MDF consists of a diverse team of professionals with complementary expertise. That's what has turned us into an industry leader, and a strong force in working toward positive change for a better world. MDF has 40 years of experience in providing learning trajectories, advisory guidance, facilitation, evaluations, enterprise development, and partnership services worldwide.
We don't invent theories, we make them work. That’s our motto when empowering individuals, organisations, and networks. To turn best-practice theories into functional realities, we use a model with three components: the tools, the hand, and the mirror.
Tools that will take you through an intense but inspiring learning process, be it online or face-to-face.
The guiding hand of our capable, pragmatic, and reliable professionals with experience across all continents.
A mirror, meaning an honest and empathic reflection process to improve your understanding of the impact you’re making and how to enhance this.
We perform most of our assignments with a core of trusted internal staff, rather than relying on external associates.
With our Dutch roots, we are practical, thorough and efficient. We have offices with 125 staff in Africa, Asia, and Europe.
Our vision is to foster competent professionals and improve the functioning of organisations and networks to increase their positive social impact.
Empowering people, creating impact. Our strength lies in making a discernible management contribution to the positive impact of our clients. We serve as a pragmatic, capable, and reliable management partner to maximise your results and help create lasting success.
In 1984, Henk van Loo, an expert in international cooperation, noticed the strong focus on technical expertise in international development projects. He found that the required managerial expertise to achieve sustainable results was often missing. Using his entrepreneurial spirit, Henk developed an advanced project management training to address this issue.
He found the perfect location to offer these training sessions: his parents' hotel, De Bosrand, located in the beautiful forests of Ede, the Netherlands. The organisation was named the 'Management for Development Foundation', or 'MDF' in short. Other experts soon joined forces. Ever since, many other training and consultancy services followed – like organisational development, training and facilitation, monitoring, evaluation and learning, human resource management and recently, private sector development services.
1997 MDF opens a second office in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
1998 After years of delivering Project Cycle Management services to the EU, MDF opens an office in Brussels.
2000 Herman Snelder and Hans Rijneveld take over from founder Henk van Loo, who then focused on evaluating major projects and programs until his retirement (2008). The organisation’s name is changed to MDF Training & Consultancy, keeping the well-known acronym MDF.
2003-2010 MDF expands its services to Africa and Asia, opening offices in Tanzania, Ghana, Vietnam, Indonesia and DRC.
2005 MDF expands into larger (educational) projects, with the financial support of Nuffic.
2010 MDF NL is established, focusing on Dutch markets and clients based in the Netherlands.
2014 A new focus on enterprise development and entrepreneurship is led by MDF’s Ghana office.
2015 MDF expands into Bangladesh, while the Tanzania office moves to Nairobi, Kenya.
2015 MDF moves from the Bosrand Hotel to a new modern office in Ede city.
2015 Project offices emerge in Benin and Rwanda, managing large projects. The Benin location remains an MDF office.
2016 Myanmar opens up, offering great potential: an MDF office is set up in Yangon.
2018 The concept of One MDF takes off – connecting all MDF offices and its 120 staff into a true global company.
2019 MDF celebrates 35 years of training and consultancy, with its 300th Open Entry course, and over 2,200 alumni (not counting tailor-made trainings).
2020 MDF becomes a global expert in online learning and facilitation, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
2022 MDF launches a new global strategy with five core value propositions.
Executive Directors – Richard Yeboah and Mike Zuijderduijn
Finance & Operations Director – Ingrid Plag
MDF Netherlands – Dick van Blitterswijk
MDF Kenya – Susanne van Lieshout
MDF DRC Congo – Michel Mitutso Tooto & Selemani Zéphirin
MDF Ghana – Julia Anyanewaa Appiah & Kwaku Owusu Afriyie
MDF Indonesia– Bart van Halteren
MDF Bangladesh – Thilakan Sathasivam
MDF Myanmar – Miriam Lindwer
MDF Benin - Damien Gbedji N'Ledji
