The CSA is a public institution endowed with administrative and financial autonomy. Placed under the supervision of the Prime Minister, it is administered by a supervisory board. Its last restructuring results from decree 192-2008, of October 19, 2008. Originally created in 1982 after the merger between the Mauritanian Cereal Office and the Food Aid Commission, the mission of the CSA has been taken care of since the great droughts of the 1970s by several state institutions under various names: