1.1 Vision

Since its inception, CORDS developed and sharpened its vision of a desired futuree. CORDS envisages a pastoral society that has a strong voice and a wide range of choices over its own development and destiny. CORDS believes in a society in which people are governing, self-defining, self-representing, self-developing, and self-determining; a society in which all persons have legal recognition of ownership of their own natural resources, a society in which its members have the right to development and live long, healthy, productive and dignified lives and sustaining livelihoodss of their own choice; that their social, economic, political and spiritual rights be enshrined in the constitution and other governing legal instruments.

1.2 Mission

The mission of CORDS or the fundamental purpose of CORDS is to enhance sustainable pastoral livelihoods. CORDS Mission is:- To work for holistic social development and to fight against all forms of injustices, oppression, gender imbalances, poverty, hunger, ignorance and disease.

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Welcome to CORDS Website!

1.0 Background

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 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, Longido and Arumeru in Arusha region. After its registration as an NGO, CORDS initiated a set of activities that evolved out of felt needs of the local communities generated through a participatory approach. Such interventions addressed land demarcation and certification, land use planning, livestock development and women development.

1.3 CORDS PROGRAMMES

CORDS has been implementing five main programmes which have a set of targets, objectives and activities which support and complement each other. They all build and contribute to CORDS core goal that aims at enhancing security of resource tenure and management of the natural resources for the pastoral Maasai communities in northern Tanzania. CORDS coordination and institutional development unit provides the necessary managerial systems and skills needed for the implementation of programmes activities.

 

These programmes are highlighted below:-

 

Pastoral Land Rights Protection Programme:

The main aim of the land rights programme is to improve the living standards of the pastoral communities through demarcation, mapping, certification, collective titling of key pastoral resource and facilitating the security of a livelihoods of their own choice i.e. pastoralism.

 

Pastoral Resource Utilization and Management Programme:

The primary goal of the programme is to empower communities and enable them to govern their key natural resources, which will lead to optimal resource use and sustainable development.