OUR IMPACT AT A GLANCE
Rose Denkyiraa is a 61 year old resident of New Abirem. She is the head of her household of seven sons and three daughters whose ages range between five and 22 years. Five of her children are students and three are unemployed.
For the most part of her life, all she has ever known and valued is farming to support herself and her family. When her six acre palm and orange farm at Senserefa was impacted as a result of land acquisition for mining activities, she thought her life had literally come to a standstill. With 10 children and a husband depending on her for their livelihood, it was only natural that Rose would miss her pivot of support and her first love despite the very attractive compensation package.
Over a billion people in the world live in extreme poverty with no security of their basic needs. Over 75% of these people live in rural areas as small producers, dependent on agriculture for their subsistence. The production, trade and processing of local crops is the foundation and the driver for their own economies and the economies at the local level and beyond.
Climate change and the growing need for land, water and other natural resources are threatening agricultural production and food security. OLIVES is working to make agricultural production more sustainable, and to increase the income and improve the position of small producers in agricultural change
Improving the lives of the world’s most vulnerable requires that governments have the capacity to deliver essential services. The Organization for Livelihood Enhancement Services (OLIVES) approach to development recognizes that effective state institutions are necessary to ensure that people’s lives are improved with better services, ranging from health to education to security to job creation.
For OLIVES, this means improving the supply of services from government institutions, empowering citizens and civil society to hold government to account and demand better service delivery and the protection of their rights, and improving government responsiveness to these citizen demands.