The Centre for studies of rural development CESDER, is a non-governmental organisation founded in 1982 in the indigenous Nahuatl community of San Andrés Yahuitlalpan in the Municipality of Zautla in the Sierra Norte of the State of Puebla.
For 40 years, CESDER has developed educational projects for secondary, high school, undergraduate and postgraduate students in the region. It has generated important work in promoting community development processes in the municipalities of Zautla and Ixtacamaxtitlán, in projects of food security, environmental preservation and sustainability of agro-ecosystems, community banks and savings banks, pottery design and production, micro-enterprises and marketing processes, health, women’s empowerment, special education, human rights and territorial defence.