IPSIA was established in 1985 but was born from the experience of CEPAS, the Center for Peace and Development founded in 1980 with the intention of transferring some of the experiences and resources matured and accumulated by ACLI in the world of work to a different area Italian and European.

Precisely because it is the expression of a reality of this type, IPSIA moves along a path that links associations, professional training and international cooperation, placing development, solidarity between peoples and the culture of peace as the reference points of its work.

Through IPSIA, ACLI intend to bring into play its own experience and partnerships active in the international context with a policy of supranational solidarity that involves the associative fabric and all civil society in decentralized initiatives to support populations that are victims of conflicts or in developing countries of development. This model of popular, institutional and civil participation aims, also in the field of economic democracy, at the formation of Third Sector experiences and networks.