Maputaland Development and Informaton Center

About Us.

Organisation background

Maputaland Development and Information Centre (MDIC), is Non Government Organization (NGO) formally known as Sizumphakathi or Manguzi Community Programme (MCP) and was established by the Methodist Church of Southern Africa in 1978. It holds a tax exemption status, subsequently registered as the Public Benefit Organization (PBO). Its initial main focus was the facilitation of development programmes within Manguzi Health Ward, and this was achieved by means of seeking and accessing funds for spiritual, educational and socio-economic benefit of the Manguzi community. When donor funding dried-up in the early to mid 1990s due to changes in the funding strategies by the majority of donor agencies, Manguzi Community Programme was negatively affected, and forced to review its fundraising strategies and approach to development. As the result, the scale of its operations was reduced dramatically.

The year 1998 was a turning point in the history of MCP. It signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), wherein both parties agreed to enter into a partnership for the purposes of developing the people of Maputaland. CSIR undertook to provide information and technological support while the MCP undertook to identify (with the local people) and implement community development projects. In 1998, CSIR helped with the establishment of the new MCP offices in Manguzi. This partnership developed further with CSIR providing technical support to the majority of MCP’s economic local economic development and technological advancement projects.

Secondly, the strategic planning exercise undertaken in 1998 led to a change in focus and structure of the organization. This marked a shift from primary health care issues to small business development, general social welfare, and local economic development. There was also a shift from working with the broader community to focusing on individuals and groups within communities. Because of these changes, the organization could not operate as a voluntary association hence its registration as a Section 21 Company and change of name from MCP to Maputaland Development and Information Centre (MDIC). Its area of operation also increased to cover the whole of the present Umhlabuyalingana and Jozini Municipalities.

In 1999, Ntsika Enterprise accredited MDIC as a Local Business Service Centre (LBSC), in recognition of its outstanding contribution to the development of small businesses in Maputaland. The MDIC initiated this programme in1994, but intensified it in the late 1998s. Since then, the organization has provided advice and technical support to a large number of SMMEs and identified and pursued a range of economic development opportunities. It is an affiliated member of Business Referral and Information Network (BRAIN), and recently Impumelelo South African Top Empowerment Companies rated the MDIC among the top 300 well-run organizations.
In 2004 W.K. Kellogg Foundation established MDIC as the Local Facilitating Agency (LFA) for consolidating, integrating and up-scaling program activities in uMkhanyakude District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal. MDIC was expected to champion local co-ordination and facilitation of socio-economic transformation initiatives along the WKKF for carefully designed levers of change within the whole district and these four levers would be in-line with the overall WKKF Program’s objectives in Africa. Partnership between MDIC and W.K. Kellogg Foundation was anchored on the premise that MDIC would continue to provide effective services to those local communities it serves. Its selection of MDIC, amongst other, was based on its familiarity with social, cultural, political and economic challenges of the area, and its sound track record in rural development.

In 2005 MDIC moved on to work with Oxfam Australia in Food Security Programme facilitating Skills Development Program. The objectives of the program include:
To identify, recruit, select and assess projects that will be provided with training to enhance sustainability and enable projects to run as viable livelihoods initiatives.
To provide management training for the projects selected for support To train 250 project members in entrepreneurship and viable project management skills and provide aftercare and support services to project members to ensure sustainability.
To strengthen the traditional seed bank through the promotion of seed multiplication, dissemination of seed multiplication information and hosting a traditional seed fair to promote the use of traditional seeds.

In 2008 MDIC forged working partnership with International Finance Corporation (IFC) whereby MDIC was expected:
To undergo a Training of Trainers programme that will be preparing it on the training methodology and the content of the SMME training programme.
Train on Credit Risk mitigation and understanding Credit.
MDIC will then be responsible to identify at least 50 SMME that will participate in the project.
After identification, MDIC is responsible to identify and assess the needs of these SMMEs, provide them with Toolkit training, mentor them and ultimately facilitate access to finance for the SMMEs.
To facilitate linkages between SMMEs and financial institutions.

In 2009 MDIC entered into working relationship with REDI on Life Skills Programme aims toward building productive capacity among the less fortunate thereby creating the appropriate environment, systems and processes that will enable unemployed youths to identify, harness, develop and optimize the use of ICT and Accountancy for economic academic and social benefits.

Newsflash

MDIC is a Public Benefit Organization registered as PBO: 930026124 section 18A. It is also registered as the Section 21 Company: 1997/018830/08 (Non profit organization) and has recently acquired World Bank Vendor registration number 105299.

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