Introducing CSA

Center for Sustainable Advancement (CSA) is an organization concerned with problems of basic needs of the inhabitants of various districts of Bangladesh. It was launched in January 2002. CSA is a non-government organization under the Ministry of Social welfare of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh Government. CSA is an independent, non-profit and non-partisan organization. This organization also aims at promoting and strengthening homegrown charity primarily concentrating on Sunamganj district.

The motives and goals of CSA are to uplift the socio-economic condition of the inhabitants of Sunamganj District. "Sustainable development" is the guiding principle behind this, the aim is to strengthen the self-initiative of people without endangering the basis of life for future generations.

CSA operates on a public-benefit basis. It uses surpluses exclusively for its own development cooperation projects. The organization works with those sections of the civic society, academic, business, government and non-government institutions that share the organizations vision of a future. The organization devotes its efforts to prepare the target area for 21^st century.

The work of the CSA is mainly supported by the voluntary contributions and grants from interested funding organizations, bilateral and multilateral donor agencies, regional and international institutions, private corporate sectors and individual donations from within and outside Bangladesh.

As a local charitable organization, the CSA believes in restoration of the rich tradition of philanthropy in Bangladesh. CSA welcomes contribution and partnership in various forms of donations from individuals and institutions within and outside Bangladesh. The CSA specially appreciates funding from overseas Bangladeshis who are ready to help their motherland. Such funding may take either the form of donation or direct contributions for particular purposes.

All matters related to fundraising, grant-making finance, accounts are conducted under the supervision of the Board of Advisors and Working Committee. The CSA works principally with the people of target areas within some identified programs. Such programs take the form of multi-disciplinary, focused and target-oriented grants to multiple groups and institutions, each of which addresses an issue or set of issues relevant to the organization’s vision and objectives.

What we do

All planning and decision making for a development cooperation project must involve the beneficiaries and organisations of the local areas. Often there is a conflict between different interests. CSA is devoted to make these differences transparent, in order to arrive at viable solutions. Together with its partners it develops concepts and implements these in projects and programmes.

In acute emergencies, such as natural disasters, CSA implements emergency aid and refugee programs. Short-term emergency aid measures are also designed to strengthen the ability of people to help themselves.

Who we work for

CSA works for the citizen of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is trying to improve her economy since its independence. The estimated population of Bangladesh (2002) is 133,376,684, making Bangladesh one of the ten most populous countries. The overall density, 904 persons per sq mi (2,341 persons per sq mi), is much higher than that of other countries. Bangladesh supports a large rural population, with 25 percent of the Bangladeshi people classified as urban in 2000. Most of the people are relatively young, nearly 60 percent being under the age of 25 and only 3 percent being 65 or older. Life expectancy at birth is 61 years. The ratio of man and woman is respectively 1:1. That means half of the total population of Bangladesh is women.

Various researches reveal that more than half of the total population of the country is suffering from acute poverty. Simultaneously, the scarcity of adequate food, health, nutrition, proper sanitation, education and sound ecology are basic problems of the country.

Both government and non-government organizations (NGOs) have taken numerous initiatives and programs to develop the overall economic situation of the country with the help of local and international aid. CSA is committed to the people of Bangladesh to ensure essential nutrition, health and a proper environment as well as ecology.

Cooperation and new approaches

To reach in an optimal result, CSA co-operates closely with other organizations committed to development policy work. Before taking any development program, CSA studies thoroughly about the program as well as the area and of course about the target people. CSA emphasizes most on the need and demand of the target group and it ensures the spontaneous participation of the target group in any adopted project. CSA strongly believes that no development program can be successful without proper participation of the target people. To ensure the participation of the target people in any development program, CSA gives utter importance on elaborate research relevant to the program. It applies the best and effective methodology in research. In any research regarding to development program it follows the holistic approach. Besides, the it includes extensive empirical data through field research. Data collection techniques employed in field research are participant observation, in-depth interviews, case studies and household survey in the research area.

To elaborate and explain every phenomenon of the research, it is necessary to collect data on domestic/social organization, interaction between women and men within households and within other groups, gender based roles and gender related attitudes. Data on internal networking within households, the decision-making process, male dominance in the household as well as in society and inter-generational interactions are also pivotal in research. These kinds of information are located in the social process and relations on individuals. These can only be collected by staying in the community and living with people, documenting their day-to-day activities, observing their behavior and raising questions about informants’ perceptions, attitudes and actions.

In-depth, unstructured and informal interviews are also be used to generate case studies. Usually CSA does not include any key informant. CSA intends to collect data from the views of all strata equally. Informants (both women and men) are selected from the various part of the research area. The study or research selects several households as case study. These case studies provide explanatory data to analyze and to assist in understanding the existing social reality in the region.

CSA wants to work with the other organization that shares the same proposition about development program. An innovative approach that is gaining increasing importance is cooperation with the private sector in "public–private partnerships" (PPPs). PPPs link the interests of development cooperation institutions with corporate interests, allowing both sides to achieve their goals more quickly and efficiently and at a lower cost. Small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular, have benefited from cooperation as part of a PPP.

CSA welcome donor agencies that are interested to work in Sunamganj District. CSA also wants to cooperate with those organizations, which are already working in this district. CSA strongly believe that it is too difficult to implement development programs without joint efforts and proper coordination between the NGOs and donor agencies. To eradicate poverty from the society, we should work together.

Why development cooperation?

Poverty, damage of the environment and ecology, lack of food and nutrition and education are the primary problems for any nation or country. With the presence of these issues, no nation can move forward efficiently and successfully. To ensure progress, these vital issues must be resolved properly and effectively. Simultaneously, these problems do not stop at national frontiers. Political and economic crises throughout the world also affect one other.

Cooperation for development (known as "development aid") is, therefore, prerequisite for resolving those problems. Initiating development program is an important concern for the CSA.

Code of Conduct

The principle of integrity is of major importance for CSA staff members, both in their daily dealings with each other and with our project partners and target groups. The Code of Conduct has been adopted to help identify and prevent improper conduct. It sets out our principles regarding integrity and the ensuing rules for handling conflicts of interest and avoiding corruption.

Integrity is an important management principle at the CSA, the example set at the management level is to be followed throughout the various operational levels. Furthermore, we also expect our project partners and target groups to respect our Code of Conduct.