UNDP El Salvador and Appropedia: Mapping Grassroots Solutions Together

The collaboration between the UNDP Accelerator Lab in El Salvador and the Appropedia Foundation represents an inspiring example of how organizations can collaborate to document and share grassroots solutions for global development. The partnership combined the innovative methodologies of the Accelerator Lab with Appropedia’s open platform to explore how grassroots innovations in water and livelihoods could be identified, documented, and shared with the world.

The collaboration was rooted in a shared vision inspired by the "Grassroots to Global" (G2G) concept. Prof. Anil Gupta of the Honeybee Network introduced this idea, which emphasizes identifying and sharing local solutions to global challenges. For this initiative, UNDP El Salvador’s Accelerator Lab teamed up with TECHO El Salvador to profile six coastal communities in La Libertad. The objective was to map how these communities address water-related challenges while contributing to a broader understanding of their livelihoods.

Appropedia was the perfect platform for this project. It’s an open, wiki-style site for sharing knowledge on sustainability and development. It allowed community members and organizations like TECHO and UNDP to document findings and keep the information accessible.

The process began with exploratory walks, interviews, and field observations in coastal communities. TECHO’s expertise in community surveying and UNDP’s solutions mapping practice were combined to design a methodology beyond simply collecting data. Our platform became the repository for documented grassroots innovations, such as basic rainwater capture systems and artisanal water pumps. Though these solutions weren’t always groundbreaking, they revealed significant behavioral patterns and challenges, such as issues with water governance and disaster prevention. These findings highlighted how communities navigate their relationship with water as both a resource and a threat.

The synergy between UNDP and Appropedia highlights the importance of partnerships in building a global network of development practitioners. The experience in El Salvador reminds us that solutions mapping is about more than identifying innovations, it’s about supporting communities, sharing knowledge, and building connections that span the globe.

Interested in trying solution mapping in your community? Follow these simple steps to identify and share local solutions that can inspire change around the world.

1. Define the issue and goals (e.g., water management, livelihoods).
2. Engage local organizations and community leaders for support.
3. Plan data collection using surveys, interviews, and observations.
4. Document grassroots solutions and community behaviors with photos or notes.
5. Identify trends and contextual factors behind solutions.
6. Publish findings on collaborative tools like Appropedia for global access.
7. Provide useful insights and data to empower local stakeholders.
8. Learn from the process and refine for future mapping efforts.

• UNDP Accelerator Labs. (2022, March 25). Grassroots to Global reckoning: Part 1. Retrieved November 28, 2024, from https://www.undp.org/acceleratorlabs/blog/grassroots-global-reckoning-part-1
• UNDP Accelerator Labs. (2022, July 14). Grassroots to Global reckoning: Part 2. Retrieved November 28, 2024, from https://www.undp.org/acceleratorlabs/blog/grassroots-global-reckoning-part-2