Cordaid

Cordaid works towards a sustainable better future for the world’s poorest people and most excluded groups. This is why we fight poverty and exclusion in places where it is most needed and areas that are most difficult to reach: places where armed conflict, underdevelopment and natural disasters hit hardest. We do this hand in hand with 850 local civil society organisations, local communities and, wherever possible, in cooperation with local governments, business and industry.
Together, we engage in a comprehensive poverty-reducing strategy: working towards better and more affordable healthcare and welfare facilities, greater economic self-sufficiency and food security. Where natural disasters occur often, we provide emergency aid in times of crisis. Before they strike, we reduce risks and create early warning systems; after disasters we are part of the reconstruction efforts. In areas in the grip of armed conflict, we reinforce social processes of dialogue, reconciliation and sustainable peace. We fight exclusion by strengthening the position and the voice of the disadvantaged and the oppressed, by empowering them to participate in decision making processes, by promoting transparency and good administration in failing or weak states.
We do this both on the ground, at flashpoints of conflict and in the middle of the most harrowing poverty, and at international forums and policymaking institutions in New York, Geneva and Brussel.
Worldwide, over a billion people live with the impact of armed conflict every day. They struggle with abject poverty, social exclusion, fear and insecurity. Their chances for advancement are minimal at best.
With the Conflict Transformation programme, Cordaid is attempting to use these conflict situations to bring about sustainable, positive change. Development projects in the programme are not only focused on the immediate consequences of a conflict (like relief for refugees) but designed to get at the root causes. People can only better themselves when they are safe, actively involved in solutions, able to assert their rights and in a position to earn their daily bread.
The conflict transformation programme focuses on areas plagued by politically motivated extreme violence, where the population pays the price for the fight between rebels, terrorist organisations, bandits and criminals, army and police. In many countries, like Sudan, the Congo and Guatemala, resource conflicts and political conflicts go hand in hand. The harvesting of natural resources confronts local communities with pollution of the living environment, loss of agricultural land and organised physical violence.