ACORD

Trade and marketing opportunities are depressed and agricultural production is constrained by labour shortages due to the scale of conscription and to recent low rainfall. Even in good years the country only produces 50 per cent of its grain needs. Access to food is through cash - even in rural areas about 82 per cent of food is purchased. Political space for civil action is very tight although it has got a decentralisation policy with a bottom up system of governance mixed with traditional structures. HIV/Aids infection rate is reaching alarming rates.

ACORD has operated continuously in Eritrea since independence in 1993. Of the three ACORD intervention zones in Eritrea, Anseba Zoba is one of the poorest in the country and hardest hit by the recent drought. Debub Zone has suffered directly from the war and its impact and Central Zone has the highest inequality of wealth in Eritrea.

Overall vision and objective

The overall vision for the Eritrea Area Programme is an independent, united and developed Eritrean Society, where all citizens help each other to enjoy equal rights and fulfill their responsibilities.

The objectives for the five-year strategy 2005-2009 are as follows:

• Strengthen the capacity of village/community-based organisations to provide appropriate social services to their communities and facilitate their participation in local development and governance
• Enhance the implementation capacity of local government authorities
• Enhance the socio-economic empowerment of women and increased participation in decision-making
• Prevent transmission and mitigate social and economic impact of HIV/AIDS pandemic by building the capacity of village/community-based organisations and other civil society structures to promote information and counselling to all members of the community.
• Expand the capacity/outreach of existing financial services and increase the income of poor people, especially in Southern, Central and Anseba zones, as a means of poverty reduction, food security, and safeguarding and diversifying livelihoods.
• Establish a community-managed resource centre for training and dissemination of information distilled from research on community development issues
• Conduct informative research that will contribute to evidence-based dialogue in local, regional and national collaborations

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Thematic focus

Livelihoods: The thematic focus of ACORD Eritrea is on livelihoods with a particular emphasis on micro finance to promote poverty reduction and food security. Working closely with the Ministry of Finance and local administrations, ACORD will promote the continued development of local community microfinance organisations in the three zones (Southern, Central and Anseba) and support similar developments in the other zones through facilitation rather than being directly operational. More attention will be paid to the impact of climate change and of using credit to support activities on the environment. In particular, water appears to becoming scarce both as a result of low rainfall being unable to replenish water tables and of the increased extraction of water as a result of loans for wells, etc.

ACORD's micro-finance scheme currently has over 30,000 active clients regrouped in 31 village banks in 6 districts. This micro-credit scheme is accompanied by a package on capacity building that is delivered in a resource training center where issues of business management, gender, social exclusion, participation, leadership and social animation, HIV/aids sensitization on stigma and discrimination are addressed. Training in the management of micro-finance, in particular, has had the subsidiary impact of strengthening village organisational capacity in general. ACORD also is lobbying the government to invest in financing micro-finance as tools for food security in very high cash economy even at community level. The program also is linking CBOs and village banks to government and service providers like insurance and others. Currently, ACORD is developing and providing a range of credit products including savings accounts and loan insurance schemes.

Gender: Women receive 45 per cent of all loans in a situation where men own most assets and manage most enterprises - albeit that mobilisation has reduced the amount of male presence in many households.

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Who we work with

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