Our Approach

IPES´ core values include a belief in the “vitality and ability of the Salvadoran people to transform their reality” and the “transformative power of community life”. Our methodology therefore is that of supporting a process of empowerment in which communities build their capacity to understand their problems, analyze their needs, find solutions and develop the skills and resources needed. IPES provides education and skills development, facilitates community analysis and planning, and supports communities to have their needs and voices heard. We organise local workshops in which communities present their problems, achievements, and needs to local development agencies and request support based on their own analyses and plans. We also provide basic training in organisational skills, how to run meetings, resolve conflict, and improve cooperative working.

IPES promoters work alongside community leaders, teaching and encouraging them to support their community in its ecological development. These leaders meet together with others in their municipality to receive more in depth training and provide mutual support. With our trained promoters and staff, IPES is working to strengthen leadership and organization within rural communities so that they can identify their own needs and then develop practical ecological solutions with minimal use of external resources.

The Farmer to Farmer approach
IPES uses the farmer to farmer approach to teach methods of ecological agriculture and sustainable living. The farmer to farmer methodology involves encouraging subsistence farmers to learn, practice and experiment with more natural farming methods. They are encouraged to share their knowledge, experience, and seeds with their neighbors. Traditional development approaches often fail because they do not arise from the needs identified and expressed by the communities themselves and are usually led by technicians who have difficulty transmitting their knowledge to small farmers. Our promoters are all themselves subsistence farmers who have years of experience practicing ecological agriculture. They have undergone an extensive training program in the theory and practice of ecological agriculture techniques, popular education techniques, farmer to farmer methodology and promotion and permaculture design. Our promoters share their knowledge and experience with local farmers and provide motivation and cooperative working to further these farmers’ self-sufficiency.

In order to promote permaculture more widely, we have recognized the necessity of working in partnership with other development agencies, supporting them to adopt both our methodologies and our education and training programs. To this end we are currently piloting a new project in partnership with the Municipal Women´s Association of Tecoluca who support a network of 90 women´s groups. The project aims to build the capacity of the Association to strengthen their organization and adopt ecological perspective in their work. Fifteen women´s groups are learning technologies to develop their home in a healthy and ecological way.