About Us

You’ve Known Us for Years

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, CDC Development Solutions--then known as Citizens Democracy Corps--was commissioned by the White House to assist in the development of private enterprise in transforming the economies of the former Communist Bloc.

Over the past two decades CDC Development Solutions, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization, has seen many changes, including merging with the MBA Enterprise Corps in 2000, becoming Citizens Development Corps in 2002, and acquiring MBAs Without Borders in 2009. Even as we have modified our resources and structure over the years to provide a wider range of services in many more countries, we have continued to focus on developing small and medium size businesses, communities, and local institutions in emerging markets. 

A Niche Provider

A 2008 strategic plan led to our reorganization around four key practice areas where we have unique expertise:

• Supply Chain Development
• Tourism Development
• Global Citizenship and Volunteerism
• Stability and Economic Recovery

An Innovative - and International - Team

With over 20 years of experience, we understand international development issues. We know how complex they are, and we know what works and doesn’t work. 

Why? Because we’ve lived with these issues - they have been part of our lives. Our home office team members were born in a dozen different countries, have lived and worked in more than 90 countries, and speak over 30 languages.

And that’s just our home office - with a host of regional and country offices staffed with expatriate and local professionals, we quite literally cover the globe with our backgrounds and experiences. This diversity and broad exposure to critical development challenges has shaped who we are and what we do.

Our programs and initiatives are based upon not only what we learn from our clients, partners, and funders, but also what we’ve personally experienced in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Our team has a singular focus – find the most practical solutions to problems that people face in emerging markets every day.  

A New Name for a New Direction

As we mark 20 years of Delivering a World of Experience, CDC Development Solutions has taken stock of our clients, our programs, and our achievements and has made a number of important strategic decisions to take us into our third decade and beyond.

While the spirit of volunteerism is still a core value for CDC Development Solutions, and while we still utilize volunteers to conduct our work wherever possible and practical, we know that we are also highly valued by our clients and partners for our experience and capacity in providing innovative development solutions in the most challenging business and economic environments.

For this reason, in 2009, our Board of Directors voted unanimously to change our name in order to better represent the growth the organization is undergoing in terms of size, geographic reach, and client base; the depth and breadth of our services and programs today; and the new realities in economic development. With the launch of the new company identity, we have maintained Citizens Development Corps, MBA Enterprise Corps, Citizens Democracy Corps and Tourism Development Corps as operating divisions, continuing to provide high quality services to our clients who know us by those names.