ANSA, functioning within the Ministry of Commerce and Industries, was established by Decree 952 signed by the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on 2 June 2004. ANSA was approved as an independent standards body by the Council of Ministers, Government of Afghanistan, on 20 August 2007 which was later ratified by Afghan Parliament on 25 February 2008. ANSA works toward the following objectives:

1 To serve the Afghan stakeholders (government, industry and consumers) in the fields of standardization, conformity assessment, accreditation and metrology.
2 To improve commercial interactions, build the technical infrastructure and capacity, develop human resources, and establish closer ties amongst relevant institutions.
3 To encourage the private sector to participate in standardization, conformity assessment, accreditation and metrology activities to contribute to commercial interactions within Afghanistan.
4 To enhance implementation of international standards as well as regional and national standards and their application in business and industry.
5 To improve awareness of the role and to promote the benefits of standardization and conformity assessment, accreditation and metrology amongst government, the private sector and the general public.

ANSA is operating in five fields (Petroleum Products, Food, Construction, Cosmetics and Metrology) and is planning to expand its activities to two new fields of Textile and Electrical Goods in 2009. Technical committees (TC) are going to be established in all fields of operations.