My proposal for permaculturists interested 
  in working in aid to do some voluntary work (or paid work, if they can get it 
  - we need more people to be paid for their permaculture work so that it 
  becomes integrated into their lives and income stream) with aid agencies in 
  their own country was to enlarge their skills and to provide insight into the 
  aid industry, the limitations that aid agencies receiving government or other 
  donor funding in developed countries work under and how the agencies respond 
  to the needs of their partners in developing countries.
   
  Yes, that is one very important 
  function,.  But I also suggest that bringing the multi-disciplinary tools 
  of Permaculture into the aid agencies could help these go in the 
  direction that they are trying to go, out of the neo-colonialist top-down 
  approach to a facilitative function  of local 
  realitites.
  
    As to documentation, I would ask what 
    do we actually document in Permaculture
  This is the difficult part, isn't it? 
  
   
  In this vein, I thought Sharon´s suggestion 
  really interesting: how many of the total necessities are being furnished by 
  the farm. This kind of survey before and after ( allowing a space of some 
  years!) could be a very interesting way of testing the effectiveness of 
  sustainable farming programs, something that might not be measured by other 
  ouputs,and I would also like to thank her contribution, which was a great 
  insight.
   
  Marsha