Water supply, Sanitation and Hygiene
In OSRA’s operational areas, like many rural parts of the country, communities face critical shortages of basic services, especially safe water and sanitation. This significantly affects health, education, and livelihoods, placing a heavy burden on women and children who must travel long distances to fetch unsafe water.
To address this, OSRA implements WASH programs aimed at improving living conditions through access to clean water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene education for both communities and schools. Most people rely on unsafe sources like streams and traditional wells, leading to waterborne diseases and poor health outcomes.
Through its WASH initiatives, OSRA works to reduce these challenges and enhance the well-being of the communities it serves, especially the most vulnerable groups.
Food Security and Livelihood Program
In Ethiopia, particularly Oromia, the economy is heavily reliant on smallholder farmers, who make up about 89% of the agricultural workforce. However, fragmented landholdings, subsistence farming practices, and environmental degradation have contributed to chronic food insecurity and low agricultural productivity.
To address these challenges, OSRA implements livelihood programs aimed at boosting food security and improving household incomes. These programs focus on diversifying income sources and building climate-resilient farming systems.
Key interventions include small ruminant fattening and marketing, dairy farm improvement through zero grazing, women’s economic empowerment, and the development of horticulture crops. These efforts collectively support rural families in building more stable and sustainable livelihoods.
Women Empowerment
OSRA promotes gender equality and combats harmful traditional practices by raising awareness, empowering women and girls, and engaging communities to protect rights and ensure inclusive development.
Promotion of Cereal Banks and FMOs
Since 1998, OSRA has promoted the establishment of cereal bank associations to enhance household food security by increasing access to food grains and providing alternative market outlets for farmers. These associations also serve as social platforms for members to address shared socio-economic challenges.
OSRA’s support has included infrastructure (grain stores, offices, equipment), seed capital, technical assistance, and market guidance. It has also focused on building the associations’ capacity through training and experience-sharing. To date, 24 cereal bank associations have been established in Akaki, Adaberga, Becho, and Ilu districts, involving 1,976 members and holding a total capital of 2,663,026.17 birr.
Since 2008, many of these associations have evolved into market-oriented Farmer Marketing Organizations (FMOs), aiming to improve members’ incomes by enhancing market competitiveness. OSRA continues to support them through value chain development and capacity strengthening.
Environmental Protection
Declining soil fertility, limited use of agricultural inputs, and rising input costs have pushed communities toward unsustainable, extensive farming. This has led to farmland expansion into forest and marginal areas, accelerating deforestation, soil erosion, and land degradation—pressing issues in OSRA’s intervention areas.
Such environmental degradation threatens rural livelihoods and the well-being of future generations. To address this, OSRA promotes sustainable agriculture by supporting eco-friendly farming, raising awareness on land management, and planting multipurpose tree seedlings. Additionally, OSRA carries out soil and water conservation through physical and biological measures, including tree seedling distribution and check dam construction, to protect natural resources and ensure long-term community resilience.
Promote Access to Finance for Rural Poor
Access to working capital to the rural communities is one of the critical problems that hinder them to engage in productive activities to improve their livelihoods.
With the aim to address this problem, Oromo Self Reliance Association established micro finance institution known as WASASA Microfinance (wasasamif.com ) share company in September, 2000. It was registered and supervised by the National Bank of Ethiopia. This has created access to credit and saving services to thousands of poor men and women in Oromia Region.