CSR has been an integral part of Ambuja Cements Ltd. since inception. With an emphasis on a participatory approach, Ambuja Cements Limited established Ambuja Cement Foundation in the year 1993 as its CSR arm. The Foundation is also registered as a not-for-profit organization incorporated under section 8 of the Company Act 2013. The Foundation hired a diverse team of dedicated development professionals to implement programmes with an attempt to balance community needs and business needs by engaging in a variety of people-centric, integrated rural development projects.

ACF was established with a mission to ‘Energise, involve and enable communities to realize their potential.’ ACF’s mission underscores the organization’s endeavour in empowering communities to act as catalysts in change. The Foundation considers neighbouring communities as one of the most important stakeholders and partners for its programmes. Whether it is need-assessment, implementation, or monitoring and review; the community is an integral part of all programmes run by ACF.

ACF has chosen to work in the selected thrust areas of Water Resource Management, Agriculture, Skill and Entrepreneurship Development, Health, Women and Education through different programmes. All programmes at ACF are undertaken with community participation with the help of tools like Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRAs), which ensure a better understanding of local nuances and hence efficient implementation in varied geographies. 

At Ambuja, stakeholder engagement is the key to implementing CSR programmes. To integrate business and community needs, Community Engagement Plans (CEP) are prepared in close engagement with the community and then the business unit. The Community Advisory Panels (CAP) consists of community members and company representatives, who meet regularly to build and review strategy for community development.

The programmes are regularly monitored through different tools. The Social Engagement Scorecard assesses the work done in communities while the Site-Specific Impact Assessment (SSIA) captures perceptions and feelings of all stakeholders at different locations. There is a monthly, quarterly and yearly reporting structure coupled with site visits to monitor programmes. The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) indicate the quantitative progress at different sites. In every five years, impact assessment is done by external agencies. The process help assess community needs and ensure that programmes introduced are relevant and dynamic in nature.

The organization undertakes several projects and initiatives aimed at promoting social and economic development and covers 11 states and 32 districts. A committed team of 700 professionals is working in various projects in different thrust areas.

• We vision to create sustainable, prosperous communities built on long-term partnerships. 
• Our mission is to energize, involve and enable communities to realise their potential 
• Energise: Motivating and Mobilizing people to work together and amplify the impact
• Involve: Build Partnerships and Co-Create Solutions
• Enable: Build Capacity and Instill Ownership

Whilst we started doing rural development work around our factories back in the early 1990s as the CSR arm of Ambuja Cements Limited, our work has moved beyond our core geographies and social responsibilities and we are now into Nation building.The task of solving the rural problem in India is gargantuan and by pooling resources, with other like-minded corporates, we can achieve much more on the ground. It has been our experience, that by pooling expertise and resources (ACF, Government, Community, Corporates) a much bigger impact can be achieved. To date, we have partnered with such giants as Tata Trusts, NABARD, NSDC, IndusInd Bank, Godrej Agrovet, Hindustan Zinc and Apollo Tyres to achieve significant outcomes – for example, our work with Tata Trusts and the Aga Khan Foundation has effectively ‘reversed’ the problem of salinity ingress in the Kodinar region and today, an independent study has shown a 13x Social Return on Investment for our work in Water Resource Management in that area.It’s incredible what you can achieve by working together!