ASA is a non profit development organization registered under The Gujarat Societies Registration Act, 1860 & The Bombay Public Trust Act. 1950.

It was founded in 1996 by a group of development professionals with considerable collective experience of working with the tribal people in the Central part of India in participatory natural resources development. ASA has emerged as a prime and lead organisation in the sector of farm based livelihood for poor and natural resource management.

ASA currently works in nearly 1590 villages in 23 districts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand, directly reaching out to about 1,40,000 families or nearly 8,50,000 population. There are more than 140 professional staff in the organisation along with more than 150 para-professional staff.

There are 9 Area offices, 45 Team Offices, 5 Regional Offices and the ASA Head Office in Bhopal.

The governing system in ASA is strong with considerable amount of policy decision making rests with the board. The programmes of ASA are governed by the Standard Operating Manual. Similarly, for General administration, HR and Finances, the SOMs are the lead documents for operation. The SOMs, internal audit (both through external auditor and through internal audit cell), programme process and impact monitoring systems are some of the unique procedures in ASA that help in keeping it focussed, result oriented and quality concerned. ASA has been always taking a system approach and according to our assessment this is one of the key factors that can be attributed to our constant growth.

Mission

Ensuring livelihoods of poor people through providing developmental services, in particular through natural resources development.

Core Values and Objectives

ASA's approach to development is firmly founded upon participatory action at the community level. At the heart of the organisation is the aim of developing livelihood security, which is facilitated by an intensive participatory process of natural resources development and local institutional development. Particular emphasis is placed upon the poor and women.

Areas of Expertise

The key competencies of ASA can be broadly categorized into:

Field implementation of projects of community based natural resources management sector which includes community mobilization and participatory implementation of NRM programs, financial inclusion, sustainable agriculture, promotion of farmer producer companies, capacity building of PRIs, etc,
Development support (Technical support) to the NGOs, Government departments / projects and donor organizations in the areas of NRM including sustainable agriculture, farmer producer companies, project management and institutional development.
Action Research, Training, consultancy and policy advocacy in the areas of NRM