In response to the sever rural poverty aggravated by the 1984 persistent drought, civil war, economic mismanagement and above all the political contention of the “Derg” regime, Organization for Rehabilitation and Development in Amhara (ORDA) was founded in February 1984 as Ethiopian Relief Organization (ERO). ORDA legally registered as local NGO in Ethiopian relief and rehabilitation commission 1991 and in 1999 by the federal Ministry of Justice (MOJ). Accordingly to the new Charities and Societies Legislation; it is re-registered by MOJ Charities and Societies Agency as Ethiopian Residents Charity under license number 0607.
Before the downfall of the Derg regime, in 1991, it collected considerable cash and drug from donors and distributed it in terms of liquid money so that they can buy some food from the nearby market and eat. The reason behind this liquid money distribution was the peace situation and inaccessibility of the area. On the other side, the organization was doing its job using committed and small groups of personnel due to lack of banking system in the intervention areas.
After the downfall of the Derg regime in 1991, the internal situation was stable and enabling for NGOs to operate. ERO then extended its relief and agricultural rehabilitation portfolio to include repatriation of Ethiopian returnees from the Sudan and resettlement of internally displaced people. Since 1993, it embarked on development interventions and implemented integrated food security and rural development projects in Ebinat, Belessa, Sekota and Metema woredas. However, it was not guided by a strategic plan until 1997. ORDA undertook the first five-year strategic plan (1997-2003) during the second General Assembly held in April 1997 in Bahir Dar, and it was during this general assembly that the name ERO changed to ORDA.
This strategic plan defined ORDA’s priority to focus on natural resource protection, agricultural development, rural water supply and access road construction; emergency food aid and other related interventions to be taken up only when necessary. During this period, ORDA implemented seven Food Security and Integrated Rural Development Projects in Sekota, Ebinat, Belesssa, Wadla, TachGayint, Lay Gayint, Gublafto and Gidan woredas.
The second strategic plan (2004-2008), refined the priorities set earlier and restructured the organization accordingly, under five technical programs: Agricultural Development and Environmental protection, Forest Resources Development, Water Resources Development, Capacity Building & Community Development and Disaster prevention& Relief Programs, with six supporting units. This strategic period is a period characterized by enormous change where ORDA has reached to its highest visibility among the public, government, donors and partners mainly because of the foot print recognized at the grass roots level.
The third strategic plan (2009-2013) focused in three programmatic areas namely Natural resource development, water resource development, and food security & agriculture programs with mainstreaming of gender and HIV/AIDS in all programs with expanded area coverage, budget size, and diversified interventions. During the final year of the strategic period (2013), ORDA managed to implement 78 diversified projects in 63 Woredas in partnership with 32 funding partners and deployment of 973 (27% females)human capital. In the strategic period, ORDA reached 3.5 million people in 80 Woredas of the region with Ethiopian Birr 1,592,572,702(1,040,914,597cash and Eth birr 551,658,105 estimated food commodity).
After the completion of the third strategic plan, the organization had designed the fourth strategic plan (2014-2018) and implemented for the last two years (2014-2015). In the mean time, the country has developed the second growth and transformation (GTP-2) from 2015/16 to 2019/2020. In order to align fourth SPM with government GTP-2, ORDA has revised its fourth strategic plan that will be implemented from 2016-2020.
