According to UNDP
“Economic growth will not reduce poverty, improve equality and produce jobs unless it is inclusive”.
ASHA like the UNDP works to promote all-encompassing growth and green sustainable human development and poverty alleviation in all its forms.
ASHA identifies with the ethos of the UNDP’s Poverty Thematic Trust Fund (PTTF) which offers a flexible financing tool designed to:
“fund innovative, catalytic and strategic development interventions to promote inclusive development and reduce all forms of poverty”.
ASHA will work towards creating an enduring partnership with the UNDP to help it align its global, regional and country experiences and lessons around its priority thematic areas and streamline the disbursement of funds for qualified activities in our areas of operation.
ASHA’s ethos aligns with the UNDP’s poverty reduction efforts, solidly rooted in the principles of “equality, human rights and inclusion” with the overriding goal of making tangible and sustainable difference to people’s lives and circumstances.
ASHA highlights the World Bank’s view that:
“Putting resources into poor women's hands while promoting gender equality in the household and in society results in large development payoffs”
How ASHA helps:
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ASHA through EWOF works to restore and enhance the skills and confidence of young women and girls living in poverty and in so doing empower them to make informed choices about their own lives as well as those of their communities;
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ASHA operates microfinance co-operative schemes for PWDs, girls and women to undertake vocational training in skills acquisition and business start-up to help them not only attain economic independence but also achieve social improvement;
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ASHA works closely with Governments at all levels, NGO’s, Micro-finance banks; agricultural banks, commercial banks, co-operative banks, foreign banks, international development organisations, the international community, local people and community banks to ease accessibility to micro-credits for the most vulnerable;
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ASHA promotes back to land schemes aimed at boosting agricultural outputs. ASHA believes that through an emphases on agriculture, food distribution and availability would be enhanced and malnutrition (which kills countless children daily) can be reduced if not eradicated; and
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ASHA taps into the collective will and commitment of the international community to advance the goal of eradicating hunger worldwide through boosting sustainable agriculture.
ASHA echoes the thoughts of the UN Sec Gen (Ban Ki Moon) in Jan 2009 in Spain:
“I saw it myself in my village when I was younger. I see it now when I travel, and it never ceases to disturb me. Parents cutting down on the food they eat to ensure their children have enough, Households selling their animals, land or even homes to buy food, Mothers struggling each day to protect their children from the physical and mental scars of malnutrition. World poverty cannot be reduced without improvements in agriculture and food systems"