Category: Brazil

CBA 19: Tenure security is vital for climate adaptation

SDI’s message at the Conference on Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA19) was clear, Slum Upgrading is Climate Action! Held from 12–16 May 2025 in Recife, Brazil, CBA19 marked the first time the conference took place in Latin America.

The event brought together community practitioners from around the world to advance community-driven climate action. The SDI delegation included representatives from Brazil, Kenya, the SDI Secretariat, Tanzania, the Philippines, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

It is more than just about four walls

Housing is the first line of defence against climate change, but it is about more than just about four walls. Housing inequalities and injustices drive climate vulnerability. Secure land tenure is essential for sustainable climate adaptation and long-term impact. Forced evictions, fuelled by the commodification of land, is the unjust reality for countless low-income households.

Organised communities have the collective power to negotiate land rights and lead incremental, community-driven slum upgrading efforts.

Forced Evictions: A threat to Climate Adaptation

During the session Living the LLA Principles – Women and Traditional Communities Leading Action from the Global South, Theresa Carampatana from the Homeless People’s Federation of the Philippines shared how the women-led federation secured land ownership for nearly 3,000 informal settlement residents who were threatened with evictions. Once land tenure was secured, the federation facilitated efforts to mitigate flood and fire risks through incremental upgrading of homes and the settlement.

Youth as Agents of Change

In a dialogue on coalitions for inclusive climate action, urban labs and youth-led climate planning, Lizian Onyango from SDI Kenya asked those in attendance: “We often frame urban youth as a marginalised group vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. But what if this narrative is holding us back? What if, instead of being seen solely as recipients of support, urban youth were recognised as active agents in shaping climate adaptation?”

Lizian shared how SDI Kenya has engaged youth as co-researchers. Using GIS mapping, they identified key infrastructure, assessed risks, and visualised social, economic, and environmental vulnerabilities. This combination of technology and local knowledge shows how youth can drive practical, community-led adaptation.

Locally-led adaptation begins with shifting power!

Milka Kori, also from SDI Kenya, took part in a dialogue on building stronger global partnerships to support local action. Participants explored how civil society organisations can connect grassroots groups with national and international efforts.

Communities must lead and set their own priorities to design solutions that work for them. While intermediaries like NGOs can provide support, they must ensure communities remain in control.

Financing Adaptation from the Ground Up

The SDI Secretariat, together with the Centre for Community Initiatives in Tanzania, co-hosted a session showcasing SDI’s Urban Poor Funds (UPFs), savings groups, and community-led data collection (profiling and enumeration) as successful examples of grassroots-led climate finance mechanisms.

This interactive session demonstrated how pooling funds as an organised collective, combined with community-led data collection, helps address the most urgent climate risks through incremental upgrading in slum communities. It also highlighted the vital role of community-driven governance in ensuring financial management is transparent, accountable, and impactful.

LLA Supports Food Sovereignty and Livelihoods

Ian Matimba, representing the People’s Process on Housing and Poverty in Zambia (PPHPZ), was recognised at CBA19 for presenting the most inclusive solution during the “Shark Tank” – a platform where participants pitch locally-led climate adaptation ideas to a panel of experts with investment experience.

The winning initiative, Sustainable Enterprises for Urban Resilience in Zambia, focuses on scaling up hydroponics and black soldier fly farming. This innovative approach conserves water, improves soil quality, enhances access to nutritious food, supports better waste management and creates new income opportunities for local communities.

Watch →

Judges commended the PPHPZ team for a well-rounded project that applies circular economy principles to improve food production and soil health in marginalised areas, using waste as a resource. They also highlighted the hydroponic system’s efficiency and its potential to be replicated in diverse contexts. The project’s contributions to water and soil conservation, food security, local livelihoods and the team’s commitment to reinvesting profits for continued growth and sustainability were welcomed.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-FYqqfjlXnc

Viva SDI Brazil, Viva!

In May 2025, representatives from the SDI Secretariat and affiliates from the Philippines, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe visited the SDI Brazil Federation in Ilha de Deus (Island of God) in Recife in Brazil. The visit coincided with the 19th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA19) also held in Recife.

Watch a short video from the visit here →

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EWm0HFWf4ks

The afternoon was spent in intergenerational dialogue, with the federation sharing their struggles and achievements over the years, along with visits to key community sites. The community in Ilha de Deus, Recife, collaborates with a host of stakeholders including other social movements and regional NGOs. Since its inception, the federation has been supported by the NGO Rede Interação.

In recent years, there had been some distance between the Brazil Federation and the wider SDI network. However, a learning exchange held in South Africa and Namibia in August 2024 helped reaffirm solidarity and renew connections. Next, a week-long training workshop and South-South youth exchange—bringing together participants from Brazil, Kenya, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe— will take place in July 2025 in Recife to activate KYC TV.

Earlier this year, federation members participated in a short documentary titled, Their Island, directed by Brazilian filmmaker Giuliana Monteiro in collaboration with Rede Interação. The film is part of the Solutions Storytelling Project, an initiative supported by the Skoll Foundation.

Watch “Their Island” →

Call for Consultancy: Conduct End Term Evaluation for VCA

Voices for Just Climate Action (VCA) is seeking applications from consultancy firms or a team of consultants to conduct an End Term Evaluation for the entire VCA implementation period between January 2021 and December 2025.

The primary objectives of the evaluation will be to generate actionable insights and build knowledge on effective strategies for fostering locally led climate solutions. The evaluation will employ a theory-based approach to assess the extent to which the programme’s activities have contributed to achieving its intended outcomes and impact.

About Voices for Just Climate Action

The VCA alliance brings together global and local voices by connecting a diverse range of civil society organizations representing women, youth, indigenous people, urban poor, digital activists and more. The programme is implemented by an alliance led by four strong Southern CSOs – Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA), Fundación Avina, Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and SouthSouthNorth (SSN). The alliance also includes two Global CSOs namely Hivos and WWF-Netherlands, under the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ five-year strategic partnership, “Power of Voices”.

VCA End Term Evaluation Consultancy

To apply, please submit your proposal by 1 December 2024 to Stanley Walet (swalet@wwf.nl) and Bitamisi Nyakato (nyakato@akinamamawaafrika.org) using the subject line, “Expression of Interest – VCA End-Term Evaluation”.

Inclusive of the proposed methodology and budget, the expression of interest should be no longer than ten pages in total.

Download the full Terms of Reference here

Image credit: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters

Know Your City takes Latin America by storm!

Earlier this month, delegates from countries across Latin America gathered in Lima, Peru for the inaugural Know Your City Latin America learning exchange.  The exchange was a success, providing an important opportunity for community groups and their support organizations engaged in Know Your City community-driven data collection work to develop a shared vision for the Know Your City Latin America campaign and to learn more about SDI’s governance, tools, and methodologies. Participants were able to build a solid basis for further collaboration in the region, affirming their interest in strengthening peer learning and experiential exchanges with the SDI network.

Some of the highlights and key learnings from the exchange are outlined by the team below.

Some of our key achievements & outcomes:

• We identified the need to develop a vision for SDI in Latin America as a top priority, understanding that the Know Your City work is an entry point – an opportunity for SDI to establish links in Latin America and for us to get to know each other;
• We developed a general understanding of SDI, including the Theory of Change, governance systems, and federation membership;
• We learned about SDI’s expectations around calls for funds, contracts, reporting, and budgeting;

We discussed what makes SDI ‘different’ and ‘attractive’ in its approach to addressing urban poverty. Some of the key points include:

• SDI’s practical approaching, with the entry points into community organisation being rooted in concrete actions and practical tools such as data collection and daily savings, as opposed to a political or institutionalised network. This speaks to SDI’s being rooted in urban poor communities in need of everyday solutions.
• SDI’s priorities come from the bottom up, determined by demand from the communities themselves.
• There is huge potential for intercontinental peer learning through engagement with and in the SDI network. The size, scope, and reputation of the SDI network give credibility and leverage to local struggles.

In drawing the week of learning to a close, a number of items were identified to take forward the energy and learnings from time together in Lima. Some of these include:

• Deeper learning on use of data collection tools, including SDI’s web-based data platform. A series of tutorials was proposed and is already in the planning stages.
• Increased learning on savings and mobilization through tutorials and experience sharing
• Regular group calls to follow up on successes, challenges, and ongoing work
• Producing / translating SDI content into Spanish in order to keep the Latin American groups up to date on the latest SDI news, ideally via social media, newsletters, WhatsApp, etc.
• Deeper learning on advocacy strategy and achievements from across the network. There was particular interest in learning more about the South Africans’ experience managing government subsidies and upgrading funds.
• A request emerged for the Brazilians plus 2-3 other Latin American communities to participate in an African Regional Hub meeting in 2019
• Adding further resources to the Google Drive folder established for the exchange in order to make it a resource centre for Latin American groups.

There was an undeniable interest among the groups present to learn more about SDI and become increasingly engaged as part of the SDI family. The role of the Brazilian federation was highlighted as being crucial in bridging regional, cultural, and language gaps in this process. There are great opportunities for impactful work, but it was noted that this will require energy, resources, and support from the SDI network, and an open-mindedness to adapting language and opening to complementary approaches and models linked to existing networks and spaces in Latin America.

Know Your City: the Process, the Platform, and the Campaign

The end of 2017 marked the end of a four-year strategic planning period for SDI and the close-out of various projects and contracts in support of implementation of that plan. To report on the successes, challenges, and impact of our work over that time, SDI produced a Basket Fund Close Out report, available in full here. In this series of blog posts, we present excerpts from this report that highlight some of the key learnings and impact of our work over the past four years and point towards areas for continued growth in the new Strategic Plan, launched this year.

Fundamental to effective learning and influence is the quality and accessibility of the knowledge produced. SDI’s commitment to increased rigour in settlement profiling meant that 2013 – 2017 was a watershed period for this work which has come to be known widely as SDI’s Know Your City work and campaign.

The Process

Since the SDI network was founded, grassroots profiling, enumeration and mapping has been at the heart of the organizing process. Pioneered by slum and pavement dwellers in India, community profiles and enumerations have served to organize the urban poor and make informal settlements visible to city authorities throughout the Global South. These data then ground dialogue and partnerships between communities and local government aimed at improved security of tenure, basic services and housing. As such, the information becomes power for the organized slum dwellers who gathered it. Power balances shift between the community and city officials. Instead of beggars or protesters, the community asks officials to recognize them as partners with information and ideas for how to make changes that will benefit cities and informal settlements. For over 20 years, SDI’s peer-to-peer exchange programs have helped to spread and refine the practise of community-led profiling and enumeration from the congested slums of Mumbai throughout SDI’s network of close to 30 federations. As more and more federations undertook the process, it became clear that the data could play a powerful role in global advocacy aimed at enhancing the hand of each local federation to influence urban policy and practice. Without a measure of standardization in data collection tools and a transition to digital data management, the aggregation and dissemination of data is limited. SDI federations agreed to design a single, standardized informal settlement profile tool and to adopt and co-design support technologies to enhance data accessibility.

The Platform

The decision was made to create a Know Your City (KYC) data platform to house and analyze the SDI network’s slum settlement data. The federations remained laser focused on their principles and insisted: technological support and standardization could not substitute face-to-face engagement; the technology had to be simple and was pointless if not useful to local communities; and the transition had to ensure it did not exclude those without technological capacity. Two iterations of the KYC platform have been developed in conjunction with community profilers and enumerators throughout the network. KYC 1.0 proved that SDI’s profiling and enumeration processes could use standardized tools to enable global aggregation, while preserving the community organizing and inclusive social processes that give SDI’s data its power. KYC 2.0 proved this data would be of tremendous use to communities, governments and development partners in understanding informality and guiding upgrading plans. KYC 3.0 seeks to institutionalize people-driven data as the core starting point for building and monitoring inclusive and resilient city development. To do so, the platform and the community process must step up to yet another level in terms of its accessibility, data rigor, and data visualizations. This new iteration will reflect SDI’s improved TOC and measurement of resilience outcomes and will be housed on SDI’s own platform built in Bangalore by the federation’s partners.

The Campaign

Community-managed profiling and mapping and the KYC data platform are the two legs upon which the Know Your City campaign stands. In 2014, SDI, Cities Alliance and UCLG-A launched the Know Your City campaign in order to promote the institutionalization of people-driven data in government and development partner programing. At the conclusion of 2016, SDI signed a new MOU with UCLG-A to expand partner cities and is working with Cities Alliance to embed people-driven data in all its global programing, monitoring and evaluation. Cities Alliance has supported a Joint Work Program (JWP) to expand the reach of KYC. The Know Your City campaign has proven its capacity to anchor partnership through the organization of slum dwellers at city scale to gather data on the informal settlements. Local government-community partnerships then use this data to set baselines, plan and monitor development interventions, inform policy and practice, co-produce upgrading agendas, and jointly implement urban development that fully capitalizes on the comparative advantages of each party. SDI is partnering with the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR) to expand the campaign throughout Asia. In phase 1, settlement profiling was carried out by communities in Davao Philippines; Jhenaidah, Bangladesh; Jogjakarta, Indonesia; Yangon, Myanmar; and Battambang, Cambodia.

Change Story 2: KYC Campaign Touches Down in Latin America

This year, SDI expanded the Know Your City campaign to Latin America to support organized urban poor communities looking to use community-led profiling and mapping to catalyze dialogue with government and/or other potential collaborators to improve the lives of the poor. Small support grants for this work will be available to organizations who show that organized urban poor communities are working toward outcome level change in their settlement or city linked to: Improved public health and safety; Improved livelihoods; Improved land tenure security; or, Improved strategic influence of the urban poor.

Selected groups will have access to the standarized KYC profiling tools, use of the KYC platform and increased visibility as part of the KYC campaign. The expansion of KYC to Latin American provides an opportunity to connect and network urban poor social movements in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. At the World Urban Forum, SDI secured preliminary commitments from UCLG and partnersh such as TECHO and HFHI to partner in this initiative.

In Recife, the community and support organization INTERAÇÃO (SDI’s Brazil Affiliate) and Habitat for Humanity International are using the KYC framework to strengthen the organization and capacities of poor and vulnerable groups threatened by eviction. Using the data, communities can defend and negotiate for improve tenure security and services. Particular importance will be given to the residents of informal/precarious settlements in the areas most valued and subject to real estate pressure. Information on the different favelas will also be used to develop a city-scale vision that communities will use in proposing or establishing alliances and influencing urban policies. This will serve to strengthen the involvement of these communities and influence the revision process of the Recife Master Plan through spaces for dialogue with the local government in the perspective of ensuring adequate housing spaces for the poorest.

Profiling Progress per Hub, 2013-2017

Recife Hosts Brazil’s First National Slum Dweller Exchange

Organize

As of 2017, SDI’s Brazil partner is supporting 17 savings groups in 3 cities. In the last year, organizing efforts concentrated on coordination with local institutional partners, expansion to bring new groups into the network, and supporting groups with their specific challenges. These strategies were pursued in Osasco, Varzea Paulista, and Recife. In September 2017, Recife hosted Brazil’s first national exchange to bring these groups and their partners together for the purpose of exploring shared concerns and strengthening the relationship between efforts in each region/city. Topics discussed centered on women and youth, land regularization, and the environment as they relate to community organization and The Right to the City.

Collaborate

The community in Ilha de Deus, Recife, collaborates strategically with a host of actors including other popular movements and regional NGOs. A joint project with Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) is under preparation in which the community will combine various profiling and enumeration approaches pioneered by SDI and HFHI to combat eviction threats and enhance tenure security for slum communities. Efforts are also underway to bring more youth into the network and introduce savings to new communities in the city and region. As part of this effort, the groups hope to document the history of their organizing and leadership of urban poor communities. In terms of government collaboration, Ilha de Deus are beginning to act at municipal level as part of Recife’s Master Plan Discussion Forum. This effort is being undertaken in partnership with the Women’s Secretariat of the Recife Municipality, HFHI, and ActionAid. The group is also taking part in the Urban Reform Forum in coordination with organized youth groups (FOJUPE) and women artisans and fishing communities.

Thrive

The national exchange convened this year was an important step in building solidarity among slum dweller groups across the country. At present the groups work effectively in their various communities, but do not have a strong sense of belonging to a national network. In partnership with the local NGO Rede Interação, considerable alliance opportunities exist with the potential to bring about a shift in The Right to the City dialogue that positions slum dwellers as partners rather than beneficiaries of resilient city developments.

The Brazil slum dwellers’ efforts contribute to improved city resilience through the building of collective identity and support, organizing active citizens, and strengthening pro-active multi-stakeholder collaboration.

“As soon as possible I have to practice email”: SDI’s Bolivia & Brazil Affiliates Visit Chile

In the last week of April 2016, representatives of the slum dweller federations of Bolivia and Brazil traveled to Santiago to attend the 10th Anniversary of the “I love my neighborhood” program of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development of Chile. The anniversary was also attended by representatives from Peru and Uruguay. Thanks to the support of Cities Alliance, the federation members were able to attend the international dialogue, strategic partner meetings, community fairs and visit municipal events that were attended by the President of Chile, Michelle Bachelett.

The two women members, Elivania da Silva from Brazil and Lucia Choque from  Bolivia were able to share their experience in community organizing and  saving. In the process these women enhance their confidence speaking about the issues that matter to the urban poor and feel pride in their capacity to inspiree and teach others. This is leadership training learning-by-doing style.

According to the organizers “[Elivania and Lucia] had an intense but very [relevant] agenda and presentations in the International Dialogue”. Inclusive cities and gender equity were high on the agenda and the contribution of the SDI representatives was shared with country neighbors and their representatives. 

Brazilian federation member, Elivania, reflected the event “…was good. There was a presentation of each Project and then there was an exhibition of neighborhoods with urbanization potos. We were able to visit in the Valparaiso neighborhood. They told the story of how the community started there and then we went to meet the architecture faculty”.

Bolivian federation member, Lucia, reflected, “I was surprised by the interest on savings because they did not know the experience of SDI and only now I realize the need to assess our progress but also get involved in all the problems of our settlements. Several authorities want to learn more about our organization and as soon as possible I have to practice email to keep in touch with the participants”.

As SDI explores options for expanding in Latin America, strong women leaders like Elivania and Lucia will be on the frontline.

SDI, WIEGO & Avina: Growing a Global Coalition of the Urban Poor

**Cross posted from the SA SDI Alliance Blog**

By Yolande Hendler, SA SDI Alliance

Piesang River – the home of the South African Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP), a meeting place filled with sounds of Portuguese, isiZulu, Spanish and English,  a place filled with expectations of what a four-day learning exchange might hold for its participants – representatives of urban poor networks from across Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and South Africa. Are there joint mobilisation strategies? How does each movement build partnerships? And what does advocacy from the perspective of community leaders look like? These questions shaped the purpose of the four-day learning exchange from 21-24 September in South Africa’s east coast port city, Durban.

The participants included community leaders and supporting organisations from

• the Brazilian Alliance of Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI)
• the Ecuadorian Waste Picker Network
• the Ecuadorian Network for Fair, Democratic & Sustainable Cities
• the Association of Recyclers in Bogota, Colombia (Asociación de Recicladores de Bogota)
• Fundacion Avina in Peru & Ecuador
• Women In Informal Employment : Globalising & Organising (WIEGO)
• Asiye eTafuleni in Durban (AeT, network of informal workers)
• The South African SDI Alliance as hosts: Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP), Informal Settlement Network (ISN) and Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC)

What brought together representatives from such different locations? Their affiliation to SDI (Brazil & South Africa), WIEGO (Colombia & Asiye eTafuleni, South Africa) and Fundacion Avina (Ecuador). All three are global movements of the urban poor. Although their approaches may differ, SDI, WIEGO and Avina share the vision of building equitable, just and inclusive cities. The learning exchange was convened by Cities Alliance, of which WIEGO and SDI are both members. Envisioned as a two-part exchange, the first was hosted by SDI in South Africa, while the second will be hosted by WIEGO in Colombia.

The exchange focussed on exposing the visitors to the South African Alliance’s approaches to- and outcomes of community organising. This included a visit to housing and informal settlement upgrading projects, a savings scheme, conducting practical data collection, a partnership meeting with government and getting to know the context of informal workers.

A People’s Approach to Housing and Upgrading

While each movement shared its main focal areas and organisational approaches in presentations on the first day, a real sense of getting to know each other occurred through questions and anecdotes that opened windows into personal and collective experiences:

“In Colombia waste-pickers have been organising for more than 30 years – recycling is an option for poor people who are old or don’t have access to jobs. I was displaced during the war. My husband was killed by guerrilla fighters. Through recycling I was able to support my family” (Ana Elizabeth Cuervo Alba, Colombia)

“As waste pickers in Ecuador we lobbied the government to a point where we now have a national agreement that pays waste pickers for recycling” (Elvia Pisuña, Ecuador)

“Urban informal workers usually face extreme challenges with people resisting their presence in public spaces .We called ourselves, Asiye eTafuleni because it means – come to the table. Let us negotiate for the inclusive future of the working urban poor.“ (Richard Dobson, Asiye eTafuleni, Durban)

Incidentally, Piesang River also displays the fruits of FEDUP’s militant negotiation with national government around housing delivery. FEDUP leaders explained that the vast housing settlements in Piesang River and Namibia Stop 8 (a further area visited that afternoon) are a result of their success in convincing government to grant members direct access to their housing subsidy. This enabled them to self-build larger houses, culminating in the adoption of the People’s Housing Process (PHP) policy. Although it has not been without its challenges, PHP represents a breakthrough in altered approach from “delivery” to “collaboration”.

In contrast, community leaders of the Informal Settlement Network (ISN) elaborated on their difficulty in achieving breakthrough in municipal support for informal settlement upgrading. With over 2700 informal settlements in the country and an increasing housing backlog, the ISN supports communities with tools and plans for negotiating with local government around service delivery through incremental upgrading. During a visit to Mathambo settlement, community leader and regional ISN coordinator, Ndodeni Dengo explained that despite the settlement’s relatively small size, existing structures were located in high density to each other, with most not larger than 9m2 – and a deficit of water, sanitation and electricity services. The community had collected data about its settlement through a detailed household level enumeration that helped them negotiate upgrading plans with the local municipality. By using wooden boxes for planning a new layout that would enable service installation, the community established their ideal design for the upgraded settlement.

How do urban poor communities organise?

Over the next two days the visitors were introduced to the driving force behind FEDUP and ISN’s housing and upgrading projects: the practice of daily savings and data collection as tools for community organisation.

At Kwa Bestar savings group, the visitors saw that saving is not primarily about collecting money, but about collecting people. Savings groups are a space where trust is nurtured through daily saving, sharing needs and identifying common solutions. At present, the group of 39 active members has saved US$ 2800. It is also engaged in forming smaller saving units to access loans by generating income through small businesses. The keen involvement of young people aged 8 – 25 in the savings process was a special highlight. Once more it became evident that savings is about growing and enabling people, showcased by the rich dance, drama and music performances by the youth.

Where savings builds self reliance, data collection builds knowledge: upon arrival at Zikhali, a small, rural settlement in the northern sugar cane fields of Durban, Rose Molokoane, National Coordinator of FEDUP and SDI deputy president, explained:

“When a community knows clearly who they are, which are their problems, it is much easier to negotiate with municipal officials”

This is how data collection through settlement profiles (of a settlement’s history, infrastructure, conditions) and enumerations (detailed household level surveys) enables partnership with local government officials. When walking around the area, the group mapped the settlement boundaries and landmarks such as water and sanitation points on GPS devices while others spoke to residents, collecting household data by using the Alliance’s enumeration form.

Approaches to building partnerships with government

It is through savings and data-collection that SDI’s urban poor federations leverage partnerships: saving contributions show self-reliance and community will; settlement-wide data powers a community’s negotiation capacity. On day three the visitors accompanied the Durban Alliance to a meeting with the local municipality, province and a representative from national government, discussing the progress of housing and upgrading projects.

The South Americans perceived

• A strong relationship with government officials
• A measure of trust and flexibility in receiving visitors at the meeting
• Political willingness to listen and debate

Insights from the South African participants

• The perceived trust and partnership with Municipal Government was “built by doing”, demonstrating results and inviting the municipality to be part of the social process
• Despite the working group and formally conducted meetings, the municipality often does not give prompt answers to the most urgent needs of communities

The visit to Asiye eTafuleni (AeT) added rich insight to the experience of informal workers and an added dimension to partnership building with local authorities. The group was introduced to AeT’s work in developing inclusive spaces that support sustainable livelihoods for informal workers. The shared realities of informal settlement dwellers and informal workers became particularly evident on a walk-about through the bustling Warwick market in Durban’s inner-city. For AeT and the SA SDI Alliance the encounter highlighted similarities and differences in approach but most of all established a platform for increased collaboration in the future.

Reflecting, Learning and Joint Advocacy

With a rich collection of experiences and impressions, the group gathered on the last morning to reflect and share on the ….

• Non-monetary value of savings. Savings are about collecting money and people (building social capital, trust, self-reliance)
• Power of information: data collection is crucial for building self-reliance, identifying common goals and establishing negotiating power
• Key role of women as cultivating transparency and accountability
• Cultural factors present in South Africa: welcoming, joyful people, ability to join efforts and to coordinate
• Youth work: value of young people generating and managing their own savings to use in initiatives of their choice (e.g. creative arts)
• Global similarities in poor people’s struggles
• Recycling as Income Generation: value in using opportunities around you (e.g. waste = recycling opportunity = income generation)
• Increased awareness of interface between shack dwellers and informal workers

… and on strategies for the road ahead:

• Mobilisation Strategies: Gain understanding of waste picker movements in South America
• Building Partnerships: Plan further exchanges with local (i.e. national) counterparts of global movements
• Prepare for Joint Lobbying at Global Events such as Habitat III.

As the global development community gears up for Habitat III, global movements of the urban poor are establishing a firm coalition. This learning exchange forms an integral part of that process, “allowing networks organised around livelihood and habitat to come together, share their experiences and strengthen their capacity to organise and advocate in favour of the urban poor” (Cities Alliance, Exchange convener). When speaking with a united voice, advocacy has the potential to influence policy discussions on increased collaboration between communities and governments.

“By referring to our connection with one another, WIEGO, SDI & Avina can make a strong case for a pro-poor agenda. Only if we come together as poor people we can show our governments that we are influencing their policies to meet the needs of the people. “ (Rose Molokoane, FEDUP Coordinator & SDI vice president)

Announcing the SDI 2011/12 Annual Report

SDI is happy to annouce our 2011/12 Annual Report, a reflection of where SDI has grown to over the past 25 years. This includes a discussion of SDI’s practices for change, a report on the SDI Secretariat, the building of internal reporting and documentation systems, and SDI’s international advocacy and increasing presence on the global stage. The report concludes with a discussion of SDI’s approach to key urban issues affecting the lives of the urban poor across the developing south, including water and sanitation, climate change, natural disasters, incremental habitat, enumerations and mapping of slum settlements, and financing slum upgrading.  

For the complete document, click here.

The Brazilian Urban Context and SDI

By Anacláudia Rossbach, Interacao, Brazil 

SDI started its activities in Brazil through the local NGO Interação simultaneously with the beginning of what can be proved to be the most significant transformation in urban and housing policies in the country. At the same time, the country initiated a journey of intensive economic growth with a social transformation process in course due to the impact of both: (i) intensive infrastructure investments, especially in “informal” settlements; and (ii) increase on income levels and decrease of poverty. 

Interação was founded in the beginning of 2005 in a context of no resources for urban rehabilitation, but soon after, important progress took place in terms of legislation: the approval of the City Statute. By this time, a selected number of professionals and activists were aware of the importance of leverage for urban policies in Brazil and the need to make cities more inclusive, on the other hand, homeless social movements, born in the seventies during our military dictatorship in the southeast part of the country, were expanding to national level and struggling to institutionalize their “self-help mutual construction” programs successfully implemented in some cities of the country. 

In this scenario, of having approved in 2001 the most progressive legislation in the world in terms of recognizing the right of the city for all with the creation of concrete legal, economic and planning tools to keep slum dwellers where they are living and create more room in urban centers for new low income housing development, the Ministry of Cities was created shortly before the foundation of Interação, in the year 2003. 

The Ministry of Cities had two main challenges, despite its small size and technical capacity: (i) create a national level urban and housing policy; (ii) implement real programs in order to promote change in the urban context. However, because Brazil is a federal country, municipalities have been the real drivers of urban and housing policy since 1986 when the national level institution for housing (Brazilian Housing Bank – BNH) was extinguished, but in a very heterogeneous way, some of them being more aggressive and some of them lacking political and institutional capacity in the sector. 

So, when Interação started in 2005, although the population had already started to improve its income, the “boom” came later and started to be publicly recognized by 2008/09 with all statistics screaming about the emerging of a “new middle class” and the decrease of poverty levels in the country: in the period 2004 – 2012 approximately 40 million people emerged from below the poverty line. On the other side, no strong urban and housing program was implemented yet by the recent created Ministry of Cities and the future scenario was not clear at all, would the federal government really invest in slum upgrading? 

Basically in the settlements where Interação started to work in the surroundings of São Paulo, communities had being suffering with the lack of inclusive urban policies and a wrong approach of some municipal governments of creating “provisory” and unsustainable solutions (for example construction material and promoting the densification of new and existing slums). They were being bypassed by government, politicians and bad entrepreneurs, trust was not there and basically they were very closed for new opportunities. Overcoming this barrier was only possible with hard and intensive work of professionals and community leaders who believed in a different reality, SDI presence, through exchanges was very important to leverage some mobilization and open up the horizons of these frightened communities. 

The barriers for Interação and the first engaged community leaders were immense, communities were targeted by politicians and social movements/organizations in a context of “competition” where one tried to push harder than the other to control the settlements and its residents. On the other hand labor market and access to credit was expanding (although still very expensive) so that individual interests were slowly overcoming collective approaches. 

When the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) was finally launched by the Ministry of Cities in 2006, and later on the subsidies program called “Minha Casa, Minha Vida” (MCMV) the situation became even more complex. The amount of investments on slum upgrading and infrasctruture is about US$ 250 billion for a 9 year period (06-14) and under MCMV access to about 3 million houses in total should be provided by 2014, which represented a major change of scale on addressing the slum and housing problems in Brazil. Communities supported by Interação also got their share on investments, with more than US$ 70 million of investments for infrastructure, housing and titling. 

With the PAC, many strong construction companies moved their portfolio and started to gain expertise on slum rehabilitation and the private sector was also strongly attracted by social niche provided by the program, since 2,5% of infrastructure investments have to be directed to social support programs in slums. 

Municipalities and state governments started than to launch biddings to hire construction companies and also “social work” companies to implement the social support for slum upgrading. Now, besides the usual politicians and social organizations, the social workers started to gain space in poor communities, bringing even more complexities for an already complex situation. 

Brazil has now become a donor country, contributing to the reconstruction of Haiti and even to the current economic crisis in Europe. But where are the social movements and the federation in this scenario? 

Until now the approach of SDI of promoting collective action and gather information and resources in the communities was crucial not just for the settlements where Interação and the Brazilian leaders were present and active, in Osasco, Várzea Paulista and Recife (besides others where footprints and seeds were left: Sorocaba, Santos, Novo Gama, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro), but also for shaping the new national policy, in terms of reinforce the importance of community strengthening in the process of urban rehabilitation. It is important to highlight that the institutional partnership between SDI and the Ministry of Cities started in 2005, even before the launching of the relevant investment programs. 

Some communities where SDI had strong influence, like Portais in Osasco, and Vila Real in Várzea Paulista reached high levels of improvement, with the implementation of full sanitation systems, streets, drainage, new houses and public services like schools, health units, and day care. The municipal policies certainly were influenced by SDI approach, with for instance the recognition of self enumerations as official data, even by the National Institute of Statistics. Residents from these areas also improved their personal lives, there are jobs available, children get education and there is even time and resources for leisure activities, such as vacation trips and others. 

Other communities are still struggling to find their identities among these major transformations and the diversity and number of actors now involved in the “slum business”. Interação and SDI support some of these communities, but the strategies must be flexible and we must reinvent ourselves everyday. 

The successful communities in Brazil planted the first seeds for Bolivia, a neighboring country with high levels of poverty and no urban policy, and more recently in Peru. The alliance with the Brazilian government has been important to influence local and national government and enable some changes, which might open new ways for the urban poor in the country. 

At the current stage a group of community leaders from Osasco, Várzea Paulista and Recife are envisioning the consolidation of city level organizations, which might be the first step to build a national federation alone or in an alliance with existing federations. One important pillar is constituted by the lessons learned throughout several exchanges to and from Asia and African countries, but especially from the last joint visit with Bolivia to the Philippines. Although savings and loans are not the strongest side of Brazilian SDI groups, the understanding of the importance to leverage savings and loans in order to build trust and solidarity is gaining space, so as the notion of savings being the core of peoples mobilization which will be a paradigm shift on the historical social movements approach where hierarchical systems, massive mobilization and a strong influence from political parties were the main ingredients for their struggle. 

The emergence of a federation of low income communities in a context of significant social and economic transformation and with a different culture of mobilization and powerful stakeholders (governments, private sector, national level social movements) has absurd challenges, but even if those strong will leaders never succeed on building a national level federation they will leave behind footprints in a history that is right now changing the life of the urban poor in Brazil and maybe in the rest of the developing world.