ACORD will enhance the understanding of community livelihood capabilities and promote improved and sustainable livelihoods through practical work and advocacy. ACORD's priority areas of work under the livelihoods theme are pastoralism, microfinance, food security and natural resource management.
Pastoralism
ACORD seeks to address both the practical and strategic needs of African pastoralists, taking a long-term approach and being informed by research. Among the practical activities are i) Building institutional and organizational capacity of pastoralists and agro-pastoralists on the basis of issues of shared community interests, ii) Redistribution and replenishments of cattle, iii) Animal health, iv) Marketing of cattle and income generating activities and v) Pastoral water provision. ACORD is also engaged in strategic issues such as access to pastures and land rights, cattle ownership and the inequalities between rich cattle owners and their hired cattle herders, sustainable management of shared natural resources, conflict management and transformation, access to basic social services for pastoralists, (i.e. education, health as well as markets and infrastructure), participation of pastoralist population in policy making and government accountability towards them, the place of livestock production in national economies in relation to government attention and development priorities and the future outlook for pastoralism and addressing gender issues.
Strengthening of pastoralists' organizations is also a priority area. Among others, ACORD work with CRUS in North Burkina, Tassaght in Mali, AREN in Niger, ADRA in Angola, and Nuer pastoralists in Sudan and Ethiopia. ACORD is also a member of the Pastoralist Forum Ethiopia (PFE). Globally, ACORD seeks to open the space for the pastoralist population themselves to participate in the policy debates and relevant forums such as the Global Pastoralist Gathering (an initiative of UNDP), held in Ethiopia hold in early 2005. Among ACORD's area programmes, pastoralism is particularly important in the Sahel I region including Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Niger. It is also a key issue in the Sahel II region, in South Sudan as well as in Gambella, Ethiopia and Kajiado, Kenya.
Microfinance
ACORD is making microcredit available to those excluded from the formal banking system. In Ethiopia ACORD is working through the traditional groups of informal social protection (Iddirs) to facilitate access to credit, but also to support their institutional capacity building. Iddir networks have emerged as strong organizations that engage with local and regional governments on policy issues. In Eritrea the focus is on development from within, building on people's own resources to develop self managed village banks that play a critical role in food security and the microfinance scheme has been handed over to Eritrean authorities since 2007. In Northern Sudan the microfinance has adapted to Islamic modes of credit lending. ACORD seeks to combine the provision of microfinance with skills building and give particular attention to adapt its services to women, who are half of the beneficiaries.
Food Security and Natural Resource Management
Suffering from conflicts, recurrent droughts and extreme poverty, food insecurity is a challenge in most of the areas where ACORD is working. ACORD seeks to respond both to the immediate practical needs of the population and the strategic needs through addressing the underlying causes. The practical work includes distribution of seeds and tools and enhanced water provision in cooperation with World Food Programme and other partners. ACORD also promotes sustainable natural resource management and engages at national level on issues of land rights, agricultural extension programmes and PRSP. The Pan Africa programme 2006-2010 is focusing on food sovereignty in Africa and the linkages to the global trading system. ACORD is also accredited to the United Nations Environment Programme.
