About us
We’re all about creating opportunities…
At the heart of EU-CORD is our desire to create opportunities for and between our members. Opportunities to work together in collaboration; to form supporting professional relationships; opportunities to access EC funding; opportunity to influence policy and further our shared objectives. The list goes on.
Who we are
EU-CORD is a network of European Christian Relief and Development NGOs. We are made up of member organisations – 22 NGOs that work alongside over 1,000 implementing partners worldwide.
As individual organisations (and as a network) we are an inter-denomination grouping of Christian relief and development agencies, inspired by Christian values to accomplish our work. As such, we are an independent of any political, social or religious authority.
We are a not for profit organisation, registered under Belgian law as an asbl (associations san but lucrative) and are registered in the EU Transparency Register.
History and Name
Founded in 1997, we wanted to show that Christian organisations were making a professional contribution to international humanitarian and development work. Our organisational name EU-CORD is an acronym which stands for European Christian Organisations for Relief and Development.
Realising the potential that comes from working together, our symbol of three overlapping free-form circles represents the coming together of member agencies and takes inspiration from Ecclesiastes 4:12 ‘A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.’
Vision, Goal & Objectives
Our Vision
An inclusive world free of poverty and suffering achieved together through shared competence
Our Goal
Through mutual cooperation, to make a significant and recognisable contribution towards the eradication of poverty and social exclusion, and to enable the voice of people living in poverty to be heard.
Our Objectives
- Improve practice and capacity through knowledge sharing, mutual learning and joint innovation.
- Mobilise human, financial and network resources
- Live out and advocate for social, economic and environment justice
Core Values
The network is defined by the quality of its relationships and the degree to which Members co-operate, helping each other to establish good practice and quality in all areas of work. This goal will be achieved in a spirit of servant-hood, strengthening and supporting each other while respecting each agency’s specific identity. The network is committed to working according to Christian ethics as well as promoting integrity; accountability and a professional standard of work that remains rooted in compassion. The network is inclusive in its approach and we stand alongside those who campaign for social, economic and environment justice.
Quality and Professionalism
As a network we place a high value on relationship and the degree to which we cooperate and help each other to establish good practice and quality in all areas of work. For this reason, all Members commit to our jointly defined Statement of Quality Assurance which brings together well recognised quality standards including: Istanbul Principles for CSO Development Effectiveness; NDGO Charter; Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement an NGOs in Disaster Relief and The Core Humanitarian Standard.
We are each committed to learning from our work to ensure a process of continuous improvement in all that we do.
- Finding ways to share our learning with each other so that all members of the network have the opportunity to improve the effectiveness of their work
- Being accountable and transparent towards the people with support, supporters, donors and staff
- Providing mutual assurance to each other to ensure that the reputation of EU-CORD for manifesting quality in the network of its members is enhanced.
