Afghan Development Association (ADA) is a non-governmental, non-profit and non-political organization. It promotes and provides development and humanitarian services to the people of Afghanistan, in particular to the country’s rural population.
ADA was established in 1990 with a mission to provide emergency aid and humanitarian assistance to Afghan refugees in Pakistan. ADA now operates solely in Afghanistan and over the years it has transformed itself into the one of Afghanistan’s foremost development NGOs, although it continues to respond to natural and conflict-related emergencies in the country. ADA endeavours to reach the most disadvantaged groups in Afghan society often under very difficult circumstances. Among those with whom ADA works are: farmers, poor families, women, the unemployed and the uneducated, returning refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), disaster affected communities as well as a variety of community-based organisations.
With the ultimate goal of the eradication of poverty from Afghanistan, ADA has increasingly focused its interventions on contributing to more productive and sustainable livelihoods, particularly within the agricultural sector, and on strengthening basic education. Understanding that resolving conflicts at all levels of society is a prerequisite to successful development in Afghanistan, ADA has, in recent years, come to include community peacebuilding as a further focus of its activities.
