We supported Cord through its transition from a traditional grassroots development organisation to one that has peacebuilding at its core.
The Partner Cord works with local organisations in five countries to develop communities’ abilities to communicate and work well together, where these capacities have been eroded by decades of mistrust and violence. By doing so, Cord strives to leverage grassroot change into institutional reforms towards greater inclusion and social justice. While inspired by the Christian faith, the organisation chooses its local partners regardless of their faith.
Our Support
Cord approached us through the 2016 Call for Proposals to help integrate peacebuilding across all its programmes. Consultations highlighted however the need to focus on internal challenges as a matter of priority. The organisational development process enabled Cord to make the necessary structural changes, and to adapt its systems and practices.
In a next step, Cord developed a new strategy that has peacebuilding at its core and provides direction to its programmatic work, while we took a backseat, ensuring that the Trustees played a key role in the renewal of the 50 year old organisation.
In a second cycle of support, Cord fully operationalised the new strategy, including through developing:
- An organisation-wide Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) framework that enables the organisation to measure its impact across programmes as well as progress vis-à-vis its strategic objectives.
- A communication strategy that enables Cord to communicate better with its different constituencies both at the local and global level.
The Results
The partnership started at a time of internal challenges, which Cord emerged from much stronger, with a renewed clarity on strategy, approach and financial stability. The organisation continues to be guided by its three strands of strengthening grassroots organsiations, helping powerholders understand the importance of working with grassroots organisations and creating opportunities for these two groups to work together.
Cord received PeaceNexus accompaniment support from 2016 to 2021.