The History of PACA

September
1998		 The first two PACA Exercises are conducted in Mafra and São Bento do Sul, Santa Catarina, Brazil, organised by Fundação Empreender, a training and advisory organisation maintained by local business chambers. The local brand is "Projeto Marketing Municipal". The team is led by Jörg Meyer-Stamer and Jairo Aldo da Silva.
March
1999		 A "Projeto Marketing Municipal" is conducted in Blumenau, Santa Catarina. Follow-up on the exercise in Mafra shows good progress of some PACA activities.
Thanks to a thunderstorm and a flight delayed by several hours, Jörg Meyer-Stamer is stuck at Navegantes airport and uses the time to write up the experience gathered so far, which leads to Version 1.0 of the PACA Manual.
September/
October
1999		 Further exercises are conducted in Brusque and Jaraguá do Sul, Santa Catarina, as well as follow-up visits to Mafra and Blumenau. Tangible projects in Mafra continue to make good progress, whereas in Blumenau the exercise has bridged the gap between local government and the local business chamber.
March
2000		 Another follow-up visit to Mafra shows good progress, whereas the impact in the other locations has been limited by the upcoming local elections.
Fundação Empreender is the victim of politicking within the business sector and has to discontinue its support of Projeto Marketing Municipal / PACA.
November 2000 Jörg Meyer-Stamer conducts, in collaboration with Henning Banthien (IFOK) and Bernhard Adam (CDG, who sponsors this exercise) an experimental PACA Exercise in Secunda, South Africa, to verify the transferability of the methodology. The result is encouraging.
February
to July
2001		 Jörg Meyer-Stamer develops, in collaboration with Christian Schoen, the RALIS methodology as part of the BMBF-funded Fraunhofer PERISKOP Project to assist the Indonesian Ministry of Science and Technology in assessing the science and technology landscape and redefine its policy. RALIS builds on the PACA methodology. Jörg trains eight Indonesian consultants to conduct the fieldwork, which they do in ten districts between April and June. In July, they conduct a workshop to summarise the results. The experience proves the possibility to train local consultants in PACA and PACA-like methods.
January
2002		 Jörg Meyer-Stamer conducts the first two PACA training courses in Chiang Mai and Korat, Thailand, as part of GTZ activities. Subsequently, the local trainees conduct a number of PACA Exercises in places like Chiang Mai, Lampang and Chiang Rai.
June
2002		 Jörg Meyer-Stamer conducts a follow-up training in Thailand.
October
2002		 Jörg Meyer-Stamer and Christian Schoen conduct the first PACA training course in Eastern Europe in Kula, Vojvodina, Serbia, sponsored by GTZ. Subsequently, Christian coaches and supervises PACA Exercises in Kula, Novi Knezevac, Nova Crnja, Subotica and Mali Idios.
January
2003		 Jörg Meyer-Stamer conducts a PACA assessment in Bangkok and supervises a PACA Exercise in Korat, Thailand.
April
2003		 Jörg Meyer-Stamer and Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke conduct the first PACA training course in Latin America in Camiri, Bolivia. It includes trainees from Peru and Ecuador. The course is sponsored by InWEnt.
May
2003		 Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke conducts a PACA training course in the Dominican Republic, sponsored by GTZ.
June
2003		 Jörg Meyer-Stamer and Christian conduct a PACA training course in Hazyview, South Africa, immediately followed by a PACA Exercise with the local tourism sector. The activities are sponsored by GTZ.

Since mid-2003, we have seen a major roll-out of PACA. We conducted PACA training courses in the following countries: Armenia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, Guyana, Indonesia, Montenegro, Nepal, Nicaragua, Peru, Sri Lanka, Vietnam.