DEVELOPMENT
CADS’s initial focus has been on promoting income-generating projects in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, particularly in the agricultural sector. Persistent insecurity has led to a sharp decline in agricultural production, with women and children being most acutely affected. Since 1998, an estimated 5.4 million people have died due to malnutrition and disease, with an est
imated 45,000 people continuing to die every month in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu. CADS works with local partners in eastern Congo’s fertile Ruzizi Valley to increase and improve the quality of agricultural output, in order to reduce malnutrition and to build sustainable incomes for farmers and their families. ADVOCACY
CADS works with civil society, workers’ cooperatives, teachers’ associations, and other international development and human rights organisations in Africa, Europe and Canada to advocate on behalf of marginalised African communities. We do this by engaging federal, provincial, and municipal politicians to help develop and support government policy directions, coordinating actions with like-minded organizations, providing guest speakers for community presentations and workshops, and publishing articles in a variety of media. All of these actions seek to support the development of more prosperous and equitable communities in sub-Saharan Africa. RESEARCH
CADS’s local partnerships for economic development are based on fieldwork, networks of local contacts, and extensive development and agricultural research experience. We believe that community engagement is key for achieving sustainable development goals and we seek to link government policy, research and local action to drive positive change at the community level. With this in mind, our research practice focuses on the interlinked issues that play key roles in the development nexus – agriculture, public health, conflict resources, women’s rights, housing and urbanisation are all intertwined with local political economies. Our five distinctive research streams provide insight into their individual and collective impact on the development trajectories of specific communities and regions.
