Iddirs Participation and Development

The two-day national conference on "Iddirs, Development and Society's Participation" held on 20th and 21st December 2001 at the Ghion Hotel in Addis Ababa was an important milestone, bringing together a range of stakeholders concerned with the issue of how burial societies as part of civil society can become engaged in development processes. The Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD) has taking the lead advocacy role both at a local and a national level in promoting the involvement of iddirs as a form of community-based organisation in development endeavours. At a grass-roots level ACORD has worked closely with iddirs in Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa and Shashemene to promote their capacity to become involved in development activities, notably by assisting them to become involved in credit and savings. At a national level ACORD has been involved in advocacy work, through radio programmes, competitions, workshops etc. Although ACORD had already organised an earlier competition for iddirs working in development, and had held a workshop with speakers from different stakeholder groups, this national event involved a two day conference with presentations from a variety of academic, government, non-government, civil society, investment and practitioner perspectives, with ample scope for discussion. The conference presented a major opportunity for exchange of ideas, debate and reaching consensus, as well as providing a new departure for several reasons.