GOPA History

A Legacy in Development Consulting and Engineering

The GOPA Consulting Group traces its roots back to 1965, when four young professionals spun off from the American research institute Battelle. Their goal was to create a more dynamic and effective brand of development assistance. Long before “capacity building” became a common term, they recognised that organisation, management, planning, and education were essential pillars of sustainable progress. From these principles emerged the company’s name: Gesellschaft für Organisation, Planung und Ausbildung (GOPA).

Building on Private-Sector Principles

From the outset, our vision was to combine the mission-driven nature of development work with the efficiency and competitiveness of the private sector. This entrepreneurial spirit led to a self-sustaining social enterprise focused on delivering social and economic progress through cost-effective, high-quality solutions. Over the decades, GOPA established a solid reputation by consistently meeting high standards and delivering value across a variety of development challenges.

Expanding Sector Expertise

As demand for specialized knowledge grew, GOPA Consulting Group expanded its services into multiple companies, each focused on a particular field—ranging from energy and transport to economic development, health, agriculture, and beyond. While these independent entities operated under the GOPA Consulting Group umbrella, they often worked in parallel. Yet as the world’s challenges became increasingly interconnected, it became clear that some issues required collaboration across different disciplines and regions.

Coming Together as one

Recognising the benefits of a more cohesive structure, these specialized companies have now united under the single name GOPA. This shift in branding reflects the synergy of their combined technical expertise, as well as the ongoing need to address complex projects through both sector-specific and cross-cutting approaches. Even as they collaborate more closely, each specialized company continues to deliver the highest quality services in its own technical domain—preserving the entrepreneurial spirit that has defined GOPA from the start.

Today, our commitment remains the same: to uphold the highest standards in development consulting and engineering, leveraging a blend of deep expertise and private-sector efficiency to create measurable, sustainable impact worldwide.