C.A.S.H.A., the African Centre for Applied Humanities, was founded in 1961, with the assistance of the general planning commissariat of the French Republic, as a non-profit-making organisation. Its aims are to undertake and to promote, chiefly in Africa, inter-disciplinary research into economic and social development and the related policies for action, building up a research machinery capable of responding to the specific problems of the developing countries. Its operations are safeguarded by agreements with both public and private bodies, having regard to the objects of the Association and its appropriate tasks.