Assistance for the Implementation of the Civil Service Law" in Albania.
2002
Implementation of the project "Capacity Building in Support of the Negotiation of Economic Partnership Agreements".
2003
Implementation of the project "Labour Legislation and Arbitration - Russia".
Implementation of the project "Albania - Support to standards,
certification and accreditation".
First project funded by the Asian Development Bank: "Development of savings and credit unions and microfinancial systems" in Kyrgyzstan.
2004
Investment in ACE (Assesores de Commercio Esterior) and selling in 2009.
Award of the large project "ASEAN - APRIS II - Technical assistance for the ASEAN programme for regional integrated support".
Creation of IBF's dedicated Framework Contract Unit
IBF Framework contracts Unit is fully dedicated to the preparation and implementation of framework contracts around the world in a large variety of sectors such as agriculture and rural development, governance, civil society, migration, human rights, health, education, culture, social development, trade and private sector development, environment and natural resources, aid effectiveness and development policies.
2005
Creation of the MPIS system
The Multi-Perspective Information System (MPIS) is IBF's intranet and project management tool, where all the information on our projects is stored and daily updated.
IBF is selected on six EC framework contracts called "BENEF 2005" in Governance, Health, Education, Social, Economy and Standards.
Investment in Piri in Turkey, becoming later Norm Consulting.
Annual turnover of 18 million Euro and 37 permanent staff. 209 experts mobilised per year.
Frédéric André makes a Management Buy Out of IBF.
Expansion and diversification of our activities
2007
IBF is selected as Framework contractor for the EC COM 2007 lot 4: Provision of Studies and Assessments for the EC Services.
Creation of the Experts Centre.
Our Experts Centre has been created to provide assistance to Experts in a professional manner, in identifying, applying for, and securing new assignments that match their personal preferences and professional skills.
Number of mobilised experts: 269
2008
Implementation of the project "Technical Assistance to the Standards and Quality Management Programme in Syria".
Implementation of the project "Support to the Implementation of the Agreements between the Republic of Moldova and the EU".
Number of mobilised experts: 418
2009
IBF wins its 500th framework mission with the EC.
Award of 3 framework contracts for the DG SANCO for providing evaluation services in health, consumer and food.
IBF leads 3 consortia selected for the EC "BENEF 2009" framework contracts, respectively in Governance (lot 7), Health (lot 8), Culture, Education and Social (lot 9).
Number of mobilised experts: 392
2010
Creation of the Centre for Economics, Trade and Regional Integration (CETRI).
The objective of the CETRI is to provide high level of consultancy to the regional/national organizations on economic and regional integration matters.
Office move to Avenue Louise.
2011
IBF leads a consortium selected for the EC COM 2011 framework contract Lot 1: Studies and Technical Assistance in all sectors.
Award of a framework contract for the DG EAC for the provision of expertise and support for European Cooperation in Education and Training-Studies/External Part (Lot 4).
Annual Turnover of 21 million Euro; number of permanent staff: 42
2012
IBF is a founding member of the
International Consulting Alliance www.icaworld.net.
ICA is a network of like-minded organisations dedicated to
providing top quality development consultancy services in emerging
economies.
Launch of TwinPlace www.twinplace.eu.
This platform aims at offering a comprehensive source of
information on EU Twinning projects. Public organisations and
consultants can register with this service to find useful
information on tenders and organisations working in this specific
field of Twinning.
