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.