Introduction 

Community Research and Development Services (CORDS) has initiated Gender and women Development programme in order to build capacities of pastoral women through supporting initiatives that are designed to address both practical and theoretical strategic gender needs, which are seen in term of assets, capabilities, choices and rights of pastoral women.

The programme has good and strong strategic values, objectives plans with wide range choices over its own development.

The programme mission and vision is to utilize socio-political institutions in initiating certain development interventions that will reduce women's work loads, enhance women's ownership of and control over resources as well as access to productive projects

The programme also works to build women's capability through trainings to improve their access to health care, education, communication skills, projects management marketing and promoting better development changes in the framework of household, community. The programme also aims at enhancing women's political cultural and personal rights leading to empowerment.

Goal

The overall goal is to integrate women fully into pastoral development processes through initiating projects that reduce women's workloads, improve their working and living conditions and enhance development status of pastoral women from the grassroots.

Objectives

• To increase pastoral women's self confidence in the community.

• To build up pastoral women capacity and skills form the grassroots in order to be able to utilize available resources and reduce their workloads.

• To improve women's working and living conditions among the pastoral community.

• To enhance pastoral household food security.

• To allow women's more time to organize and improve their managerial skills and address their gender strategic needs.

Activities

To conduct seminars and trainings in order:

• To impact new knowledge and skills to women about running small scale projects

• To raise their capacity for income generating activities.

• To enhance women's access, ownership and control over productive resources.

• Privation of credit to self-help women's groups.

• To enable pastoral women to have access and control over livestock and livestock products and also natural resources.

• To initiate alternatives for pastoral women income generating projects.

• To enable pastoral women build capacity through a participatory mechanism.

Outputs

• Better working and living conditions for pastoral women.

• Reduced workloads for pastoral women.

• Enhanced self confidence for pastoral women.

• Increased pastoral women household income.

• Increased number of pastoralist girls to school.

• Increased pastoral women's awareness on their basic rights.

• Increased pastoral household food security.

• Efficient and Effective women groups in place.