Community Research and Development Services (CORDS) is a voluntary organization, which is registered in Tanzania under the societies ordinance of 1954, with the certificate of registration no. 9398. CORDS is also incorporated under the Trustees Incorporation Ordinance (Cap 375). It emerged out of a research project carried out in 1997, the research covered the four traditional Maasai pastoralist districts of Kiteto, Monduli, Ngorongoro, Longido, Arumeru and Simanjiro in Northern Tanzania. The project, titled Pastoralist Research and Development Project (PARDEP) resulted a need to establish a permanent body mandated to address development needs of the pastoral communities in Northern Tanzania.

Some of the core targets for which CORDS was created were to address the security of tenure for key pastoral resources such as land, grazing, water and mineral resources; improved animal health and inclusion of pastoral communities in social development processes.
Currently CORDS works in the districts of Kiteto, Simanjiro in Manyara region and Monduli, Ngorongoro, Longido and Arumeru in Arusha region.