1983 – CEFE trainings were developed by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ, former GTZ) and introduced into projects of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

1986 – First international CEFE Training of Trainers (ToT) in Kathmandu, Nepal

1987 – Worldwide dissemination through development projects of GIZ started

1990 – CEFE trainings developed from a purely business start-up training to include business management topics

1993 – Specific courses and short modules were introduced

1993 – First global CEFE conference was held in Germany

1993 – Introduction of specialized courses for under-educated, informal sector, medium and large enterprises

1998 – Broadening of CEFE’s topics to: access to credit, health systems, micro-insurance, and project management

2002 – BMZ funding ended

2003 – Privatization of CEFE

2004 – Introduction of CEFE International Certification

2005 – Introduction of Social entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, “green business”

2008 – Registration of CEFE International GmbH in Germany. Managing Director Eberhard Bärenz and Marlinde Bärenz. Within a cooperation agreement with GIZ, CEFE and CEFE International were officially outsourced from GIZ.

2015 – 20.000 CEFE trainers have been qualified in a CEFE Training of Trainers. Certified CEFE trainers conduct trainings using the content and methodology of CEFE in 140 countries and have reached 20 million participants until today.